DEATH IS EASY by Russell Madden

FREEDOM,  As If It Mattered by Russell Madden

The Guardian Project by Russell Madden

RaNdoM by Russell Madden

 

Sometimes I can almost empathize with those screaming for Saddam Hussein's blood. The appeal of martial drums and trumpets can, after all, be very seductive to those of a certain psychological bent. I imagine there is a vicarious thrill in the prospect of (watching other people) risking their lives. Adrenaline races through the body. Limbs tremble in excited anticipation. All the senses are engaged. Primitive passions buried deep within the reptilian centers of the brain are awakened.

Risk stirs the soul, kindling the fire of "fight or flight." Mano e mano confrontation. An electric contest of wills and skills. The exaltation of defeating a foe...or perishing in noble honor.

Life and death. Existence on the edge. Uncertainty. Challenge. Titillation. Release.

Ooo. I'm tingly all over.

The latest flock of Avenging Angels -- those individuals who focus exclusively on combat; who see no other course than war to solve their problems; who cavalierly forge ahead heedless of objections or facts or logic; who haughtily see our soldiers, our armies as tools for molding other people in their own images; who are unafraid to force others to support their adventures regardless of those citizens' own goals -- these disdainful Avenging Angels self-righteously clamber atop their marble pedestals.

"Great evil stalks the land! It is our obligation -- our duty -- to seek out and destroy the devils wherever they lurk!"

The very existence of someone, somewhere who does not conform to what we want demands that we sally forth in all our might and resolve.

Yes! Oh, yes!

The Avenging Angels stare sternly down at us as we quake before them. They raise their sharp and mighty swords of flaming vengeance into the stormy skies. Lightning flashes behind them.

"An assault against one innocent victim is an attack upon us all! No one can be free as long as even one person is enslaved!"

We are inextricably bound together with all of humankind. No one's life is his own. All the troubles of our brothers must be born upon our shoulders, as well.

Oh, jubilation to the highest!

"Damnation upon all who offend and oppose us! You are either with us or you are against us! Traitors! Cowards! Appeasers! Our judgment shall be upon your head!"

Solidarity is power. Conformity is justice. The blasphemers shall not prosper in this land.

O-o-h-h, o-o-o, a-a-h-h...!

"To do nothing against that which is evil is to endorse it! You must march forth! You must act to defend the good wherever it clings to existence!"

Whatever is good must be nourished and protected against the evil determined to smother it. We -- you -- have no choice. Rise up. Send your children forth. No sacrifice is too great in our worldwide quest for supremacy.

Oh, God! Yes!

The Avenging Angels peer deeply into our eyes.

"No one can be safe if a friend is not! You grow weaker if others fall! Not to come to the aid of any and all who are threatened is to strengthen your enemies! Shock and awe! That is the path to glory and righteousness!"

Show true love and compassion for your fellow human beings by immolating yourself. If you do not actively strike against any and all conceivable threats to even the meanest of your fellow human beings, you are the essence of evil.

More! More! Oh, Lordy, yes, more!

The Avenging Angels spread wide their arms. Thunder rumbles through the air.

"Seek not to pick and choose your battles! Seek not to avoid any fight! Seek not to conserve your strength!"

Worry not about wreaking havoc upon your own puny lives, do not focus upon your false and petty everyday concerns, the danger of your own destruction. Ask no questions, but march valiantly to battle ready to die in this grand and majestic cause.

Uhn, uhn, aaaahhhh...!

Whoa.... Was it good for you, too?

The Avenging Angels would have us forget that the government, the foreign policy -- let alone the domestic policy -- of the United States is no longer based upon individualism and the observation of our rights...

...but they want us to act as though it is, to honor it, to ignore the chains it adds each day to our limbs.

The Avenging Angels tell us that, in our own interests, the good and rational peoples of the world must unite or perish...

...but they want us to ignore the fact that none of the prime movers in this war is good or rational.

The Avenging Angels say that we should come to the aid of foreigners...

...but they want us to forget that the needs of a stranger -- no matter how dire or how great -- cannot create a positive obligation upon another person, let alone an entire nation. They eschew individual action and demand even the unwilling pay for the Avenging Angels' golden vision for the future.

The Avenging Angels accuse those who oppose this war of supporting the villains of 9-11 -- Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda -- as well as all other dictators around the world...

...but they are seemingly incapable of believing that acceptance of a dictator as a monster is compatible with a desire to avoid an interventionist policy in that monster's lair; or that because one person is evil, that does not automatically impute goodness to those urging us to war against that evil individual; or that there is no proof that Saddam was connected with 9-11. They forget that the principle of judgment is not one-way; that 9-11 would never have occurred in the first place if our own government had not forbidden private citizens from arming themselves in self-defense.

