Pack Up the Moon and Dismantle the Sun

I rather liked the MoveOn ad from the Times. It was crass, but these are crass times. It was simplistic, but these are simplistic problems, basic ones -- after all -- the American people have been treated as foolish consumers of a product -- in this case a war -- by an administration that hovers in a bipolar helix between hapless fervor and rank cynicism. Depending on the day. I wrote MoveOn a check, like a lot of people did -- back when we were going to war in Iraq -- for the first ads. There should have been ads and protests and actions every single day from then on.

And I liked the ad a lot more than the posturing of the senators who decried it -- amongst them at least one psychosexual hysteric with a jones for hookers. But hey, this is the circus, this is a Golgotha, and if the Barbarians are at the gates -- at least they're putting on a show. Some time ago a mogul told me he thought the six month test Bush proposed was 'fair and dead on'. This is a man who controls and has made billions of dollars and is hipper than anyone in the room, and smarter too. So what can you say? Now let's face it. We're in Iraq for the next decade. We are in Iraq for the next decade. At least. No way out. This is how America crumbles; at the hands of the most misguided ideologues since the Crusades. Men who led America to catastrophe, who betrayed all the promise we had left -- and for what? The naive and arrogant expectation that a grateful culture would be democratized magically, instantly, and with no ambivalence. I often think that Mr. Rove would not have lasted two rounds with the boys at CAA or any decent studio head -- they'd have swallowed him and his woozy hucksterism with a glass of water -- if only he'd been a schlepper out of Burbank, instead of our very own minor-league Talleyrand. Mr. Draper in an interview regarding his book on Bush says that the fatal flaw in this most likable of men, is a kind of frightened, defensive lack of curiosity. That seems right. In the Atlantic Monthly, one of the ex-speech writers for the administration turns on one of his own with the ferocity of a cartoon pirate turning on another pirate after the treasure is all gone. This is how it goes down, folks. They're not conservatives. They're not even Republicans. They are de-regulating cynics who pray that capitalism works like the glorious God-Powered Rube Goldberg machine it is. Just add self-reliance and a few days in Aspen. This crowd? They make one long for the intellectual rigor of a Nixon, and they don't deserve to even speak the name Goldwater. I liked the MoveOn ad, because it was probably true, in the Freudian sense, even if it is a little shrill. We have been betrayed. "Weapons of mass destruction" was always a guess -- and a wrong guess that calcified into a frightened and incurious dogma (the reasons for the war have changed), is going to do us in.

And not one of the viable candidates for the presidency is going to be able to save us.

The general didn't betray us. His bosses did. How will America survive the cold brutality of the neo-con pillage? And what if America has not had enough cheap patriotism and actually decides that a Romney or Thompson or a (wow!) Rudy administration is a righteous notion? I liked the ad, because the people who loudly decried it as an outrage are as blind as moles to the true outrage of what it means to be an American now; of civilians and young soldiers dying in the dusty and terrifying streets and fields of a bitterly divided and shattered state thousands and thousands of miles away.

I liked the ad because it was cheap and street, and true in spirit. I think tonight that America is shuddering, is in spasm, and she is losing blood. Christians -- real ones -- steeped in compassion and gentleness -- are impotent abdicators to sharpies and megalomaniacs who see God as a vicious cop on their beat.

Why do i feel this way tonight? Because six years ago I saw and heard in ways I'll not share here -- the end of one world -- and the start of another. Six years ago today, amidst the gore and dying and murder -- there were the stirrings of a world united with this country. "We are all Americans today!" -- you heard it from France and England and almost everywhere else --
but for three days after -- a shell-shocked and incompetent president flew hither and yon -- in a hapless prelude to the years of dark buffoonery to come. And the mythology that the president "found his voice" at Ground Zero days later -- is pablum from a Capra out-take.

I walked through Tribeca, where I then lived, days later. Past the National Guard. Past the fliers and into the smoke of lower Manhattan.

That smoke has spread across the nation, and instead of uniting us, has become a dark cloak, one used by liars and zealots, one used to gull a frightened polity, and to seize power. Our individual rights are almost as precarious as our bridges.

