Who Are We, Anyway?
by Jonathan Penton

As I write this, it is 21 days and twelve hours after the first jet crashed into the World Trade Center.

Everything I try to write about this sounds so inane…

I was going to preface this article by saying that I'm not a pacifist. I was going to then continue to point out the differences between the real pacifists, who are seeking a solution to this situation other than war, and the cynical assholes you find on the Internet who just believe that America had it coming.

But I'm having a hard time staying interested. There are a few Americans so covered in self-loathing that they believe this is divine or karmic punishment, and so what? Let them believe it. It's immaterial.

And, there are a few Americans who can't see any solution but turning the Arab world into glass. Those people aren't in the majority, either. Let them have their rage. No one's listening to them.

Most Americans, including the American President, are prepared to slowly seek the perpetrators of this incident, and bring them to justice. We're staying calm. We're giving to charity. We're showing grace in the face of a massacre, and I'm proud of that.

As always, there is anti-Semitic rhetoric flying around. Particularly bizarre are the speculations I've read that suggest Israel arranged the massacre, in order to goad the U.S. into destroying the Arab world.

But one gets used to that.

The anti-Arab rhetoric has been more vitriolic, but is rare, at least around Atlanta. I did find one spray-painted message, "DEPORT ALL ARABS NOW OR WE WILL KILL THEM." Unsurprisingly, the author was a coward, and painted his message in an outside, covered stairwell that receives very little traffic. There have been a few incidents, both of ostracization and actual assaults, and the President did stop short of condemning this madness, but we're a long ways away from when we shuttled Japanese-Americans off to camps.

Of course, time will tell if we actually invade Afghanistan. Frankly, I have a hard time feeling bad about that. Human rights advocates have been praying for a non-violent way to end the Taliban's war against women for years. Given the restraint that President Bush has shown so far, it's hard to feel real bad about the possibility that he'll try to dismantle the Taliban by force. It doesn't look like we're going to be massacring Afghanistan's citizens.

In short, America, the rabid imperialist nation of the 20th Century, has been behaving itself. For the most part, we've been acting like adults.

It doesn't make me feel any better.

Wartime Update

Well, the bombs have dropped. Our attack plan is to assist the Northern Alliance in their bid to take Afghanistan from the Taliban. That seems like a good idea, but CNN is completely silent on the policies or beliefs of the Northern Alliance. I can't help but wonder if, in twenty years, the Northern Alliance won't grow into an American-funded monster, just like bin Laden did.

Bombing always causes civilian casualties, but I stand by my belief that Bush is handling the military action without excessive violence. Still, one of the basics of democracy is that a President, no matter how much we support him, must be watched very closely. It's very clear that CNN has no intention of looking at our leaders with a critical eye. Check out Counterpunch.org for a site that is critically and carefully considering the implications of the war in Afghanistan.

Jonathan Penton is the overworked editor and publisher of Unlikely Stories. Check out his literary works at this site.