The Avenging Angels evoke "what if's" and "maybes" and "possiblies" as justification for invasion...

...but they dare not admit to the impropriety of prior-restraint and precautionary-principle style arguments. Because opponents of this war cannot prove that Saddam will not do X or Y, sometime, someday, then somehow that is proof that he will and that therefore we should invade. In lieu of facts, reason, and logic, we are offered an "appeal to ignorance" fallacy and a demand for proving a negative! But then that is precisely what the Avenging Angels have repeated ad nauseum: Lack of evidence offered as evidence...but, "Trust us; we really have the proof, we just can't show it to you..."

The Avenging Angels urge us to oppose all evil...

...but they fail to confront the impossibility of defeating any and all evil actors in the world...or the fact that the greater evil of others does not excuse the lesser evil of our own leaders.

The Avenging Angels rail that "consistency" demands that we not pick and choose what evil to oppose lest we appear weak and appeasing...

...but they evade the reality that their premise would require that we next attack Iran and Syria, North Korea and Red China, all the petty dictatorships in Africa and Micronesia, all the unfree countries in South America and Asia. That this way lies the ultimate in self-sacrifice, complete self-destruction, and raving madness bothers them apparently not at all.

The Avenging Angels assure us that this war will solve all our problems...

...but they hide from the stark truth that the State promised the 1991 Gulf War would "solve" the Iraqi problem once and for all.

And we certainly know that the results of the first Gulf War worked so well...

Over a century ago, the leaders of our country assured us that venturing forth into the heathen lands was an admirable strategy, one that would garner us friends around the world; that all peoples would admire and emulate our example as we established freedom and prosperity for the oppressed souls of our less fortunate friends.

Anyone who has even cursorily studied the Spanish-American War -- that "Splendid Little War" against another third-rate power -- knows how well those prophecies were fulfilled. The history of Cuba and the Philippines in the wake of that war is stark evidence of our "success." That war was popular with the American public, too, of course, just as is the current conflict now plodding along half a world away.

We all know -- do we not -- that the will of the majority is never wrong...

The passion for empire kindled by McKinley and his cohorts burns brightly still. Compare the words of that commander-in-chief with those of the present occupant of the White House:

"I am not ashamed to tell you, Gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance that one night. And one night later it came to me this way... There was nothing left for us to do but to take them all and to educate the Filippinos [sic] and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow men for whom Christ also died." (Quoted in A History of the American People, Paul Johnson, p. 613.)

So, the Avenging Angels roll arrogantly along to bring to the Iraqis the wonders of "self-determination" (while preventing the Kurds or the Shiites from establishing their own nations). We bring them "freedom" (under our rule) while denying it here at home. We protect our country (as we trade liberty for "security") by inciting more enemies abroad to rise against us. We will create a new Middle East in our own image: educated and uplifted and civilized to a Western standard they neither like, want, nor understand. Somehow -- magically -- ancient rivalries and hatreds will vanish in the brilliant light of the Avenging Angels' magnificence. Peace shall reign triumphant.

I do have a few things in common with the Avenging Angels. I, too, would like to see the truly evil people of the world destroyed. I, too, would like to feel safe and secure in my own land. I, too, grow angry at the oppression I see, the senseless waste of lives and wealth for the aggrandizement of the few. I do smile when I see the mighty brought low and made to feel the fear they have engendered in so many of their own people. I am happy to see mothers and fathers left alone to raise their children as they see fit, to earn a living as best they can.

Indeed, I would love to see those things in this country, let alone in nations worse off than we.

But unlike the Avenging Angels, I am not so pretentious, so blind, so foolhardy and contemptuous as to suppose I can -- or should -- forcibly remake the world in my own image. I do not presumptuously pretend I can -- or should -- conquer a nation, a people, a world -- for their own good, of course -- by focusing solely on the ends and ignoring the means.

I do not seek or exercise power because I can.

A century ago, Mark Twain wrote about the Avenging Angels of his day, those "enlightened" folks who were determined to bring the benefits of civilization to the peoples of the Philippines. Wisely, perhaps, he did not permit the publication of his thoughts until after his death. Perhaps he recognized what those Avenging Angels were capable of should their ire be raised:

"'O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek his aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.'

 

"...It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said." (From "The War Prayer," Mark Twain, composed circa 1904.)

Amen.