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August 23, 2005 @ 7:42 am
Collective Guilt?
At the end of WW II many Americans held every German citizen responsible for the atrocities of the German war machine, the destruction of Lidice for instance, and for the horrors of the death camps. Many Germans defended themselves with the argument that they simply didn’t know, or that they had no idea of exactly what went on in concentration camps.
I pass no judgement on that defense, but our past judgements of collective guilt give me pause when the peace movement agitates for immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Aren’t all of us, now, morally responsible for the deaths we’ve caused and morally responsible for cleaning up the mess we’ve caused? After the troops leave, what?
Yes, Sadam was a tyrant responsible for thousands of deaths, but there have been other monsters in the world, most particularly in Africa, and we have left them alone. It is clear that the President’s justifications for his war were entirely bogus. Iraq is now in chaos and on the verge of civil war, for both of which we bear responsibility.
After-Thought
We forget that the Baath party was a secular party and that under its control the idea of the equality of men and women, for instance, received significant protection. Now Iraqis are on the verge of a return to religious fundamentalism, which limits the role of women in a modern society.
August 23, 2005 @ 8:51 am
What War Looks Like
The consequences of our invasion of Iraq are clearly not felt by the American public, except by those whose relatives have been killed, or the thousands of service men and women who have been desperately wounded. One reason for that is the absence of a public photographic record.
Today’s Salon has an ‘above the fold’ story on why the photo record is so thin. Accompanying it is an album of pictures that illustrate the impact of war on Iraqi citizens.
That article ends:
There is no way for any journalist, whether reporter or photographer, to capture the multifaceted reality of Iraq. But all of the journalists I have spoken to who have worked in Iraq say that the blandly optimistic pronouncements made by the Bush administration about the situation in Iraq are completely false. A picture of a dead child only represents a fragment of the truth about Iraq -- but it is one that we do not have the right to ignore. We believe we have an ethical responsibility to those who have been killed or wounded, whether Iraqis, Americans or those of other nationalities, not to simply pretend that their fate never happened. To face the bitter truth of war is painful. But it is better than hiding one's eyes. | 
