Monday Morning Pessimism

I have to say, the most curious thing I read during the whole Russo-Georgian War was this by Brad Delong:

Of the four big potential threats to world peace--the Islamic Reformation, the rising industrial power that is Imperial Wilhelmine China, the potential for a National Hinduist India, and Weimar Russia--Weimar Russia may be the most dangerous.

First off, note the categorical: "the four" big threats to world peace.

I thought to myself reading that, "Really? Only four?" And in those four, there's a rather striking omission: America. Not to be too blunt about it, but if America were a nation at peace with the world, John McCain would be the first candidate to be polling in the negatives. His combination of mendacity, militarism, and mediocrity is polling well because, in America, stupid-ass fraudulent militarism sells. Don't believe me, ask President George W. Bush after he retires in peace and is never disturbed by the war crimes tribunal he so richly deserves.

Meanwhile, the most offensive thing Islamic states have done to America is not be threatening enough: humiliating America by not having active nuclear weapons programs in either Iran or Iraq. America, on the other hand, has actually invaded and occupied another country with far less pretext than Russia had to invade Georgia. And, you know, killed hundreds of thousands of innocents in the process. Maybe they could have been put in the #5 slot, Prof. Delong?

I would really, really like American liberals to actually grapple with the fact that you live in a nation that is dangerous to the world. Some of this is just what comes from being the biggest kid in the playground, but then you've got something like 40% of Americans supporting John crazy-ass McCain, a man even less qualified to be President than the current occupant. America is a threat to world peace, too, and what concerns me a hell of a lot more than what's going on in Pakistan right now is what happens if John McCain wins in November, and terrorists attack an American city sometime after that. Watching America gear up to attack another country based on lies once was bad enough.

Comments

[low-tech cyclist]

I think we libruls are already quite aware of it. But if we want our side to lose elections, then talking about it in public in those terms is exactly what we want to do.

I think the way Atrios talks about it, which he does fairly often, is pretty good: he simply points out that in wars, people get killed, wounded, driven from their homes, and the like.

The plain corollary is that, with rare exceptions, starting a war is going to make people's lives worse. And that's actually a pretty effective line of argument. Americans like to see themselves as the Good Guys, charging to the rescue on a white horse.

If we can show people that we aren't likely to rescue the oppressed Iraqis/plucky Georgians/whoever through war, but are far more likely to make things worse for them, I suspect that'll change the equation.

[litbrit]

I agree with you, John--believe me, I am well aware that the US military budget (using the term "budget" ironically, as well as straightforwardly) is ten times the combined budget of every other country in the world. It's not conspiracy theory to say that all those defense companies--with all those ordinance-deliverin' toys to sell and all those powerful lobbyists-turned-presidential-advisors-turned-lobbyists-once-more to help them do it--are the driving force behind America's bellicose and violent reputation. Everywhere other than America I mean. Because you are right: far too many people here just don't see their country that way. Perhaps they are too married to their ideologies, or they're single-issue in their thinking, or they're so stubborn about "not voting for a dirty fucking hippie liberal", they will vote for the dull-witted saber-rattler ever time--who knows? It could be that many McCain supporters are just willfully ignorant: they refuse to watch news other than American news; they don't speak languages other than American English and don't support teaching foreign languages in schools; and most saliently, they simply don't identify with the brown people we've been bombing out of their houses and schools and villages. And the reason they don't identify with them is that the U.S. news is bowdlerized to the point of spectacular inaccuracy. When the major networks are largely owned by defense contractors and conservatives with agendas, you can be sure the talking heads they sit before the cameras will be careful to toe the same line as Atrios (though I have to credit him for trying to sound the alarm on other conservative-spawned fiascos like the mortgage crisis).

Flag-draped coffins don't get shown. Blood-spattered little girls who've just seen their parent's shot to bits don't get shown.

Britney's not wearing undies, though!

I don't know if being more blunt about it will help--God knows, I am pretty blunt about how disgusted I am with the needless violence, the wanton violation of international treaties, the environmental destruction--certainly when I am speaking with people live and in real time--but then, I don't know what the answer is, either.

I do know that we can't afford another four years of this horror.

[Lisa Simeone]

"I would really, really like American liberals to actually grapple with the fact that you live in a nation that is dangerous to the world."

Totally agree. But in this case, it's not primarily liberals who need to learn this lesson. From the mouths of conservatives and so-called libertarians I have heard more times than I can count the fervent declarations of American exceptionalism: 'We're better than any country in the history of the world, we try more often to do The Right Thing, we're more noble, more virtuous, more Good Guy, blah blah blah.' These people truly believe this stuff. There is no getting through to them. They don't see that they are living in glass houses. And they don't see that Americans are human beings just like everyone else, subject to the same foibles, misconceptions, depravities, and viciousness as everyone else in the history of the world. They will never see this, never acknowledge it, and so we will continue to have Bushes, Cheneys, McCains, and all the rest of them.