Us and them
11/06/06

It’s us versus them, whoever they are.
Ya know, those bad people, those evil doers. Those devil beguiled villains sucking from the monstrous teat of Lucifer himself.
Those predators
Those fanatics
Those criminals
Those……terrorists
Or if you like pleasant clinical reductions, we could call them the enemy.

Whoever they are, or whatever their names are those people represent a direct physical threat to our way of life.

If we could just figure out who they are we could kill them all.

I suppose therein lies the problem of the human species, we comprise a spectrum of differences so vast we encounter difficulty identifying the proper people to kill. We don’t have any problem killing people, just a problem getting the right ones; and the more efficient we get at killing each other, the more indiscriminate that killing becomes.

Case in point, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Here we have a great example of efficient mass extermination. Hundred of thousands of soft targets were incinerated in a matter of minutes, building and factories were reduced to matchsticks and people for generations to come would suffer from cancer and birth defects.

Now that is some streamlined killing, albeit indiscriminate.
If any of you take offense to this historically accurate characterization, consider the strategic use of the term soft target. This is officer speak for a defenseless non-military fish in barrel with no means of retaliation. Think soft, like a baby.

When I invariably bring this up in crowded places with lots of people around, inevitably someone will usually say something like this.

“They attacked us, we had to bomb them! Have you forgotten about peal harbor!”

This is remarkably similar to what I hear these days when I mention our nations Iraq debacle which I prefer to call Iraqi-etnam, or if I’m feeling jaunty Iraqi-abacle. Just substitute Pearl Harbor with September 11th, and it’s a near perfect match.

I could tell them that Japans capital city already lay in ruins from a thousand plane raid on Tokyo.
I could tell them that cities full of civilians were selected to deliberately test the effectiveness of the weapon.
I could tell them that Harry Truman’s own strategic bombing survey deemed it unnecessary to use atomic weaponry because Japan was on the verge of surrender, and the death of untold hundred of thousands was the result of exterminationist policies we had valiantly entered the war to abolish.

I could say all these things but what would be the point really. They have already made their decision in the first three words of their statement.
They attacked us. They are the enemy.
Even if they were 200,000 civilians who never fired a gun in their lives waking up to a nuclear dawn.

Now we have a new they, it’s called terrorism. Or as the prince John of our time, George W. Bush says “Terra” which means Earth. This isn’t the first time the United States has declared war on an ideology, but it does represent the first time it has declared war on a planet, let alone the one we all live on. But hey, they attacked us.

At the onset of the war I read a story from a war correspondent about a “phantom militia” operating in the Sunni triangle that used a complex system of colored flairs to communicate and dressed in street clothes to disguise themselves. My bullshit detector went into overdrive.

I thought to myself; Wait a minute here, you mean to tell me that these non uniformed raggedy band of insurgents taking to each other with fire works are the guys we are all suppose to be afraid of? This is the grave threat to western democracy? These are the breeders of terror?

This was just the beginning. Color coded alerts were to follow, and checkpoints, bag searches, institutionalized racism, paranoia, and suspicion were barreling down the pike.
Pretty soon everyone one seemed scared shitless that bearded snidely
whiplash-esque super villains were planting doomsday devices in every major city.
With all this rampant fear I though to myself; Wow that’s a pretty shit start to a war on terror what with all these people completely terrified.
In airports now a days you might encounter a scene like this

All right empty your pockets, lift up you shirt lets see what you got under there. Hand over your lighter and your fingernail clippers. Give me all your hygiene products, no liquid on the planes. Take off your shoes now, I got to check your shoes. Let’s see your papers and ID. It say’s here your on the no-fly list but I can’t tell you why. We are going to have to detain you indefinitely but don’t get indignant about it. This is all part of the war on terror to protect your freedom.

But hey, they attacked us right? It’s us versus them!

Is that a good enough reason to extend the budget for the rebuilding of Iraq while New Orleans drowns in a sea of shit? I wonder how many hurricane Katrina evacuees would have welcomed a deployment of American GI’s into the ravaged wasteland that was once a proud city; or how many homes could have been rebuilt with the cost of one tomahawk cruise missile?
Maybe dubya Bush should run for a term as clown prince of Iraq. He certainly seems more concerned with free elections and stability in Iraq than in the United States. And hey, they can even implement our bill of rights since we’re not using it at the moment.

