Monday, April 26, 2004

The American Way of Life

By Mickey Z.

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Posted 04/26 | Add a Comment

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  1. Mickey, Mickey, Mickey…

    Everybody knows Tillman died defending the freedom of local governments in Afghanistan to ban women from appearing on radio and television programs in that country. (http://www.msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?ID=8385)

    Posted by micah holmquist from  on  04/26  at  01:46 PM

  2. Great column Mickey.  You’ve really set this bizarre happening in as much perspective as is possible.  What could possess a multi-million dollar footballer, already enough of an absurdity, to give it up to play soldier in Afghan dust?  Bon voyage Pat Tillman; and good riddance!

    Posted by Tracy McLellan from  on  04/26  at  07:12 PM

  3. I find the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq terrible crimes for which everyone directly involved should be held accountable. But I don’t share Tracy’s sentiments—made at the end of his comments—regarding Pat Tillman’s death. I disagreed with Tillman’s decision/actions but I don’t believe in making light of his death in such terms. By the way, without his permission, someone re-posted Mickey’s entire article on the IndyMedia site in Urbana/Champaign w/ the headline “Pat Tillman is gone good ridance.” In my opinion, I found that headline tasteless, in the same way I was turned off by the people who were “dancing on the grave” of fellow American Rachel Corrie after she was killed by the Israeli IDF, although I recognize that there is difference between the two: Corrie was armed only with her body, while Tillman carried weapons and had the U.S. war machine backing him. Still, I think we should apply common standards of decency to all life. Just my two cents. Thanks.

    Posted by Mark Hand from  on  04/26  at  07:53 PM

  4. I’m glad Mark made his comments.  I agree completely.  I trust Mick will do the same at some point.  I’d like to add that we will NEVER achieve the peace we seek unless we do apply/honor the principles laid out above by Mark.  I’m certain, upon reflection, Tracy will agree.  But whether or not he does, I consider this one of the absolutes of life.  This is not a matter of opinion, as far as I’m concerned.  I often give the impression, apparently, that when I go back and forth w readers here...it’s “my way or no way.” That is NOT my intention.  However, with any point that might be controversial...each of us is obligated, I feel, to engage one another on the specific points that might be disturbing us.  The opportunity for creating solidarity in this forum is too valuable...too rare an op...to retreat into a stance which allows us to say that this one or that one is CLOSED.  Speaking for myself, I am not closed on any point, including the “absolute” given above...if that means not open to going back and forth.  It’s important that if we feel strongly on something...that we make an effort here to document, reason...or bridge something in some way.  The only time I might not take that tack is if someone is being abusive and clearly putting out that they are not open.  Merci to all, Richard P.S.  Of course, to say someone is a murderer does not mean I’m going to talk the talk of the Grand Incarcerators of our Society.  I was appalled recently when I heard Amy Goodman --in trying to bond w a guest of hers-- direct discussion toward how Osama should be “punished”...rather than spotlight his grievances.  Formal tightly-woven Revenge Tragedies went out with Shakespeare...for good reason.  We don’t need revivals in any form...especially w all those movie stars (like Denzel now too) feeding that sickness.

    Posted by Richard Oxman from  on  04/26  at  08:06 PM

  5. Tillman’s death is a loss.  In the same way that the deaths of every American, every Iraqi, and other soldiers and civilians are unnecessary deaths.  We ought to mourn the deaths of the soldiers and civilians for “our” side, just as we ought to mourn the deaths of the deaths of the soldiers and civilians on “their” side. 

    Mickey Z is correct in saying: “The world doesn’t need any more heroes like Pat Tillman. It doesn’t need young men and women — heads filled with noble aspirations — sent off to die to defend corporate profit. The world needs the American people to snap out of their propaganda-induced fog ASAP and seek a ‘greater calling’ in the truest sense.”

    The task ahead is to end the unnecessary violence, conquest of countries, state terrorism and retail terrorism.  This task requires that young men and women questions state, corporate, and religious propoganda and stop serving power interests.  It is a not a easy task, but it has to be done.

