On the Justice of Roosting Chickens

[blindpig]

On the Justice of Roosting Chickens
By Ward Churchill

When queried by reporters concerning his views on the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963, Malcolm X famously – and quite charitably, all things considered – replied that it was merely a case of "chickens coming home to roost."

On the morning of September 11, 2001, a few more chickens – along with some half-million dead Iraqi children – came home to roost in a very big way at the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. Well, actually, a few of them seem to have nestled in at the Pentagon as well.

The Iraqi youngsters, all of them under 12, died as a predictable – in fact, widely predicted – result of the 1991 US "surgical" bombing of their country's water purification and sewage facilities, as well as other "infrastructural" targets upon which Iraq's civilian population depends for its very survival.

If the nature of the bombing were not already bad enough – and it should be noted that this sort of "aerial warfare" constitutes a Class I Crime Against humanity, entailing myriad gross violations of international law, as well as every conceivable standard of "civilized" behavior – the death toll has been steadily ratcheted up by US-imposed sanctions for a full decade now. Enforced all the while by a massive military presence and periodic bombing raids, the embargo has greatly impaired the victims' ability to import the nutrients, medicines and other materials necessary to saving the lives of even their toddlers.

All told, Iraq has a population of about 18 million. The 500,000 kids lost to date thus represent something on the order of 25 percent of their age group. Indisputably, the rest have suffered – are still suffering – a combination of physical debilitation and psychological trauma severe enough to prevent their ever fully recovering. In effect, an entire generation has been obliterated.

The reason for this holocaust was/is rather simple, and stated quite straightforwardly by President George Bush, the 41st "freedom-loving" father of the freedom-lover currently filling the Oval Office, George the 43rd: "The world must learn that what we say, goes," intoned George the Elder to the enthusiastic applause of freedom-loving Americans everywhere. How Old George conveyed his message was certainly no mystery to the US public. One need only recall the 24-hour-per-day dissemination of bombardment videos on every available TV channel, and the exceedingly high ratings of these telecasts, to gain a sense of how much they knew.

In trying to affix a meaning to such things, we would do well to remember the wave of elation that swept America at reports of what was happening along the so-called Highway of Death: perhaps 100,000 "towel-heads" and "camel jockeys" – or was it "sand niggers" that week? – in full retreat, routed and effectively defenseless, many of them conscripted civilian laborers, slaughtered in a single day by jets firing the most hyper-lethal types of ordnance. It was a performance worthy of the nazis during the early months of their drive into Russia. And it should be borne in mind that Good Germans gleefully cheered that butchery, too. Indeed, support for Hitler suffered no serious erosion among Germany's "innocent civilians" until the defeat at Stalingrad.


The whole shebang with addendum here:
http://www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/s11/churchill.html

[HillbillyBob]

1. I have said to friends for years that our government and corporations

are at fault for the way Americans are hated, not for our freedom, but making free with other peoples lives and resources. Rape of any kind is wrong and will make you no friends.

[Starry Messenger]

2. k & r

[DinahMoeHum]

3. In reply, the essay: "An Open Letter to Ward Churchill"

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0216-28.htm

(snip)
My brother Chris was a 1985 graduate of the University of Colorado, the father of three young children and a compassionate, respectful and generous man. He stood in defense of our environment, volunteered his time and money in support of human rights, and gave unselfishly to help disadvantaged, vulnerable members of our society. He spoke openly against unjust government policies, and followed a private ethic of compassion. Chris was also a U.S. government Treasury bond broker for Cantor Fitzgerald, and therefore by your definition was a "little Eichmann."

At 8:46 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, you claim that my beautiful brother Chris, a "technocrat" in your words, received his "befitting penalty." While Chris rarely used a cell phone in his work (much less self-importantly brayed into one), he did make one call that fateful day. At about 8:30 that morning, Chris bantered back and forth with his 4-year-old daughter to get her to say that she loved him - she was the last of his family to talk with him.

Mr. Churchill, what I want you to see is the human face behind the rhetoric. Human beings are not symbols, and your essay's dehumanization of the victims of 9/11 reduces them to mere symbols, ie. drones in a capitalist machine. In this way, you are guilty of what you claim to condemn, that is, the dehumanization of individuals. It is the inability to see the human face of "the other" that allows the horrible violence in this world to continue.
(snip)
Mr. Churchill, we have the right to ask you, in fact, we are obligated to ask you publicly. And you, sir, we feel, are obligated to answer us publicly and unequivocally. In your view, was my brother's death justified? Yes or no? Did it right any wrongs that have been committed in this world?
(snip)
Mr. Churchill, my family is not ensconced in an ivory tower. We do not have the luxury that you have of pontificating at arm's length on the causes behind the events of 9/11. The reality of that day has been cemented in my family's life forever.
(snip)

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0216-28.htm

[blindpig]

4. Yep, it's all about us.

Obviously losing a loved one is a grief almost comprehension, but could this person not spare a little for the victims of US/Capitalists aggression?

Churchill wrote this spur of the moment screed white hot, while I do not agree with every word of this he is essentially correct, our complacency about the actions of our government is horrifying. Even we who decry it are not absolved, cause that ain't enough.

[DinahMoeHum]

11. You just proved the essayist's point.

n/t

[Cal Carpenter]

5. I wonder if, now that some time has passed,

a message like this can be better received, at least with a more open and critical, rather than emotion-clouded, mind.

Especially since we have all watched the Iraq war and Afghanistan occupations in such detail with the horrors and crimes that have been perpetrated against those countries...maybe we can step back and take a hard look at the bigger picture, the history of how we got here and who the real enemies of the people are.

[blindpig]

6. One would hope so

One might ask, for example, why the US has the most powerful military establishment in world, able to dominate the planet, especially given that the 'threat' of the Soviet Union is twenty years gone.

[leftstreet]

7. "No matter what its eventual fate, America will have gotten off very, very cheap."

Ouch

Very interesting read, thanks for posting.

K&R

[maryf]

8. Not only gotten off very, very cheap, but

making barrels of money off barrels of oil from barrels of blood. K&R to the OP

[CrispyQ]

9. Interesting.

I thought of Churchill this morning while reading this author, who, like Churchill, points out the truth of "why they hate us."


A Brief History of U.S. Interventions:
1945 to the Present
by William Blum

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/US_Interventions_WBlumZ.html

The engine of American foreign policy has been fueled not by a devotion to any kind of morality, but rather by the necessity to serve other imperatives, which can be summarized as follows:

* making the world safe for American corporations;
* enhancing the financial statements of defense contractors at home who have contributed generously to members of congress;
* preventing the rise of any society that might serve as a successful example of an alternative to the capitalist model;
* extending political and economic hegemony over as wide an area as possible, as befits a "great power."

This in the name of fighting a supposed moral crusade against what cold warriors convinced themselves, and the American people, was the existence of an evil International Communist Conspiracy, which in fact never existed, evil or not.
The United States carried out extremely serious interventions into more than 70 nations in this period.

~Much more at link.

[mitchum]

10. k & r

[Hawkowl]

12. They hate us for murdering their children

They hate us for allowing our corporations to rape, pillage and murder their countries.

You're never going to hear a US president say that truth.

[maryf]

13. good night kick, nt

[Donald Ian Rankin]

14. The killing of civilians is not "coming home", and it's disgusting to suggest it is.

One could, arguably, make a case that the murder of those responsible for America's bombing of Iraq would be "chickens coming home to roost".

To suggest that people whose only crime was to live in the same country as them was is simply wrong.