We get simple when we start to talk about politics. It is probably because politics is often less about facts than it is about rhetoric. Rhetoric is language intended to convince someone about something. It is not necessarily factual, although facts can be very convincing.
For example, consider the situation in Syria. Syria is in revolution, and it is not clear what the revolution is going to produce. The whole Middle East is in revolution. What has been largely a sixth century Muslim civilization is bringing itself into Muslim versions of the twenty-first century. The serenity of iron-fisted dictatorships is transforming into messy and sometimes bloody attempts at government more responsive to the population. One look at the absurdly straight-line boundaries of many of the nations of the Mideast (and Africa, too) reveals that the nations themselves have been artificially defined by colonial powers. The Kurds, to use just one example, have been parceled out to Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and probably Iceland. And, after World War II, Israel was created as a predominantly Jewish state right in the middle of the Fertile Crescent. Why? Because Hitler tried to kill all of the Jews under his control, and Russian Jews were persecuted mercilessly. They needed a place to live.
And now Syria has used poison gas on its own citizens. Almost every modern nation has agreed not to use chemical weapons. They have agreed it will not, absolutely will not, be tolerated.
So what should we do about it?
Nothing!, many, if not most, Americans say. Nothing! We are tired of war: Iraq, Iraq, Afghanistan, almost Egypt, almost Tunisia, almost Algeria, almost Iran, almost.... Let us take care of ourselves first, and let the Syrians and everybody else take care of themselves.
That is what we said when Hitler killed six million Jews. Franklin Delano Roosevelt almost had apoplexy trying to convince us that it was morally indefensible to ignore the slaughter of the Jews. That is what we said when the Hutus took machetes to half a million or a million Tutsis in Rwanda. We said it was not our business. And we said it again when Bosnian-Serb forces slaughtered thousands of Muslim men, women and children near Srebrenica. It is not our business!
It was our business. It was everybody's business. We finally had to admit that. It is everybody's business in Syria, too.
The question is how to deal with it. Ignoring it is not dealing with it. And the hesitation about getting involved militarily, however long-range that military effort might be, is understandable. Our first and greatest effort should be to cobble together an international determination to end the use of chemical weapons in Syria, and everywhere. Of course the Security Council will be hapless because Russia will exercise a veto! Of course international politicians are as left-footed as our own House of Representatives! But we cannot pretend it is not our business, and everybody's business. And if the people in Syria who are using the poison gas will not yield to international pressure, we might have to resort to military force. But that should be a last resort, not a first move.
There is a crime worse than using poison gas or other chemical of biological agents on people, indiscriminately. It is doing nothing when it happens! It is pretending that those children lying in the street are none of our business. It is worse to howl piously that we should take care of our own kids first, and not doing that, either.
It is worse to blather on about being "an exceptional nation", which is just another way of saying we are God's Chosen People, that we are morally superior; that we are not involved, when we are.
"No!", we should say. We should shout, "No!". "Not again! No more Final Solutions! No more Bosnias! No more Rwandas! No more gas!"
And no military solutions, if we can help it. Try everything else first! But try!
For example, consider the situation in Syria. Syria is in revolution, and it is not clear what the revolution is going to produce. The whole Middle East is in revolution. What has been largely a sixth century Muslim civilization is bringing itself into Muslim versions of the twenty-first century. The serenity of iron-fisted dictatorships is transforming into messy and sometimes bloody attempts at government more responsive to the population. One look at the absurdly straight-line boundaries of many of the nations of the Mideast (and Africa, too) reveals that the nations themselves have been artificially defined by colonial powers. The Kurds, to use just one example, have been parceled out to Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and probably Iceland. And, after World War II, Israel was created as a predominantly Jewish state right in the middle of the Fertile Crescent. Why? Because Hitler tried to kill all of the Jews under his control, and Russian Jews were persecuted mercilessly. They needed a place to live.
And now Syria has used poison gas on its own citizens. Almost every modern nation has agreed not to use chemical weapons. They have agreed it will not, absolutely will not, be tolerated.
So what should we do about it?
Nothing!, many, if not most, Americans say. Nothing! We are tired of war: Iraq, Iraq, Afghanistan, almost Egypt, almost Tunisia, almost Algeria, almost Iran, almost.... Let us take care of ourselves first, and let the Syrians and everybody else take care of themselves.
That is what we said when Hitler killed six million Jews. Franklin Delano Roosevelt almost had apoplexy trying to convince us that it was morally indefensible to ignore the slaughter of the Jews. That is what we said when the Hutus took machetes to half a million or a million Tutsis in Rwanda. We said it was not our business. And we said it again when Bosnian-Serb forces slaughtered thousands of Muslim men, women and children near Srebrenica. It is not our business!
It was our business. It was everybody's business. We finally had to admit that. It is everybody's business in Syria, too.
The question is how to deal with it. Ignoring it is not dealing with it. And the hesitation about getting involved militarily, however long-range that military effort might be, is understandable. Our first and greatest effort should be to cobble together an international determination to end the use of chemical weapons in Syria, and everywhere. Of course the Security Council will be hapless because Russia will exercise a veto! Of course international politicians are as left-footed as our own House of Representatives! But we cannot pretend it is not our business, and everybody's business. And if the people in Syria who are using the poison gas will not yield to international pressure, we might have to resort to military force. But that should be a last resort, not a first move.
There is a crime worse than using poison gas or other chemical of biological agents on people, indiscriminately. It is doing nothing when it happens! It is pretending that those children lying in the street are none of our business. It is worse to howl piously that we should take care of our own kids first, and not doing that, either.
It is worse to blather on about being "an exceptional nation", which is just another way of saying we are God's Chosen People, that we are morally superior; that we are not involved, when we are.
"No!", we should say. We should shout, "No!". "Not again! No more Final Solutions! No more Bosnias! No more Rwandas! No more gas!"
And no military solutions, if we can help it. Try everything else first! But try!
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