    Posted by Abu Spinoza from  on  04/27  at  10:02 AM

  6. I had to stop reading this column. I can tell you who Pat Tillman was fighting against, Al Qaeda and people like Mickey Z. It is a shame that good men have to die so that cowards can live comfortable lives while throwing bombs at those who protect them.

    Posted by Mike Starr from  on  04/27  at  10:43 AM

  7. I respect Mark’s, Richard’s, and Abu’s reaction to my comment and their rights to it and making it.  But I stand by my comment.  I agree it was tasteless that it ended up as the headline to Mickey’s piece elsewhere; that wasn’t my intent nor my reason for making the comment.  And I think that put an unfair gloss and context on the substance of Mickey’s article; but I claim innocent.

    This society is rotten through and through as evidenced that the likes of Pat Tillman can be memorialized as some type of model to be emulated.  Kathy Kelly, a three-time nominee for the Noble Peace Prize is in jail.  The United States has been a greedy, imperial, murderous predator since it launched genocide on indigenous Americans. 

    I am sick of this society.  Bush gave a speech last Wednesday at the Newspaper Association of America, portions of which I caught on C-Span on Sunday.  His is a profoundly, profoundly just less than mediocre intellect.  He’s a filthy lying stooge for privileged capital, and a borderline psychotic apocalyptic fundamentalist Christian with his finger on the trigger.  How anybody with shred of intellectual integrity cannot be in complete despair at hearing him utter a single sentence is strange to me.  He can’t even clearly enunciate his lies, so that in giving his speeches, he often confusedly says the opposite of what you know is his party line.  In the instant speech there was a time when he lamented that he couldn’t grow corn to end the energy problem.  He had no similar confusion in enunciating his support for nuclear energy, and boon to his campaign contributors, but an extreme peril to everyone and the earth itself forever.  There was an earplug tucked subtly in his ear, which the camera caught every once in a while.  Why was that there?  Bush isn’t old enough to need one.  Is Karl Rove or Dick Cheney coaching him?  The next day when I tried to find a transcript of the speech, and the humongous three questions he took afterward, the only one I could find was at the NAA site itself, and it, Orwell would have been proud, had doctored all the anomalies out of it.

    And John Kerry’s the alternative - I am confused as to whether he’s Republican Lite or Ultra; and am seriously considering voting, for all that matters, for Bush, because I’m not sure for whom I have the greater contempt - Kush or Berry.

    No, I stand by my comment about Tillman.  And I wish profound defeat for the military and the society that shares and invokes its values.  And I hope the US military takes an ass-kicking in Iraq; and any and everywhere else it swings its military, imperial chain.

    Posted by Tracy McLellan from  on  04/27  at  11:02 AM

  8. you still censoring me, Z?

    Posted by Dan Gem from  on  04/27  at  11:31 AM

  9. Do to web host and software glitches the Comment feature of this site is acting flaky and comments may not post. Please have patience. We are working on a solution.

    Posted by Techgirl from  on  04/27  at  12:58 PM

  10. Tracy if you have rejected the ABB argument on the basis that John Kerry is no alternative to Bush (where it counts), I would expect you to at least apply the same logic to any essentially ‘ABK’ argument that calls for actually casting a vote for Bush. If you wish to inhabit a realm above this sort of reactionary politics, clearly you need to disregaurd any realistic notions of voting for Bush as well. And whereas the ABB argument is a knee-jerk response (granted, to a very real abomination, as you have illustrated) – one driven by blind hatred of all things Bush, and seeks his removal regaurdless of whom is put in his place, at least is based on the hope (albeit an almost willfully ignorant, flase hope) that things will magically improve. But the progressive argument for Bush, reverts to utterly repugnant, blood-stained, and purely ‘tactical’ justifications regaurding ‘overt’ threats and weak ABB-esque proclamations that Kerry ‘might…..maybe…possibily..be WORSE.’ I would certainly question the ultimate ability of any ‘movement’ that necessitates or even prefers the more ‘overt’ threat, in order to do its work. We’ve had 4 years of the ‘overt’ threat - any people that would essenitally be ‘put to sleep’ by a Kerry presidency (therby necessitating a Bush one) – are they really of any use at this moment anyhow? The progressive argument for Bush, in the end, merely respresents a better disguised, new variation on the lesser-evilism line. Far better in my opinion to not get bogged down with the question of ‘which do I hate more’ and exercise your rejection of both war parties (whether via voting for a third party, or finding some way to actively engage in non-voting.)

