Bomb Them Into Submission By James Brett

[Demeter]

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_james_br_070805_bomb_them_into_submi.htm


The other night at dinner my female guest, wife of my male guest, grandmother of my granddaughter guest, spoke quietly most of the evening until, perforce, the conversations delicately wended its way toward national security, 9/11, the Iraq War, and the Ayatollahs of Iran, and al Qaeda, whose radical minions are probably among us, it was quietly said, waiting for the right moment to strike terror into the hearts and minds. We were talking about targets and the site of YK1 was mentioned, not Chicago where YK2 is winding up. The male guest thought that Vegas was a good spot because it has an incompetent police force when it comes to terror ... allowing for a certain amount of responsiveness if Hoover Dam is attacked. The femme guest finally broke into the male dominated commiserating about vulnerability and the theoretical pervasiveness of the threat and said, "well, I think we should just bomb the hell out of them until they stop all of this."

We have heard this often enough that there should be a smart, snappy, and completely disabling response from those of us who know that "bombing the hell out of them" cannot possibly work, unless we actually kill all of them and everyone they talk to, and everyone who reads newspapers and watches television broadcasts of news like that. The question is: Is there a snappy response, and if not why not?

.....
It is almost a movie storyboard frame: they (the Iraqis) do not understand conventional attempts using troops to civilize them, so we will show them that behind the troops, (actually above them), is a force that can utterly decimate, perhaps obliterate their country ... if they don't wise up. So, the statement assumes that individuals in Iraq are less important than the apparent "group think" in Iraq that produces IEDs and kills our troops. After all, how can Iraqi insurgents, including those who say they owe allegiance to al Qaeda, operate if it is not with the complicity of the general public? My femme guest fails to recognize that the good citizens of Chicago in the 20's and 30's were not complicit with Al Capone, but they were wary of sticking their heads up too high. My female guest has no experience being terrorized from within, except 9/11 and that was done from the sky, surgically as it were, so why not respond in kind.

The error is in all the assumptions that what 10% of Iraqis do is representative of all Iraqis. Those who want to respond to the "bomb them to hell" statement should start from that premise and demolish it. The best way to do this is to think of a scene in Iraq containing individuals. You begin with mothers and fathers and children. You begin with a specific mother, invented for the purpose, but iconic of any individual mother in Iraq (or Iran ... when we get around to bombing them back into the 10th century). Begin with a child who goes to school to learn history and arithmetic and Arabic and English. Begin with individuals, for then the "bomb them to hell" strategy has a human face, an innocent human face.


This is the point where not only have they given up trying to understand them (the Iraqis), but are now showing signs of having given up understand ourselves. Remember the old Vietnam statement: "We had to destroy the country to save it from Communism." Remember how well this idea was derided by all political stripes. To believe that we have the right to utterly destroy a civilization is to accept the idea of genocide, to accept the idea that it is not a questions of ends or means, but a question of some hideous principle that says we are not only right but we are powerful and we can do what we want.






Authors Website: http://americanliberalism.org

Authors Bio: James R. Brett, Ph.D. taught Russian History in several universities before becoming an academic administrator. His academic interests have been in the history of science and the history of ideas, particularly Marxism and classical liberalism, but also psychology and consciousness studies. He became an acknowledged expert on curriculum and faculty research administration. He is a frequent contributor to liberal and progressive blogs and is the founder and publisher of The American Liberalism Project.



I THINK THIS AUTHOR IS TOO KIND TO HIS GENOCIDAL GUESTS. THEY SHOW AN INABILITY TO ACT IN A MORAL FASHION.

[acmavm]

1. Yeah, he is far too kind. Advocating genocide is about as uncivilized and

inhuman as a person can get. In fact, it says a lot about their lack of humanity.

Of course, they sure wouldn't think anyone was justified in thinking this about 'THEM'.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. how can you bomb them if you can't even find Usama Bin Ladin?

the silly person.

[Xipe Totec]

3. For every complex problem

there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.

- H. L. Mencken

[Thickasabrick]

4. That's the "snappy" comeback. When someone says "bomb them

to hell", then calmly ask...."so you condone genocide?".

Thanks for posting, great article.

[grasswire]

5. I found a "bomb hanoi" pinback button the other day...

It was in a box of junk I picked up at a garage sale. I had to research to see if that was a legitimate cry of the era, and yes it was. People wanted to bomb them into submission.

Interestingly enough, the guy whose pin it was in his youth is now a very progressive lefty.

[stillcool]

6. When was that study done...

that put the figure of 750,000 Iraqi's dead?

[bemildred]

7. "So, you think we should just kill them all?" nt