Sunday, June 04, 2006

A Feckless People

I have, through a long string of links, have discovered a new blog, Iraqi Screen, by a blogger named Ishtar. I won't say what she is trying to do because I do not wish to put words into her mouth. You need to read her.

In particular, I urge you to read her post Liberation or Occupation, which is indescribable. The closest work I have ever read to this is Bartleby, the Scrivener.

Sadly, a few trolls have decided to plague Ishtar's blog, and they heap abuse upon her for... what? For refusing to accept the occupation of her country? For failing to be sufficiently submissive to their desire to dominate? For unflinchingly pointing out that Americans have inflicted carnage and yet expect the Iraqis to be grateful for their presence? One troll spews a peculiar claim:
Mike is right. I am angry because we are risking the lives of some of our finest young people and spending our nation's treasure to attempt to bring freedom to a feckless people.
This is such a deeply, profoundly psychotic claim. The Iraqis, upon whom we waged preemptive war, whose sovereignty we violated, and whose nation we have bombed into shreds, these people are, according to this troll, "feckless." Lacking purpose, careless, irresponsible - that is the meaning of feckless.

Unlike the major US political blogs, whose "trolls" are just as likely to be RNC political operatives serving out talking points for domestic consumption, this person appears to be spouting his own deeply held beliefs. He probably thinks "we", the good guys, went to Iraq to free them from something, and now the ingrates won't do their part and play nice. The canyon between this view of the world and reality is so wide it is breathtaking. This is the mind of the 30% who will follow Bush anywhere and accept any lie that comes over the TV.

He is right. There are "feckless people" involved in this occupation. We have seen the enemy and them is us. There is no purpose to the invasion and occupation of Iraq - we can see that in the musical chairs game we play every few months on why we're there. There is carelessness by the carload - purloined funds, unguarded treasures and weapons, throwing soldiers and dollars at a sinkhole of their own making.

And irresponsibility is barely scratching the surface - a butchery of innocents, a ravaging of the future for the sake of a few power-mad idiots dreams of domination. The many, many soldiers sent too far, too often, with too little. The determined attempt to institutionalize torture as one of our standard government operations. The deliberate pillaging of the treasuries of two nations to line the pockets of cronies and contractors.

The US is indeed a feckless people. They saw the devastation they wrought, they knew the horror they had inflicted, they were told that all of this was based on lies, and still they voted for the Cheney administraiton in enough numbers that all it took was a little behind the scenes electoral skullduggery to keep them in power.

It should have been a scream from the soul of this nation - NO! NO MORE!

In the absence of that, what indeed may be said to Americans? Nothing. We deserve no answer.

Anglachel

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