    Posted by BruceA from  on  04/27  at  02:10 PM

  11. For Left and Right:  Of course one should be encouraged to root for an American defeat in Iraq and elsewhere, to proactively work for it to support the resistance movements worldwide.  In fact, so-called civilization must be underminded (as presently constituted) for enlightened self-interest...and other reasons. HOWEVER, that has zero to do w not having compassion for Pat Tillman and those who knew him or cared for him.  Those thiings should not go hand in hand.  Again, if any lefty or righty out there thinks they are going to bring about peace in this world without at least trying to send a compassionate message as they “fight,” they are very mistaken.  This truth is in everyone’s bones, and is underscored by the historical record.  Those in need of more “evidence” need only review where hatred has brought them in their private lives, review their personal Pyrrhic victories.  Good fortune, Ox

    Posted by Richard Oxman from  on  04/27  at  04:36 PM

  12. Marvelous!

    Posted by thomas r. turner from  on  04/28  at  01:28 PM

  13. what a bunch of pant-pissing liberal pussies

    Posted by Dan Gem from  on  04/29  at  05:09 PM

  14. Whats amazes me about a man like Pat Tillman is that he went into battle to fight for the freedom that not only allows me to worship, vote and raise my children as I please, but allows selfish scumbags like you and “journalist Preston Peete” (whoever the hell that is) to spew your cowardly filth. If the shit hit the fan stateside, who would protect us on our own soil - cowards like you? You couldn’t get the hose in the tailpipe and the garage door closed fast enough to avoid the pain of your own worthless demise. I myself would like to think I would die for those I love and the values I cherish, but I sure as hell wouldnt die to defend your freedoms. Thats no arrogant boast, by the way - that’s a humble admission that I am less a man than Pat Tillman. Because for whatever inexplicable reason, he was willing to give his life for losers like you. And he did.

    You, on the other hand, arent a man in any way, shape or form. You have the balls to publish under the name “Common Courage”? You don’t even have the balls to publish on your website under your own last name. You insufferable pussy.

    Feel free to contact me if you got a problem with anything I’ve said. Just try to muster up the courage to use your full name, “Z”. You worthless shivering piece of dog shit.

    Posted by Dan Gem from  on  04/29  at  05:10 PM

  15. Dear Gem:  In all seriousness, the “shit” has already hit the fan, courtesy of the U.S. military...and hit the fan for the soldiers you support too...courtesy of the U.S. Military/Industrial Complex.  Surely, you know that that whole institution/dynamic doesn’t care about Tillman...with the DU they’ve forced up the nostrils and through the skin of everyone serving in Iraq and elsewhere.  And that’s just for starters.  The Vets for Peace --not nearly as “radical” as some of the writers here by your standards-- have addressed that point, including providing criticism of how people like Tillman might are treated when they survive such “misguided” ventures (that’s they’re language, for the most part).  And as far as anything hitting the fan otherwise...the environmental destruction here and abroad resulting from “unnecessary” military forays and illegal military “experimentation” and waste disposal (which we pay for financially dearly too) is pure ecocide.  Other fan-related stuff must be seen in the light of what threats actually exist...from the outside.  Rather than adopt the untenable stance portayed by Nicholson in “A Few Good Men”...I recommend that you consider that whatever threat so-called terrorists ever posed...has been exacerbated by what the Vets for Peace themselves oppose...and could be ameliorated by addressing their greivances instead of offering up Tillman in sacrifice.  If you want to give me your mailing address I can send you a copy of Mickey Z’s book on the “most-supported war” that the U.S. ever took part in...and you’ll be able to have a shot at seeing how you can best achieve “security”...w/o supporting military madness.  I know that Mickey has great compassion for what Tillman was drawn into, what his loved ones, including you, have had to suffer.  Blessings Dan, Richard Oxman P.S. Conservative pundits such as Safire have already predicted catastrophe on our shores..directly resulting from further terrorist attacks...this summer...but even if they don’t make good on their “promises”...and even if we don’t send people like Tillman abroad...in the name of protecting us...the military is killing us all...with the environmental destruction that goes by daily...making much of our land uninhabitable by all forms of life.

