Restoring the Good Nation

[marmar]

Published on Thursday, November 9, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
Restoring the Good Nation
by Laura Neack

In a public forum in May 2003, a well-informed and concerned audience member asked what could be at the core of our war in Iraq. She was not convinced about WMD or terrorist links even then. At a conference of international scholars in March 2006, another well-informed and concerned audience member (this time not from the US) wondered what would lead the United States to a war that was so out of line with the better things we promoted in the world. Different answers were given by different panelists, but my answer was the same at both events: we wanted revenge. Something in our collective psyche wanted revenge, we wanted blood for 9-11 and we were not too worried about whether this bloodlust would lead to justice. This answer made the first audience uncomfortable; the second audience (so much more intellectual) suddenly noticed that I had three eyes and perhaps horns and so could be discounted.

I don’t have three eyes or horns, but I still think my answer was correct. Our country was out for vengeance after 9-11. We sought it out and justified it even in its worst forms (think of Abu Ghraib or renditions). We got nasty in the world in the name of national security but felt less secure and more discomforted. Our politics at home got nasty and self-righteous as well. The era of “I got mine” politics was embraced and celebrated (even some religious groups preached pilates rather than good works). Meanwhile, in the small town where I teach and my husband practices psychology, the number of calls to local shrinks went up and up. We may have wanted blood collectively, but individually this impulse made us sick.

This week’s midterm elections may be the sign that as a country we’ve gotten over this recent illness, this recent need for blood. The Iraq war motivated people in cities, in the country and in the suburbs, in the red states and the blue, and in all four cardinal directions to demand change. Enough of the bloodletting was the clear message.

We also said enough to the politics of self-indulgence and “I got mine.” Too many members of both houses of Congress and even in our states reflected our illness at its most extreme and we finally said enough. And so on November 7 there was a much-needed house-cleaning in Ohio and Democrats took back a majority of governorships. A totally unreasonable and invasive abortion ban in South Dakota was rejected and minimum wage increases were approved in Arizona, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Colorado and Ohio. On the other side of the balance sheet, gay marriage bans also passed in many states, indicating that the fight for civil liberties and social justice is still far from concluded.

It is the case that our national illness might not be in total remission – much of the vote yesterday was polarized. But the prognosis is more promising than it has been for a long time. As a nation we may have turned the corner on our bloodlust, restored democratic accountability and put ourselves back on the course for decency, kindness and recovery. We were all implicated in the need for revenge, now we may all be elevated by the restoration of our better nation.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1109-33.htm

[thingfisher]

1. While a desire for revenge

may have been present within the American breast, the reasons we went to war cannor be hung on such a simplistic motivation. The proof is ample that America went to Iraq to establish hedgemony over the oil rich Caspian Sea area. Its geopolitics and if you can get some eye for eye action along the way so much the better.

The competition for dwindling resources is what will drive the geopolitics of the 21st century.