Reply #38: no wait, [View All]

[LatinoSocialist]

you're twisting my words. I don't support U.S. military types, and I don't support U.S. neoconservatives or conservatives. I think people who look for salvation in yet another military general turned U.S. civilian leader are wasting their time. The entire history of the United States is one of militarism, invasions, conquest, and leadership on the back of military generals or tough-talking civilians who exalt everything military. If it weren't for the fact that we're not having Gestapo troopers smashing down our doors, I'd say we got an environment ripe for the same type of cult to the military that gives life to fascist regime.

I commend Gen. Clark for being infinitely more intelligent and nuanced about world affairs than most generals are. But at the end of the day, his major fault is his belief in the inevitable infallibility of the United States, and his belief that somehow we're gonna win this War on Terror. There isn't a war on terror. It's simply radical elements of the Third World, representing the anger of the poor and imposed-upon. It's the mosquitos from the swamp biting at humans, to follow an often used analogy. Clark is saying we should drain the swamp, which is a step in the right direction, but if he truly believes that logic, he wouldn't support "staying the course" in Iraq, he'd support performing field surgery on that gangrene-infested leg that is the Iraq adventure, and moving on to saving the rest of America and its reputation.

If the election were between Clark and some Republican, yeah, I'd give him my vote. But, I'm not expecting anything incredibly outstanding from an American general. Perhaps it's because I'm not an American, so it boggles my mind how, almost across the board, almost all American leaders all share a common foundation: a belief in America's infallibility, inherent goodness, and "never can do wrong" attitude. The incessant qualifying of our actions by always stating that "we mean well, but", and the persistent belief that somehow, someway, we have a right to dictate to others how they're lives and societies should be. A person with a real moral stand on the Iraq War would say, "I'm not an Iraqi, we should have never gone there, they never did anything to us to deserve our attacks, and we should leave as soon as possible and leave it up to them to decide what they want and how they want to get to point Z from point A". Yet, Clark and the rest of the American political leadership continues, despite their great differences of opinions, to share that common foundation that, at the end of it all, we meant well in Iraq and we should stay the course to prove we "meant well". Hogwash. People from foreign countries are not constrained by such limited debate boundaries. For us, it's quite easy to say, "America...you screwed up, and you're wrong". And that's how I feel.

You could say that's an axe to grind, but, then again, we in Latin America have had a long list of your generals do some very nasty things to us, so we know your generals probably a lot better than most Americans know them.