Perpetrating evil in the name of good
From Martin LeFevre in California
Pause and reflect for a moment on this astounding fact: a suicide bomber in a
flat-bed truck blew up the United Nations headquarters in Iraq and killed Kofi
Annan's special representative, perhaps the most respected and loved man in the
UN community.
This is where Americašs "global war on terrorism" has led the world. We are not
defeating terrorism, but spreading it like a virus. We are not achieving
security, democracy, and peace in the region and the world, but generating a
vortex that is plunging the entire world into darkness.
The Bush Administration has created a black hole not only for American forces
and civil servants in Iraq, but a black hole for the UN and the world. They work
for the devil and call him Jesus.
According to Annan and many others, Sergio Vieira de Mello was "an outstanding
servant of humanity." "I can think of no one we could less afford to spare",
Annan said. Another spokesman at the UN said that de Mello "was the UN in a
way." If so, the Bush Administration is succeeding in its "win/win" strategy of
either destroying the UN, and/or bringing it completely to heel under US power.
The last act in the Bush Administration's sordid power play has not been written
yet however. The horror and sorrow they are spreading is accelerating an
examination of not only US power as the fulcrum of stability in the world, but
propelling a reexamination of the core premises of the entire campaign to rid
the world of terrorism.
First and foremost, the essential principle of waging a "global war on
terrorism" must be thrown out. To wage war on terrorists is to elevate them in
status and prestige, and that spreads the virus of terrorism. Criminalizing
terrorist activity, treating terrorists not as "enemy combatants" but as
desperately sick mass murderers, robs them of status and support.
In truth, the Bush Administration thinks much the same way as the terrorists it
vows to exterminate. Both see their cause as a holy war. Both are willing to
kill civilians to attain their ends. Both see the world in simplistic terms that
lend themselves to perpetrating evil in the name of good. Both want to destroy
the UN.
The irony is that an effective way of dealing with terrorism already exists, and
is quietly being carried out. Cooperative international police activity has
caught many perpetrators, and prevented scores of others from carrying out their
crimes against humanity.
But the mentality and propaganda of war and militarism preclude any possibility
of eliminating the scourge of terrorism. Indeed, it is providing a far more
putrid breeding ground for it.
War is a barbarity, an atavism that has become an anachronism in a global
society. And yet, the Bush Administration has successfully won its most basic
propaganda victory by couching the terrible challenge of terrorism in terms of
war. And that plays right into the hands of the terrorists' agenda.
Even the UN has accepted this philosophical and linguistic framework, and now
has paid with the lives of its most cherished servants for doing so.
Furthermore, the perception of the UN as an arm of US policy is not without
basis.
After the illegal US invasion, UN diplomats acted like it could be business as
usual in Iraq. Now that Iraq is a battleground for all forces opposing US power
in the Middle East, the UN is seen as complicit.
The Bush Administration hews to its self-fulfilling prophecy, believing that the
UN must now follow US "leadership." If it does, it will continue to follow the
bastards into hell.
mglefevre@earthlink.net
The author welcomes comments.
