A Soldier Looks At His Country’a War
U.S. Imperial Aggression…Building a Fascist State
The principle acts of terrorism in any war is the strategic bombing of urban populations. As a fighter pilot in the 507th Fighter Group flying off the island of Ie Shima near Okinawa, I was part of the bombardment of Japan in WW II. While we did fire-bomb Tokyo and announced it in the news, hardly anyone heard of the many other Japanese cities we fire-bombed. We dropped the first nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, and followed with another one on Nagasaki. I flew over Nagasaki three days after it was bombed and saw no city, only scorched earth where once stood a port city.
Can you imagine the terror created by fire-bombing civilian populations? That famous photo of a young girl fleeing naked after such an attack on a town in Vietnam shocked folks at home. For me the terror began with the fire-bombing of over 20 cities of Japan in WW II, and was repeated with US bombs being rained on the city of Bagdad – a greater tonnage than on Vietnam. US TV coverage did not show the havoc and panic of the people of Bagdad on the ground. We saw a display of the latest military technology and power from aircraft carriers, battleships, thru the gun and bomb-sights of planes. The reality of innocent women, children and older people being torn apsrt and crushed was never a part of the picture.
There is a seduction for northamericans, especially the youth, in such TV displays of military might in action. We are fascinated by the advances in the new technology…almost entertained by the fireworks over Bagdad night after night. One can equivilate this type of entertainment to porno; it plays on our less noble instincts all the while innuring us to reality, if not indoctrinating us with a war mentality. Our youth are adicted to the violent video games, and war itself becomes “games” in military jargon.
We have developed a language to disguise what we are really doing. Long ago what was formerly known as the War Department was renamed the Department of Defense. We use nice sounding euphemisms like “softening up the Target”, before the invasion, while the killing of civilians and the destruction of residential areas, infra-structure of the life and the cultural heritage of a people is merely treated as “Collateral Damage.” We invade and occupy a country, justifyng it with a series of lies, and call it “Spreading Democracy and Freedom.”
War propaganda is the most diabolical. It begins with outright lies and then creates a language that reduces an opponent to a devil belonging to “an evil empire” or part of an “axis of evil”. This is to initiate the violence. The label “terrorist” is now used to justify wiping out the opponent. War propaganda of this administration manipulates our own populace to create exaggerated fears and marshalls, or entices with more lies, youth into army and the rest of us into homeland security phobias. We have become a sick society.
War is the ultimate terrorism. A pre-emptive war, built on phony evidence is the most despicable of all crimes. To justify such a criminal war we must depend on lies and deception, never letting up the propaganda barrage lest people see through the façade. I was recently in Peru and Argentina, to be shown a photo of our current president, George W. Bush – not a caricature, a decent photo – with three words in English, one each on forehead, nose and mouth: TERROR – IS – ME. Outside the US one gets perspective.
Suicide bombers from our point of view are terrorists, but from another point of view they are heroes, martyrs. Some of these Iraqi bombers surely are heroes, for what weapons do they have to attack an occupying enemy once their army is destroyed. They have been driven to employ a propaganda mirroring that of the US and call heroes those who engage in suicide bombings in civilian areas, that too a gross distortion of the truth.
Since 1965, as a priest – missionary doing solidarity work with Latin Amrica, I have spent an average of 6 months every year in those countries. In Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia in the 1970s I saw first hand the fascist governments that the US supported, or in some cases, actually put into power. I thought then that there must be fascist thinkers in our own government. In the 1980s I saw clearly the fascist governments and military in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Today, it is clear. Dictators that the US supported like Pinochet in Chile, Videla in Argentina are being brought to justice for those crimes. But will those in our government supporting the terror of war in so many places around the world also be brought to justice?
Secrecy in government is one of the trademarks of fascism. Practically the first action that George W. Bush took as he came into office was to extend the time limit on the release of presidential archives to the public scrutiny of press and historians. As a result will we ever know the full truth of the Iran-Contra affair? the cowardly and brutal attacks on Nicaragua? on Panama? on Grenada? I know fascism when I see it. I fought it in WW II and I saw it operating in Latin America over the past 40 years,
Secrecy is the hallmark, a specialty of the G.W.Bush administration. Secrecy is also the hallmark of a fascist government. The major news media has done a good job of down-playing this fascist agenda through a lack of critical analysis of the administration’s line. News comentators like Bill Moyers or Dan Rather get the ax for failing to become the obedient servant of a new-fascist administration. Only when the people of the USA realize what is happening to our nation and its Constitution and Bill of Rights, can we begin to free ourselves of this neo-fascist government.
It is time for real US patriots to take back their government. Today we often hear people quote patriot Patrick Henry: “My country right or wrong”. But people, like Oliver North who in the pose of a patriot lied about Iran-Contra, fail to finish the quote. “My country right or wrong. If right keep it right. If it is wrong, set it right.”
Each of us owes it: “My country, yes My country, Our country! Let’s set it right!! This is a challenge for the political right, left and center in the USA to vote in, demand an “upright,”
honest, government with liberty and justice for all citizens, respect for international law and a foreign policy consonant with the many treaties signed, but too long ignored at our peril as a nation.
Peter C. Hinde, O.Carm. If you prefer to drop the O.Carm. you can simply say: A catholic priest of the Carmelite Order Peter C. Hinde.
My name on legal documents like Army records and passport is James J. Hinde. Also with Veterans For Peace I use the James J. Hinde. For competeness one might say: James J.(AKA Peter C.) Hinde
Follow the Journies:
http://www.independent.com/weblogs/slow-lane-anderson/ http://www.vfpsb.org/category/lanesblog/ http://www.noozhawk.com/politics/article/100709_santa_barbara_council_qa_lane_anderson/
http://www.noozhawk.com/opinions/article/120509_lane_anderson_a_sailboat_bums_trip_to_santa_cruz_island
http://www.nalc.org/news/precord/ArticlesPDF/0906-heroes.pdf
http://www.independent.com/news/2010/jun/25/come-back-jimmy-carter/
http://www.independent.com/news/2011/jan/06/out-pocket/
http://www.noozhawk.com/briefs/article/122210_letter_to_the_editor_christians_and_activism/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13174975@N04/
http://www.noozhawk.com/local_news/article/lane_anderson
http://www.vfpsb.org/2012/12/past-missions-for-peace/
We are the antidote: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SBProgCoalition/message/4402?l=1
"Activism is my rent for living on the planet." Alice Walker