Americans are not victims of America.
We own America.
We work for America as Americans and whether in private industry or government, we and every neighbor is in one or the other, Main Street to Wall Street, police station to military barracks in the far reaches of the world.
Hate America, undermine America, blame America — look in the mirror.
When aid to Pakistan, domestic and military, reaches Pakistan, it’s in Pakistani hands to spend. If much of that spending gets lost, goes without audit, does not make it to The People of Pakistan, does not improve security or domestic qualities in living, we didn’t spend it: we gave it.
Secrets-keeping governments naturally inspire conspiracy thinking and paranoia. Knowing this, in the U.S., we divulge our secrets, many, most, and all across time. Some decades may pass between act and acknowledgement but the truth (here) always surfaces. Our real armies don’t wear uniforms. Sometimes they don’t even get out of their jeans and sweatshirts, but they’re up to their elbows in historical research that may be and will be examined by peers and third parties and very possibly by God Almighty himself. That knowledge tends to make everyone responsible.
Such as ISIS love ambivalence, doubt, and weakness in targets, and the degree to which the same will sacrifice others not for God but for plunder and the merciless dominance of others is breathtaking.
If you think Iraq was a mistake, look over Saddam’s palaces built on the backs of his people. Ask the Marsh Arabs about the destruction of their timeless way of life. Ask the Kurdish people about what it’s like to be gassed en masse by an implacable tyrant. Speak to the Shiite about serving the Baathist “cause”.
Really hate the west: stop taking our money, time, resources, ingenuity, and available spending. The “west” for its part could and should do better to encourage better ecological and labor practices in its trading partners plus greater insistence on democracy and human rights. Beyond that, we give — Pakistan spends. If the state has problems with itself, swap out the politicians in the next round of elections.
Whether through the sewage pumped out by the solidarity movements are loose souls wandering in the shadows of one fascist past or another, there are global “Hate America First” crowds.
When cozy, they talk, inventing words that never existed, but it makes some feel good to have a central fixture for pelting with verbal stones.
Sound like something of which you may be aware?
Well, that’s language for you. It has echoes, ghosts, mirage, murmurs, and reminders, and while it may be easy to go with so many programs that create ideas and relationships in our heads, we sometimes stop to think a moment about Iraqi poverty in the age in which Saddam Hussein maintained his palaces, and then we say “wait a minute — let’s have a closer look at how that works.”
That’s all it takes sometimes: a closer look at gross inequality, injustice, implacable will, and the numbing cruelty that accompanies them.
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