Thursday, September 13, 2007

Beyond Bush: Searching for Our Humanity


The American public’s outrage over Emperor Bush II’s unjust war on Iraq mostly stems from the number of American troops and government contractors that have died since the war began in March of 2003. Some four and a half years later, 3776 Americans have died (icasualties.org). Since Bush and his latest administration and military puppets have been on their new propaganda campaign, touting the success of the war, his approval has actually risen, despite the fact that more Americans have died in the past 6 months than in any other period in the war. That said, by comparison, the number of Iraqi lives lost since this shit-storm began is astronomical.

I often wonder how many Americans know or even care how many human beings from Iraq have been killed as a result of the U.S. invasion. Seriously, how many Americans are aware that in the most in-depth peer-reviewed study of Iraqi deaths caused by the war, researchers (from the United States!) from Johns Hopkins University estimated that from 2003-2006, 650,000 Iraqis had been killed as a result of the U.S. invasion. At that rate (and since so few studies have been done), the number of Iraqi deaths as of today is in the 800,000 – 900,000 range. To put it in terms that only Americans can relate to 99.6% of deaths that have occurred since the U.S. began blowing apart Iraq’s ancient civilization have been that of Iraqis. Or for every 1 U.S. life lost, 239 Iraqi lives have been lost.

Given American complacency during genocides in Rwanda and Darfur, one can’t help but draw the conclusion that the majority of Americans are not concerned about the lives of human beings from other countries. And why should that surprise anyone, given that Americans don’t seem to care about the lives of other Americans if they should happen to be Black, Latino, or poor. In the past week, how much genuine widespread outrage has been given since the American public learned of the kidnapping, rape, and torture of a Black woman in West Virginia at the hands of 6 inbred whites? Outside of Black America, how many white, Asian and Latino Americans have expressed outrage at the plight of the Jena 6? Besides a handful of college students, where has the outrage been as a noose was hung in front of a Black cultural center at the University of Maryland?
All that said we need to start talking in humanistic terms about what our nation has done to the people of Iraq. And since I could care less about being politically correct, I will put it bluntly: I do not want to hear about another dead U.S. soldier until the media, government, and American public begins to validate the lives of those Iraqi children, women and men killed by our hands.

Until we as human beings place equal value on all human lives, we only devalue our own lives. 900,000 lives lost - 900,000. Nearly 1/6 of the Holocaust. Where is the outrage? Where is the humanity? What have we become? Are we that nationalistic, or just individualistic? America was built on two ideals: white supremacy and manifest destiny. Surely we don't all buy into the same extreme xenophobic mentality that wiped the Native American off the map and committed the inhumane atrocity of slavery against the African. Surely we care more about human beings than we do about attaining shit like cars and clothes. Surely we care more about 900,000 dead human beings from Iraq than Michael Vick's 4-8 dead pitbulls. Surely we do - right?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Blogger,
we the "sheeple" of the United States cannot handle the truth of the Iraq war, we'd rather focus our attention on Britney Spears' lousy performance at the VMA's.
I mean, come on, the biggest event on BET's "106 & Park" on 9-11 was the release of two hip-hop albums! WTF?
Also, included in Mr Alan Greenspan's upcoming book "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil".
...why worry about 3776 people who volunteered anyway when Perez Hilton has a new show on VH-1?
University of Maryland? Do they have a football team? Did they too beat Notre Dame? No? then who cares?
West Virginia inbreds raping a black woman repeatedly? Oh no, them "darkies" tried that shit before with the Duke Lacrosse team.
Come on Blogger, stop worrying about the war and don't you say a bad thing about our President, or the terrorists will win.

Le Tigre Rouge said...

Sarcastic, but true - just wait until the 24/7 OJ coverage begins again..

Anonymous said...

Your comments are right on point. Sadly, Americans, generally, don’t care about what’s happening to other people in other parts of the world, unless it somehow influences their finances. The government rarely acts to save the lives of others in the world unless We The People urge the government to do so. Remember the anti-apartheid movement? It took the people to urge government to (1) take an official stand against it and (2) get government and corporations to divest. Why can’t we do the same with Darfur? Well, I’m glad you asked. The answer is that good ole boy Bush made a deal with the government of Darfur to get information on Bin Laden, who lived there for a while. How can we condemn a nation that we consider a political ally in the great war against terror? Wouldn’t we look like hypocrites if we acknowledged that out partners in the war against terror are terrorists to their own citizens? Why yes! The same way we’re hypocrites for doing so much business with China, which, by our State Dept. reports, remains an oppressive nation with social and religious intolerance (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/18902.htm). (BTW, where is all the press on this? I think I saw one spot on "60 Minutes" but that's it.) The people need to stand up and speak out or else this administration’s various deals with the devils of the world are going to come back and haunt us.

Le Tigre Rouge said...

D-Fence -

I agree absolutely that the U.S. has no legitimate authority to act in other nations like the Sudan, given its own complicity in illegal affairs there. And while I agree to a certain extent about China, I don't think we need to look that far for terror since we seem to have enough home grown terrorism right here hanging nooses, waving confederate flags, and painting swastikas daily.

But your point is well taken. When the U.S. behaves so immorally our credibility overseas is shot.