We have been afraid before
But we came together with resolve
What is that lion at the door
Is it real or has it evolved
From imagined predators
Or salesmen we abhor
Before we run into the bog
Let us shun the demagogue
Fear is
something that we all know and feel, but only rarely is it a driving force in
our lives. In recent months,
however, the use of fear by either well meaning but unstable politicians, or
those “pols” who are actually nefarious enough to use fear to gain a competitive
advantage is stunning. Nature gave
us the innate fear of fire, heights, loud noises, etc., for our protection and
preservation. Normally, the degree
of felt fear is commensurate with the level of the threat. Higher heights and bigger fires produce
greater responses than lesser threats.
However, when fear is used a weapon, the internal response is sometimes
non-linear and irrational. That is
where we are as a nation today.
Many of our national politicians have joined to denounce Syrian refugees
as too great a threat to be permitted into the US. Tragically, demagogues like Chris Christie of NJ, have
grossly exaggerated the threat of 3-year old Syrian orphans as immigrants. It is also pathetic that the drowned
Syrian boy so widely seen in the media was age three. Forget, will you, that Canada is accepting more Syrians in
less time. Canada is not frozen in
fear, despite the climactic disadvantage they have. Why is that?
Prior to
the tragedy of San Bernadino where 14 were killed and 22 wounded, national
politicians decried the lack of perfect screening of refugees and demanded that
the State Department certify any Syrian refugee. Really? We have
to certify each refugee? I was so
upset that I placed a note on the Facebook page for my US Representative. I reminded Representative Ken Calvert
that our greatest threat except for 9/11 has been home grown terrorists like
Tim McVey and that we lose over 30,000 Americans to gun violence each year
which is 10 times the most we ever lost to terrorists in a single
incident. The posting was removed
in less than an hour. This leads
me to believe that his motivation was more GOP politics than an actual concern for
a real threat from Syrian refugees.
Shamefully, 47 Democrats including a friend, John Garamendi of
California, joined Republicans to prohibit Syrian refugee entry. Bipartisanship for xenophobia and
prejudice! What a concept.
In 1939
and in the early 40s we had shiploads of Jews wandering the oceans instead of
the deserts seeking refuge and a homeland. The US refused them entry. Many did not survive the holocaust. There are over 4 million Syrian
refugees. How many will not
survive? Perhaps fear is stronger
than shame. Be proud, you fearless
politicians! Most GOP candidates
for President want boots on the ground and a land war in the Meddle East to gain territory from a
noisy Caliphate, but are afraid of 3 year old orphans? We won and lost Fallujah at least twice
with great casualties and these brilliant GOP strategists and tacticians want
another land war to take land like Fallujah from ISIS? This is when a little fear might be
healthy so that they avoid a stupid repetition of our Iraqi errors. They want to commit troops we do not
have to another war half-way around the world to stay there and keep the
land? They must know that a “No
Trespassing” sign will not work, even if we are lucky enough to succeed. So we need to keep boots on the
ground. They know that we cannot
leave the dirt to the Shiite Iraqi government. The US trained Shiites ran at first opportunity and left all
weapons and equipment to ISIS.
Senator Cruz wants to carpet bomb Syria without civilian
casualties. Will somebody please
translate “carpet bomb” into (Canadian) Texan so that we don’t destroy Syria to
save it? There is no precision “carpet bombing” target
whether it glows in the dark or not.
It is an oxymoron from what may be a moron. That is scary.
It is as scary as the GOP candidate concept of a “No-Fly” zone that will
work if and only if you are willing to create a battlefield of Air Supremacy
(not the Air Superiority we currently have against Russia). Even with Air Supremacy, expect
losses. Tell me again why you want
a no-fly zone? You don’t want
refugees, but you are willing to make more refugees with carpet bombing and to
risk WW III with a no-fly zone? Of
course, that makes perfect nonsense.
Especially if you are using fear to motivate the electorate to believe
that you have the solution to the fear that you have created. You can solve the problem you create if
only people will vote for you to chase away the scapegoats that you name and accept
the problems that you create.
I found
it highly instructive that the GOP candidates at the Las Vegas “debate” were
unanimous in their selective amnesia about Iraq and the region. They blamed President Obama. It was the Bush Administration and
specifically the work of Bremer in the role of governor who destroyed the
balance of power in the region that had Iran and Iraq so well matched before
our invasion. Before the war, the
only trained administrators and military leaders were Sunni (Baath Party
members). Bremer fired the whole
lot including 40,000 teachers and the entire experienced military down to the
rank of private. General Garner,
who preceded Bremer had eliminated Colonels on up, but preserved junior leaders
and non-commissioned officers for the government of Iraq. He fired no teachers. This was nation-building by Bremer? It played right into the nation of Iran
if that is what Bush meant by nation-building, but it destroyed Iraq or the
possibility that Iraq could rebuild itself in a vacuum of experience and
talent. The candidates seemed to
suggest that we should have kept troops in Iraq despite an unfavorable SOFA
(Status of Forces Agreement) and the burgeoning cost, now over $3
Trillion. And whose Iraq would
that be? Would the remaining Iraqi
people petition for US statehood? The
unspoken assumption was that we should still be in Iraq in numbers great enough
to repel all enemies as though it were our country. It is not. And
remember, take no prisoners…or refugees.
We have
often had demagogues, even in war, but if we recall the history of WW II, fear
was controlled, even as we had two
great war machines bearing down on us (and a few Fiats). Before the war, there were
isolationists and some of them had ulterior motives, but after December 7,
1941, they were drowned out by our collective strength. Media supported the
effort, including Gabriel Heater who intoned nightly: “There’s good news tonight.” Politicians argued about economics and rationing, but not
about the conduct of the war. Now
we have FOX News and many conservative fear mongers who want to be president in
the worst way and are trying their best to be worst. Don’t buy the fear…and change the channel. Fear needs no facts, only images of the
boogeyman that is under your bed.
Turn the lights on and turn the demagogues off. Notice that facts have become
increasingly scarce. Look up
PolitiFact online for the Las Vegas debate. I was surprised at the extent of distortion and flat lying by
candidates. The mere look of
Senator Rubio when attacked by Senator Cruz tells the story, but then Rubio had
his own distortions. Facts can
help us put light on this dishonest and dangerous time when demagogues are
trolling for your vote. Syrian refugees as dangerous enemies in your home-town…seriously? We can do better than that. Canadians are already taking more
Syrian refugees and we boast of being number one? Greeks have over one million refugees; Germans and Swedes
and French have hundreds of thousands.
Fear? Be afraid of the
millions of guns we have with little control and our home-grown fundamentalists
and extremists who use them with support of the same politicians who have made
fear from thin air and terrified refugees.
Other
leaders in decades past were ruthless in using fear to gain power. Our own Senator McCarthy spoke of
Communists in every city and village.
Foreign dictators used their scapegoats to gain power. Jews and other minorities were singled
out for blame. Economic programs
were halted to step up the shrill claxon for war. We have seen this movie before. Can we leave now?
Peace,
22 Dec 2015
George Giacoppe
geocopy@att.net
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