Now, six years after the worst day in modern memory for this writer -- the day of the dead --
the only thing I have left is personal -- holding the people I love -- and acting with a desperate and flailing and imperfect personal decency in the hopes that others around me are doing the same. Not enough, not enough, not nearly enough.
.
It is about to be September 12th. I want to paraphrase Auden and silence the clocks and the noise and pray in the silence to a a god I don't trust or even know how to believe in -- for a way to help my country -- and everyone in it -- find a way through the dark toxic cloud that was conjured up six years ago at the tip of Manhattan.

It is almost September 12th, and still people are dying.

Comments

[splashy]

Very poignant. It is terribly sad how our banding together was manipulated in such a callous, cynical and cruel way. They are evil.

[drblack]

The invasion of Iraq and any American fighting in Iraq is NOT fighting for American Freedom.
If anything they are backing up a so called American government(bush)who is enriching their cronies,.
Please don't tell me that the American military is fighting for MY freedom. They are making the rich richer and making it MORE likely that America will be attacked in the future.

[CharliePfromHB]

The dark toxic cloud is the smoke of oil and a corrupt energy policy. America seems to have forgotton that the Oligopoly / Governemnt / Cartel combination in restraint of change is not free market capitalism. We have laws and precedents against monopolistic trusts. However, we seem to have missed on how to deal with international cartels. However, in capitalism, the consumer is supposed to be the ultimate power broker. Since our government is broken on this subject, the consumer must fix the government. Now this is challenging, given the power of lobbyists including the military industrial complex and the other coveters of the status quo. So we the people have to understand that, well intentioned or not, insisting that the solution to world addiction to oil is to just keep "drinking", is an "assault on reason". The problem isn't global warming, it's the denial of "Oil addiction", which has resulted in irratic policies and actions in the Middle East, Africa, and elsewere. Does that excuse the actions of Terrorists? No. But where in the food chain have these Islamic terrorists ultimately been financed? I suggest that the balance of energy and the balance of supply and demand have been compromised by the stakeholders of the staus quo. Religion, historical conflicts of tribes, freedom, and more have been leveraged to an extreme in the name of the great God Oil. Ultimately, there are two choices: evolution into catestrophic war, or the people, the consumers, have to insist on proactive change. Can we fight terrorism and our own addiction at the same time? This is the legacy of the twenty first century. Do the people have the ultimate power? Yes they do! And while we are at it, we must fix the current and looming disaster that is a righteous addiction, fresh water. We should note that most conflict zones have issues of water (which lack thereof = famine) and oil at their core. And we all know that oil and water don't mix. So we have to "change the mix". That is the ultimate terrorism strategy.

[dexxjones]

wow that is very well done. a friend who was originally against the ad actually sent me this to read. it changed his mind!

[EvereaderinSC]

Jon,
You've completely captured the mood I've been in for weeks now. I don't know what the answer is, I guess to keep talking about all this with everyone, somehow break through the inertia and get out and organize.
The impeachment march on DC is in two days. Just take note of how much coverage it gets in the MSM, a passing reference by Brian Williams or zip.
I was worried when this stupid war and the bogus reasons for entering it started back in 2002-2003. But at least I figured the complete and utter failure that would happen would lead to Bush/Cheney's demise. Here we are six years later and counting. I do fear for our country.
How does Bush or Cheney look at themselves in the mirror each day or sleep at night? At least Lyndon Johnson had the courage to bow out when he realized Vietnam was a catasphrophic mistake & was haunted by it the rest of his life, I imagine.
Sept. 12th and people are still dying, indeed. I look at Bush and Cheney and their families with the best secret service protection, bodyguards if you will, U.S. taxpayer dollars can buy. I wonder at the same time, why are these two lives being protected as if they're the most important on the planet?! Their continued life bring ever more death and destruction...

[Coreykiele]

As a Vietnam era veteran, I found it particularly disturbing that on the same day Gen. Petraeus started his Congressional testimony, the AP circulated an article stating that polls show the American people trust the military more than either the President or Congress. Unfortunately, history is rife with examples of military leaders who allowed ambition and personal self-interest to overwhelm their better sense. Cemeteries both ancient and current are filled with the consequences of their overreach.

