Tyranny: The Horror of a Past Revisited
by C. L. Cook - PacificFreePress.com
Add to these the myriad lesser tyrants of history and it becomes quickly apparent; our story is a quagmire of corruption, cruelty, repression, exploitation, bias, and prejudice, the source of which being the intransigent persistence of the strong to subjugate the weak through violence and perpetual injustice. This assault against equity is as evident in our daily lives, in our homes, workplaces, and communities, as it is writ large within the pages of the great tomes of history.
Rising and falling with the relentless regularity of the sea, it is against the constant tide of tyranny a dike is built; a great wall erected called the Law. Sheltered behind this, the many "little people" can determine a just course for society, and plan for the long journey of nation-building free of the fear the Big Men of history, captains of disaster all, will come a-crashing down on them as so often before.
Critical to its survival though is the strength of this dam to resist the ceaseless pressure exerted by the primordial within our nature, that compulsion to take by force what we cannot create, and to serve first and last only ourselves. That bad seed, leading some to believe might is the only right, and so it's alright to steal from, to ravage, and to kill with little concern the weak, is the actual turning away from justice and the Law; it is choosing instead to follow the well-worn path to civilizational ruin, the law of the jungle.
It's necessary to emphasize the obvious, because the self-evident is not always recognizable. It's difficult, for example, while witnessing the urbane and dapper Harvard law professor, Barack Obama standing before the global camera explaining in a measured tone the reasoning for the great violence he and his cohorts visit upon the defenseless daily to see the naked aggression he represents.
Were he dressed in animal skins and feathers, a bone through his nose and paint on his face, the conjunction between his words and the savage actions they demand may be easier to conjure; but, clad as he is, in a modest, worsted wool, single-breasted, two-button Hartmarx suit jacket and tie, single-pleated pants with inch-and-a-quarter cuffs, hair meticulously trimmed a quarter inch all-round, make-up done, and nails cut and buffed, it's hard to imagine the Kong heart beating within the king's breast. But, the beast is in there, pounding out a warning on its chest for all to see and hear:
"All options...all options...all options are on the table!"
All Options and No Option - The Promise in Practice
Barack Obama's first campaign for the presidency was a watershed moment in American and world politics. His mixed race background of course was significant, given both the profoundly racist history and continuing administration of systemic discrimination within the United States, but the real milestone achieved by Obama's candidacy was the distillation of democracy into the three word slogan: "Yes We Can!"
Beyond the catch-phrase, there's little to hang a hat on, substance-wise. While the U.S. was fighting in two acknowledged theatres of war, the democratic aspirant had little to say about the conduct of those, though he intimated he would do something to bring an end to one them. He talked boldly about the need for an end to the affront against justice and decency Guantanamo Bay represented, but said little about either the legality of the decisions made by the Bush administration, or his commitment to redress some of the dramatic circumventions of the American Constitution made by that administration.
Instead, Obama remained a Jerzy Kosinski-like blank slate character; Barack the Gardener, tabula rasa upon whom any expedient beliefs can be inserted or overlain as deemed necessary.
The moral vacuity of the man became apparent immediately after his election. In December of 2008, as Obama awaited inauguration, Israel began what it called, 'Operation Cast Lead.' It was a typical blood-letting entailing the bombing by land, air, and sea of Palestinians captive within the walled Gaza Strip enclave. In Israeli government parlance, another "mowing of the lawn" exercise to both eliminate through assassination, imprisonment, and bombing the hated Hamas hierarchy, while too destroying Gazan infrastructure and instilling a general sense of terror amongst the civilian population.
Though the exact numbers of casualties are difficult to know with certainty, an estimated 1,500 Palestinians were killed, the vast majority of these being non-combatants. Throughout the 22 days of Israel's "Christmas bombing" campaign, Barack Obama was holidaying, steadfast in his refusal to condemn, or even comment upon the carnage, maintaining it was not his place as president-elect to "meddle" in the affairs of the outgoing Bush administration.
Obama's non-engagement then would prove a preview of the banality his administration would come to represent; tyranny less so for its actions than its omissions in the face of evil. This is not to forget the unprecedented number of drone missions to assassinate both perceived and suspected enemies, or the untold "collateral" casualties of these missions. Nor would I wish to fail crediting the Obama rule with the continued diminishing of Constitutional protections and undermining of international law, but these are more extensions of the previous administration's policies than they are independently dedicated efforts toward tyranny.
Upon ascension to office, president Obama insisted he was not interested in either the past crimes of his predecessor, or the ongoing criminality of his ally Israel. His administration dismissed out of hand the Goldstone Report, The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, a blistering indictment of Israel's crimes against humanity during Cast Lead, saying it was "one-sided" and did everything it could to have the report deep-sixed.
Thus the Obama administration, through it's refusal to act in accordance with international law, ensured Israeli impunity for its obvious criminality in 2008-9, setting the stage for repeat performances in 2012's so-called 'Pillar of Cloud' "landscaping" exercise, and its latest and greatest atrocity, 'Protective Edge,' already credited with killing 2,000+ Gazans, most of those civilians, and more than 500 said to be children.
As gruesome as Israel's continued criminality is, it is merely a symptom of a much larger, much more pervasive failure. Through their unwavering support of the horrors committed, the western nations of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and those of the European Union signal the globe:
"There is no more place for law and decorum left on the world stage."
Diplomats and legal scholars can pack up and start their jobs search, for what counts today is brute force. Technological lethality and the ruthlessness to deploy it against the innocent are the hallmarks of the modern era, and no matter the nature of the monsters the new order warriors claim to be saving us all from, it is they who are the tyrants, terrorists, and savages. It is they who are not at but already behind the floodgates, busy pulling the stoppers out of civilization's fragile dam.
No comments:
Post a Comment