    Posted by Richard Oxman from  on  04/29  at  05:52 PM

  16. My mssg was in response to Zs comments about PT, the “Bon voyage and good riddance!” tone of his tome and many reponses to it, and those alone. I’m niether defending nor attacking US foreign policy re: Iraq…

    Iraq and Afghanistan = two separate concerns. You can debate the reasoning behind Iraq; most agree Afghanistan was a necessity. Innocents will always suffer during war - does that always preclude any military action whatsoever? is ANY war justified, ever? Or should we just sit back, kiss AQ ass (and whoever else the hell wants to pile on) and do whatever it is that they require? Thanks but no thanks.

    Posted by Dan Gem from  on  04/29  at  07:11 PM

  17. Dan,

    Very little you say about US foreign policy and how militarism allegedly promotes freedom is backed up by fact...but if you wish to stick to what you call the “Bon voyage and good riddance!” tone you claim I took in the piece, please give me an example so I can reply specifically. For what it’s worth at this point, my article was less about Tillman than the system that inspires men like him.

    In addition, if I read your comments correctly, in between the personal attacks you seemed to insinuate that Press Action is my website. It is not. I’m just a regular contributor.

    I’m not sure what this post will inspire...but I’d be more than happy to discuss and debate with anyone who can refrain from personal slander. And please don’t bother with the “but-you-slandered-Tillman” defense. Again, the article was about the system far more than any one man.

    MZ

    Posted by Mickey Z. from  on  04/29  at  07:29 PM

  18. I take issue with Dan Gem’s comment above that Afghanistan was “a necessity.” Because a more primary necessity was a whole evaluation and calling into question what US foreign policy may have done to provoke such an incident.  Let me state as clear as I can: THE MOST PROXIMATE CAUSE FOR 911 WAS US FOREIGN POLICY; AND UNLESS AND UNTIL IT IS CONSTRUCTIVELY CHANGED, WE CAN EXPECT MORE 911s.  As Chalmers Johnson has pointed out, it is very remarkable an event like 911 didn’t happen sooner.  I wasn’t at all surprised at 911 because I was well aware of the historical reality of US foreign policy.  Events very similar to that one are typical of US foreign policy.  Vietnam is the most obvious example.  Oops, we meant well.  There were 4 million Indochinese deaths, millions more seriously wounded, a countryside devastated by Agent Orange which engenders birth defects to this day. 

    These policies are US SOP.  There are too many more to list here but a reading of William Blum’s Killing Hope or anything by Chomsky would enlighten the true seeker.  Indeed I almost welcomed 911 because I hoped it would bring the United States to its senses.  But alas, we had a profound intellectual zero in the White House, and an administration of thugs and Zionists behind him, who instead turned the heat up on the very policies that had produced catastrophe in the first place. 

    Incidentally, some 6 months before 911, the Bush administration, ever on the look out for threats to democracy and to tighten the noose on tyrants, gave the Taliban $50 million in aid to fight poppy cultivation.  What vision, eh?  What integrity.

    Finally: Mickey, sorry you have been so tagged with the fallout from my good riddance comment.

