February 25, 2007 at 11:23:47

Cindy Sheehan, George Will, and Loving Your Enemies

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By David Swanson (about the author) Page 2 of 2 page(s)

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It's hard to imagine the US corporate media ever conducting such an experiment. And this AP poll reveals the extent to which what the corporate media shuts out stays shut out. A majority of Americans understand that this war was based on lies, largely because that fact has slipped through, here and there, into the media's noise machine. Americans have no idea what is happening in Iraq, because those facts have not made it through the filter.

And they won't if George Will has anything to say about it. His new column attempts to persuade us of the urgent and timely fact that the Japanese during World War II were human beings. Will draws no connection to Iraqis today, and avoids any mention of how the U.S. government treated Japanese Americans during World War II. Nor does Will for a moment question the acceptability of war and of war on civilians. Rather, he argues for achieving a higher plain of understanding from which we slaughter families but feel bad about doing so. However, he does not insist that we feel bad until some years after the war is over:

"Perhaps empathy for the plight of the common enemy conscript is a postwar luxury; it certainly is a civilized achievement, an achievement of moral imagination that often needs the assistance of art. That is why it is notable that Clint Eastwood's 'Letters From Iwo Jima' was one of five films nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture."

Having achieved this civilized feat by watching a movie, Will goes on to reassure the 40% of Americans who find killing civilian non-Americans acceptable that he's still on their side:

"Japanese forces frequently committed barbarities worse even than those of the German regular army, and it is difficult to gauge the culpability of conscripts commanded by barbarians. Be that as it may, the pathos of the letters humanizes the Japanese soldiers, whose fatalism was a reasonable response to the irrational. Viewers of this movie, while moved to pride and gratitude by the valor of the U.S. Marines, will not feel inclined to cheer."

Cindy Sheehan believes her son was commanded by barbarians. Abu Ghraib, Haditha, Fallujah: these are the names of unsurpassable barbarities. If the best we can manage is to refrain from cheering, we have a long way to go.

Sheehan: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/18908

Will: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/170619

AP article: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/18894

AP poll results:

click here

Conversation on impeachment: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/18904

Iraqi humans' stories: http://www.davidswanson.org/?q=node/472

And on film: http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=9171

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David Swanson is the author of the upcoming book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven Stories Press and of the introduction to "The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. (more...)

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