Facts and Fiction

Rhetoric Distorts Realities… by Robert Jensen on Common Dreams takes Bush to task on recent statements he’s made, many of which contradict the facts of history. Whether they do so through ignorance (which is inexcusable in a leader with that much power) or through deception is still at issue. The truth about U.S. history would certainly not serve the administration (the current one or any recent one, for that matter) well.

Ignoring the truth lets Bush say, “Targeting innocent civilians for murder is always and everywhere wrong” without having to qualify the statement with an explanation of the U.S.‘s own explicitly stated and executed goals during the Gulf War, Vietnam or the countless conflicts in the South and Central America. It allows Bush to say this in the same speech that he call for “moral clarity”, whatever that means.

Jensen notes that, during the colonial phase of world history, imperialism and opportunism “wasn’t described as greed but as the grand enterprise of bringing civilization and religion to the natives—the white man’s burden”. Such a noble cause, who could oppose this? These days, a similarly noble cause is needed to justify the continued exploitation of the third world, so we hear of “…bringing freedom and democracy [to the natives].” The important point to cling to in all of this is that “… simply because politicians say that is their motivation for foreign and military policy does not make it so.”

If one doesn’t ignore or deliberately obfuscate history, the accusation of “moral relativist” is levelled. As Jensen says:

“I believe the United States should be as accountable to those standards as other nations. In other words, in this odd political climate, a relativist is someone who argues for moral consistency. … How is it hateful to apply moral standards to one’s own nation? If I articulate clear moral standards and try to apply them to myself as an individual, it is usually taken as a sign of maturity. But when done at the level of a nation, it is widely condemned as a sign of insufficient love of country.”

At the end of his article, Jensen succinctly states his beliefs, which are quite clear and arise directly from the moral backing we’ve all been taught, unhindered by rhetoric and special interests. If the leaders of the U.S. would believe this and work for it, perhaps we’d be getting somewhere.

“All human life has equal value, whether rich or poor, American or not. The United States has long pursued policies in the world that work for the interests of the rich against the poor and that sacrifice the lives of non-Americans for the affluence and comfort of Americans. Those policies are wrong, and American citizens have a moral obligation to stop them, using all the political freedoms that dissidents have struggled for and won throughout American history.”