    Posted by Tracy McLellan from  on  04/29  at  08:22 PM

  19. you libs throw “US FOREIGN POLICY” around like its a foregone conclusion. Whatever “it” is. So, here’s your chance, Tracy, to educate this staunch RWC...explain 1) what our foreign policy is, 2) why 9-11 was therefore to be expected, and understood, and 3) why we should change our FP, instead of just nuking the hell outta that entire section of the globe from whence the terrorists grow. (Not that I advocate that - I consider that to be about as far from the axis of reasonableness as I do your simple “until we constructively change our FP” option - but both ARE options.)

    And please be specific - ie go deeper than “our relations with Israel.” And don’t forget to modify all the evil sh!t we do around the world with all the really nice sh!t we do, like famine relief and digging all these bastards out from under earthquake rubble every other year. You know - sh!t you never see anyone BUT the US ever doing. (Not sayin it makes everything ok, but it should count for something...)

    There...thats a perfectly simple, clear, naiive as hell worldview. Should be a piece of cake for you.

    And by the way...in hindsight my comments to Z seem a bit more heated than the article he wrote warranted. I wrote my comments in response to the first draft of his article, when it was still titled “Pat Tillman is not my hero.” I couldnt post my comments on here for a few days b/c I was locked out (or the site was having probs, whatever). When I got a chance I threw it in here, not having read his latest version, which was considerably less nasty w/regard to Mr. T. Maybe Z had a change of tone/heart, maybe not. (You asked me for specifics, Z, but you know damn well what you had to say originally is differnt than what your saying now. ANd that whole riff about “I know alot of these guys are gonna bitch about PT fighting for my freedom of speech”? That was MY idea)

    Nevertheless, your artivle should be judged for what it is, not for what it was gonna be. ANd I’m willing to admit my comments were off base per the actual article that did post. WHether or not you’re willing to admit you changed the hell out of it is your biz.

    sorry for the typos - too tired to care…

    Posted by Dan Gem from  on  04/29  at  11:12 PM

  20. First Dan castigates me without mercy and now it sounds like he wants co-writing credit?

    For the record, the first draft of the article was posted and it provoked a flurry of e-mails (Dan was only one of dozens repeating essentially the same line). I realized then that my intended message was being lost hence, in the interest of getting people to read the entire article, I re-worked it. Apparently, it worked.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from  on  04/30  at  06:05 AM

  21. I suppose Gem wants a sound bite to put the issue of foreign policy to rest.  To be brief:

    Vietnam I’ve mentioned above, and in any event it should be obvious to everyone.

    Ironically, on September 11th, 1973 the CIA assassinated (he actually committed suicide in the midst of an attack) the popular duly elected President Salvador Allende of Chile and installed in his stead Augusto Pinochet who “disappeared” 3-4,000 and ruled with an iron, undemocratic fist, backed by US military, economic, and military aid for three decades.

    The US supports Israel to the tune of $5 billion a year, while its illegal occupation of Palestine is in its 37th year.  Israel is in violation of scores of US Security Council Resolutions.  US policy in Israel is a huge, valid plaints of Osama bin Laden and the Arab world in general.  Israel is estimated to have 200 nuclear weapons developed with US aid, and has the F-16s, missiles and submarines to deliver them.

    In 1953 after the duly elected and popular President Mossadegh nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company so that his poverty-stricken people could enjoy some of the fruits of their country’s resources (he offered generous concessions to AIOC), he was deposed sine qua non by the CIA.  Installed in his stead was Shah Pahlavi, who also ruled in a reign of terror until the Iranian Revolution of 1979.  Tens of thousands were tortured, imprisoned and murdered Ever wonder why “they” hate us so? 

    In 1954 after successive popular governments in Guatemala instituted land and labor reform and nationalized unused United Fruit Company land, not neglecting to compensate the company in the amount it claimed the land was worth for tax purposes, again that the destitute could realize a better life, a CIA coup deposed President Arbenz, ushering in decades of terror in which as many as 200,000 Guatemalans were murdered.

