I reference Greenwald a lot, not because I mostly agree with him.. but for posts like this one, where he makes an incredibly important point that I've had a hard time articulating. He's simply a much better writer than I am.
I don't see myself belonging to the "us" of America. Most everyone else in the US does. Even though you might be a Liberal, the "terrorists" are some sort of mindless zombies from a movie that's easy to categorize in your mind as a thing rather than living, breathing, human beings. While you might disagree mightily with Bush, Cheney, and now Obama, they are "us". We understand that they are human, and American.. and there's a natural revulsion to even thinking that Americans can be war criminals.
Are they war criminals? They are, beyond a doubt.
I don't really consider myself an "American", because that's a useless term. I live in America. I consider myself a human being. I think everyone in the world is a human being and I can see the evil they manifest whether they are holed up in a cave in Afghanistan, or putting their boots up on the Oval Office desk.
I must lack the sense of tribalism that has been ingrained in us over millions of years of evolution.. because I see everything and everyone as being on "our team", thus have no qualms about thinking of George Bush in the same terms as (uh oh, Godwin's law alert) Hitler invading Poland, or Russia invading Georgia, or England invading India.
It's all the same to me.
The cartoonish demonization of our Enemy is accomplished by mindlessly screaming inflammatory, manipulated labels at them --"Terrorists!" -- designed to rob them of their Humanness, obliterate nuances among them, and convert them into some incomprehensible Other. That's how we justify to ourselves what we do to them. But the reality is much more complex than that.
It's really all about tribalism. If the Nazi's had "won" World War II, they would not have put Hermann Goering on trial for war crimes, nor the rest that were executed at Nuremberg. Those types of things are only reserved for what you can demonize as sub-human.
That's why, if you read about the Nuremberg Trials, and the very bold and emphatic proclamations by the Americans, you can see how it applies to Americans today.. or should anyway.
Tribalism is ingrained in us. It's a product of evolution. It's not going away.. but I suspect there are some people who don't feel it for some reason, or have reasoned their way out of it. I've just never been that way for me.
The insistence that this comparison between Us and Them is inherently invalid and even "obscene" lies at the heart of so much mischief -- it's the linchpin of exceptionalism and jingoism -- and it's very disappointing to see this claim being so casually invoked in reaction to this book. The nature of tribalism is that one always thinks their side is better and the other side worse, and that comparisons between the two sides (or even equal application of standards to each) is deeply unfair and offensive ("moral relativism"). Tribalism is a powerful human drive, which is why even those who are aware of its intoxicating effects and even consciously try to avoid it -- all of us -- nonetheless sometimes succumb to its temptations.
The English are much more critical of Tony Blair because they've had a more personal history of aggressive war. Still, I think if push came to shove, and he were to stand trial for war crimes, the English would simply ignore the indictments.
This is why this sort of thing will happen again. I keep hoping that the nature of the internet will bridge the gaps in "us" and "them", but it's not going to happen any time soon. There will always be a blood lust to be fed. The scary part is that it could come from nations with nuclear weapons.
Just out of curiosity.. I wonder if Dan thinks Bush and Cheney should be handed over to the Hague to face war crimes charges? Also curious Kor's view too.. and Steve's.. Kris.. and any random person that reads my blog.
All you fuckers leave a note yea or nay and why. I never ask for feedback on stuff, but I'm truly curious about this one.
....
As a side note.. when I was in college, I read extensively about the Nazis... not as class assigned work, but because I was truly fascinated how a nation could be turned into such willing participants in abject evil. I highly recommend others do some reading as well.. I started with Inside the Third Reich, by Albert Speer. I found it compelling as a demonstration of extreme tribalism. Speer was an architect, highly educated, and extremely intelligent. The book explores how that happens, and is skillfully written.
There's a lot of debate by historians about Speer's truthfulness in terms of what he claims he knew of the holocaust, but ultimately that's not that important. What is important is to see how the machines of evil swallow up men.
Time is short these days.. but give it a read.
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