Then all we have to do is kill all of the terrorists, build a few Wal-Mart’s and *poof* democracy will appear. Our soldiers will walk as Gods amongst men, comforting the proletariat masses with dreams of free markets and manufactured products.
We’ll all be greeted as liberators and people will cheer when they see a U.S flag. Women will tear their burkahs off in the streets and a do sexy pole dances on the steps of mosques to Hank Williams Jr. Songs. Everyone will throw their hands in the air, wave’em like they just don’t care; and gleefully renounce thousands of years of dogma and tradition in favor of hotdogs, super bowls, and Costco membership.
Why do they hate us? What does it all mean?
Well, let’s get to the subtext on this one and see if we can figure out what us and them really means. My favorite buzzwords and phrases are in yellow.

After they (19 international criminals) attacked us, we (the American people) got scared of them (Arabs). They (The feds) started cracking down to prevent them (Arabs, immigrants, atheists, homosexuals, socialists, pot smokers) from destroying our (Christian supremacists) way of life. They (every name signed on the Patriot Act) took some of our (unwashed masses) freedoms away to protect us (international corporate investment) from them (non complicit puppet regimes). But our (defense contactors and war profiteers) resolve is strong.

With the help of our allies (the brutal repressive northern alliance) we (the hi-tech lobby known as the Pentagon) secured the country (oil pipelines) and routed the Taliban (only to return) and liberated them (equally fanatic mullahs favorable to U.S investment) and terra (dubya-speak for earth) was on the run (reorganizing) With our (CIA guerilla’s) help the country was stabilized (bombed into the stone age) and farmers (opium growers) were able to return to their fields (plantations) under the rule of a representative democracy (autocratic corporate regime) and free markets (western plunder satellite) under the watchful gaze of an interim leader (former Unocal oil scout). And then finally succeeded in capturing 14 or 15 Al-qaeda second in commands. (Media piñatas filled with individually wrapped false hopes)

With the mission accomplished (purpose obfuscated) we turned our (multi-national corporate interests, fanatic Christian crusaders, and hard-line imperial expansionists) attention to the danger (wealth) of Iraq. Saddam Hussein was a dangerous dictator (disobedient attack dog) who needed to be deposed by the forces of freedom (colonial acquisition) to liberate (imprison and torture) the poor people (petroleum fields) from the oppression of a terrorist (anti U.S insurgency) sympathetic regimes (we are complicit in creating). After all he (Saddam Hussein) gassed his own people (with gas we sold to him) and had connections (were both Arab) to known (but unidentified or verifiable) terrorists.

They (the former U.S supported Baath party) also had cache’s of dangerous weapons (with Honeywell and GM labels on them) that could have been used against us (occupying U.S soldiers and Israeli military infrastructure). These weapons of mass destruction (American sold anthrax which had long since been rendered innocuous, buried and forgotten) were ticking time bombs that needed to be secured (disposed of covertly) to keep them (physical evidence of American collusion in international war crimes) from falling into the wrong hands (any non American entity).

Since then, Iraq has had free elections (at gunpoint) and is training enough police forces (military storm troopers) to protect themselves (the ruling Sunni minority) from the terrorists (the anti-U.S Shiite majority) and provide a stable (divided and unfocused) democratic (demilitarized) state (partitioned wasteland torn by ethno-religious civil war) in the region (unspecified eastern front)

Now we (Washington power brokers) have to stay the course (spend you money) to assure victory (fiscal solvency) and protect your (comfortably ignorant public) freedom (purchase capacity) from those (any given opposition force to any given U.S interest foreign or domestic) that would destroy our (projected 1950’s utopian fantasy) way of life (remaining opulent beneficiaries of cheap 3rd world labor)

See how the concept of “Us and Them” can be used to confuse rather than clarify.
If I were to disregard all this us and them horse shit and sum up our current situation with an analogous fictional scenario this is what it would be.

The Iraq occupation is kind of like a dead hooker with AIDS. We already stuck out dick in the mousetrap and all the pulling out in the world isn’t going to cure the disease; yet we still feel compelled to hide the body. In doing so; we absolve ourselves of responsibility for strangling her in the bathtub with a heroin tourniquet and paying for the pleasure on credit.

With that, I leave you with this quote from former president and commander & chief of gulf war 2, George HW Bush.

“I will never apologize for the United States of America – I don't care what the facts are. - Newsweek, August 15, 1989 (Commenting on the shooting down of an Iranian airliner by the U.S. warship Vincennes, killing 290 civilian passengers.)”

It us (the human species) versus them (our obsolete impulses).

-Scurvy

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