|
The September Calamity: Useful Resources And Links "It is characteristic of the military mentality that non-human factors (atom bombs, strategic bases, weapons of all sorts, the possession of raw materials, etc.) are held essential, while the human being, his desires and thoughts -- in short, the psychological factors -- are considered as unimportant and secondary. . .The individual is degraded to a mere instrument; he becomes "human materiel." The normal ends of human aspiration vanish with such a viewpoint. Instead, the military mentality raises 'naked power' as a goal in itself -- one of the strangest illusions to which men can succumb." -- Albert Einstein, The American Scholar, Summer 1947 I'm told that one cannot begin to understand the savagery of the World Trade Center attacks without being in the vicinity of the rubble, smelling the smoke, witnessing the carnage, seeing looks of consternation and horror on the faces of passersby, observing the tireless efforts of firefighters and other service personnel to recover corpses. The scene, so palpable and overwhelming, can lead even the most rational minds to conclude that swift, even disproportionate, retaliation is necessary. The calculus, it can be argued, is different this time. Nearly three thousand lives were lost within a single hour on the morning of September 11. Billions of dollars were lost in property damage. The symbols of American economic supremacy were shattered. Financial markets worldwide suffered staggering losses. The week from September 17 to September 21 saw the steepest drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average ever. Profound doubts have been raised about airline security and homeland safety, about the possibility at all of precluding such attacks in the future. No one, as far as I'm aware, believes that a similarly pernicious act won't be committed on American soil in the months and years ahead. Will an unending concatenation of evil ensue? Will the Israeli government seize upon the moment to detain and kill even more Palestinians? Will the United States fatten its military budget to unprecedented levels (the figure per annum already is an obese $310 billion)? In what ways will the world's superpowers enter into the mix? What new alliances will be forged? Will untold numbers of Islamic true-believers join the ranks of self-immolating killers? Will the United States commit its troops to foreign lands for five, ten, fifteen years? Will use of the deadliest weapons enter the realm of viable options? The questions can almost be multiplied ad infinitum. It behooves us all to retain a critical bent of mind in the face of patriotic fervor and homogenized journalism and the widespread lust for revenge. It is necessary to dredge up the admonitions of pacifists like Albert Einstein, to consider the effects of aggressive military action on countless innocent people. Fortunately there are a few writers and intellectuals who believe ever ardently that the inclination to retaliate should be tempered by cool reasoning. There are others who provoke us to consider the history of the Middle East and invite us to ask why our nation is the object of so much enmity and scorn in certain corners of the globe. Below are links to some of the better articles and commentaries on the recent tragedy. 1. Edward Said, "There Are Many Islams," Counterpunch, September 16. 2. Robert Fisk, "Terror In America," The Nation, October 1 edition. 3. Richard Falk, "A Just Response," The Nation, October 1 edition. 4. The Pacifism of Bertrand Russell. 6. Dorothy Day On Pacifism And War. 7. Albert Einstein And The Atom Bomb. 8. Universal Declaration Of Human Rights.
Books To Consider: William Blum, Killing Hope: U.S. Military And CIA Interventions Since World War II (Common Courage Press, 1995). A work highly critical of U.S. foreign policy. Some 55 case studies are included. Noam Chomsky, The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, And The Palestinians (Common Courage Press, updated 1999). A provocative but heavily footnoted volume on the Middle East by the world's most famous linguist and America's most tireless critic. Gabriel Kolko, The Roots Of American Foreign Policy (Beacon Press, 1969, and recent editions). An esteemed Canadian historian explores the basic themes of American foreign policy. Stephen Krasner, Defending The National Interest (Princeton University Press, 1978). A well-respected if overly apologetic study of U.S. foreign policy in the 20th century. Full of case studies. Edward Said, The Question of Palestine (1979) and, more recently, Covering Islam (Random House, 1997). Said is a professor of humanities at Columbia University and esteemed advocate of the Palestinian cause. Various periodicals can be found in the General Reference.
|
