.... Becoming the Enemy That We Detest !
The Current Issue of NCR features a lead Editorial that embodies the integrity that keeps me coming back to read. '17 Years of Distorted Reality', is courageous and hits the nail on the head. It addresses the deeper history of motives for involvement in Iraq and the shallow rationale fed to us ad infinitum for our continued involvement in a foolish military engagement. My favorite line in the piece is that ' We are losing ourselves, becoming the enemy that we detest '.
Thank you NCR for upstaging the Mega-Media Behemoth and sticking to your guns for the values that are really at the root of being a responsible citizen. I would nominate you for the Medal of Freedom, since freedom = responsibility especially in the face of the intimidating forces at play.
Luv2Laf~ I have read the NCR
Luv2Laf~ I have read the NCR editorial you refer to and cannot help but ask - at what point in a process of evil or lawlessness or injustice does one (or a nation) cross the pivotal point from disagreement, disgust, complaint and anger to warranting appropriate action?
As a young man growing up in Canada and studying in the United States (during the cold war) I have vivid memories of the disdain for successive Soviet leaders' manipulation of history; perversion of justice; disdain for facts of atrocity; creation and maintainance of gulags; brutal supression of dissent; rule by force rather than law; absolute disdain in the face of domestic and world opinion, on and on and on.
Now I look at Iraq and its justification and your, our tolerance of its fact and rationalization and de facto participation. I listen to presidential and administration harangues about its rightness and progress in the face of over 4,000 young American deaths, many, many more disabled and untold Iraqi men, women and children; the systematic and violent destruction of a nation for reasons of greed and convenience and justified by, at least, questionable assumtions, at worst lies and maintained by lies. How different is this from what we hated then and, but for the inevitability of mutual destruction, would have attacked? Does not Guantonimo, renditions and the liklihood of other secret prisons in renditon host countries ring further bells? I do not see myself, or my country as so different or our refusal to participate as 'rightious', nor do I see the disease within as fully equivalent; but are we simply haggeling over price or degree? President Nixon was ousted because he lied about a burglery. "Big deal", relatively speaking.
Interestingly, there is
Interestingly, there is a Profile of Historian John Lukacs in this same issue of NCR by Margot Patterson entitled, ' A Historian's Historian ' . His refelctions on the 20th century and its major influences from the perspective of a European Traditionalist Catholic should be of some help in understanding why we are where we are. You don't have to buy his conclusions, but respect for his experiences and thoughtfulness is a wise move. I tend to agree with his take on Populism and Nationalism as the dynamic forces at play.
Beauty is not opposed to truth. It is simply truth in its most attractive form.