    1980-91 the US supported El Salvador with $6 billion in aid.  In that time an estimated 75,000 were killed in government terror.

    The US government sponsored the failed Bay of Pigs coup against Fidel Castro’s Cuba and subsequently attempted to assassinate him over 600 times.

    It recently sponsored the failed coup against Ceasar Chavez’s Venezuala.

    It supported Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist government in Iraq from 1963 right up until the day of his invasion of Kuwait in 1990 when he disobeyed his US masters.  Along with western corporations it supplied Iraq with chemical weapons technology and the intelligence to launch chemical attacks against Iran in their war.  It supported Hussein as staunchly after as before he attacked the Kurds with chemical weapons, killing 5,000.

    Manuel Noriega was a CIA asset as far back as the 1950s and a friend and ally until he too disobeyed his US masters when he wanted to run more cocaine than the CIA thought appropriate, and got out of line in other ways.  When he was no longer useful for US Machiavellian intrigues in Cental America the US invaded Panama and killed more than 3,000…

    Posted by Tracy McLellan from  on  05/01  at  09:50 PM

  22. Tracy, who is more evil - the US government or the UN Security Council? Just curious, b/c I woulda guess you’d prefer the latter over the former, but when you think about it, per your info the war has, in a very real sense, been the best thing that could’ve happened to the Iraqis in the last 14 years. I mean, if the sanctions were directly responsible for 100,000 deaths/year, and the war has killed 11K innocents (51 less if you subtract the Deck of Cards captured) - I mean, you’re savin yourself 90K Iraqis annual. Plus no Saddam, Uday, Quasay, Chemi or TAriq to boot.

    No wonder Dubya got that Nobel nomination!

    Posted by Dan Gem from  on  05/01  at  11:30 PM

  23. No response from Gem as to my lowlighting of US foreign policy.  I’ll take that to mean he approves of that history; and thusly his further comments aren’t worth responding to.

    Posted by Tracy McLellan from  on  05/02  at  12:30 PM

  24. One last thing I forgot to mention, reference Gem’s comment about the alleged bulky US aid to the mere dusky-hued.  The United States gives 1/10th of 1% of GDP in aid, the lowest of all the countries of the industrialized west.  Finland and some of the Scandanavian countries are in the 3-4% range, and the scale goes right on down from there through Japan, France, Germany, Australia and Canada, and the rest - all of whom give more. Moreover those numbers are skewed because much of the so-called US aid, billions to Israel for example, is military hardward and not real aid in the best sense of the term.

    Posted by Tracy McLellan from  on  05/02  at  12:37 PM

  25. My response to Tracy’s history lesson? Like I said, I’m takin the week off so I can do all the background research.

    No response as of yet from him regarding my very concise, very simple question.

    Posted by Dan Gem from  on  05/02  at  02:37 PM

  26. The future of the rest of the world does not depend on the thinking of the American people. The future of the “brown skinned” people will improve when people begin to think and act for themselves. It requires fearless action, the likes of which occurred here 225 years ago and which we benefit from today.  We cannot and should not be the arbitor of the world’s future. You simply provide an updated version of the white man’s burden.  Back to the books; you need to come up with something better than this sad, tired approach.  It will not solve the real problems. Or better yet, get a job and some real world experience before you act as if you are qualified to critique all of western civilization.

    Posted by glenda barth from  on  05/03  at  03:27 PM

  27. Tracy, I’m up to page 43 on my backgroud research. And its only Tuesday. At this rate, I should be done by Arbor Day.

    Any ETA on your response to my 12-word inquiry?

    Posted by Dan Gem from  on  05/03  at  08:27 PM

  28. Tracy, I’m up to page 43 on my backgroud research. And its only Tuesday. At this rate, I should be done by Arbor Day.

    Any ETA on your response to my 12-word inquiry?

    Posted by Dan Gem from  on  05/03  at  08:27 PM
    29. Commenting is not available in this weblog entry. {/if}

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