The Bushies have steadfastly tried to spin Petraeus as a neutral observer, but nothing could be farther from the truth. His military career started in 1970, but he saw no combat in either Vietnam or the first Gulf War. He was a staff officer and policy wonk, who rose in the ranks not by being a courageous man of action, but by knowing who to kiss and where. As a tireless promoter of the dolchstoss legend version of the Vietnam debacle, he fit neatly into the Bushie mindset, and his fawning September 2004 editorial in the Washington Post made him a Whitehouse favorite.

MoveOn did all of us a huge favor by pulling Petraeus down off his pedestal, and throwing him into the arena of imperial lies and spin. They pulled back the curtain and showed him to be the uncaring political animal that he is, and for that we should be eternally grateful.

[Daughter2]

So right-on. You have described the heart of this dilemma so well. I am deeply moved. THank you.

[DoctorDoctor]

I share the sadness with which I accept as valid the MoveOn ad. We have been betrayed, perhaps irrevocably, by a gang of thugs calling themselves Christians. I offer no explanation. None is needed. Facts are simply facts. And I'm not seeing any persistent movement to ameliorate the consequences of their heinous actions, either on the populace of this country or the tragically dwindling populace of our victim-state. There's just nothing to say to make it better, to regain our integrity, to make sure the American voters know that it's the party and not just the chief monkey in charge that's to blame. i'm afraid the republican political machine has rendered the Democrat(ic) congress as much a villain as their own executive branch.

Oh, to hell with it. It's out of my control. Goehring said it best when he pointed out to Hitler that controlling the large-market press would so demoralize their "enemies" in the Reichstag they'd gain complete control in short order. They've done it and it's so very sad.

[provgrays]

I tip my hat your literate, poetic and brutally true post. Thoreau once said that he had never met a man who was quite awake.

You, sir, are beautifully awake.

[Argusmom]

Thank you Jon Robin. Your thoughts so much echo those we're having in our household. Our fear is that anything now is too little too late.

[susanlno]

You state: "'Weapons of mass destruction' was always a guess." Wrong--it was always a lie.

[Colman]

You go, Robbie!

[bobh]

We do not need to defer to military officers in the US. Maybe in some banana republic with a ruling junta, but not here.

[Dansden]

To 'demonize' another: person, group or nation OFTEN SERVES TO PROJECT UPON THAT PERSON OUR OWN WORST CHARACTERISTICS....
as is what the BUSH BUFFOONS have done and encouraged to be done to those who have different ideas, values or principles than they do!
EVERYTHING BUSH DOES IS COMPROMISED BY 'PAYOFFS'- $$$ PAYOFFS OR POSITION PAYOFFS OR POWER PAYOFFs- he sold OFF our nation for his PETTY PAYOFFS to Halliburton, Pharmaceuticals, Bankers, Coal/Oil/Lumber/Energy whores and his numb-nutted lackeys he set up as our Atty General, FEMA, Energy, Transportation, Health, you name it Veterans Affairs, etc...the list of shallow shills will footnote his pathetic legacy....and highlight his criminal activity....
His 'demonizing' of other groups, nations and persons are the projections of his own despotic, despicable and disastrous characteristics.....
No more dry-drunk addictive, obsessive personalities 'selected' as President to put their hands anywhere near our Constitution, our troops or our treasury!

[mingusman]

A truly well written piece.

I must say it's all so frustrating listening to this back-and-forth about the appropriateness, or lack, of MoveOn's tack taken: They're alienating those they seek to persuade; they're preaching to the choir. And on and on...

I am reminded of the group Code Pink who most recently tried disrupting the Petraeus hearings. They are chastised for "not helping" by their otherwise allies. Ineffectual at best, helpful of their opponents' stance at worst. But it's always the same when the powerful few have a choke-hold on a situation. If the vocal few in opposition come out loud and brash to get attention to their position, they are vilified as devisive; not moving the dialog forward; childish; in this case "not respecting the decorum of Congress" (as if!). They allow the opposition to say "you're too loud. I don't have to listen to you."

But if they play nice and set up microphones and invite the press to hear their polite rebuttals no one shows up and those in charge pat them on the head and thank them for their contribution and then ignore them.

The problem, I believe, is in the numbers. There are just too damn few people involved; too few letting those in charge know how detestable this situation is. Too few letting it be known (outside of CBS's or Zogby's or whoever's latest poll) that this is turning into something other than America the Beautiful. Too few are putting their XBoxes down to pay attention. Too few are invested, or too busy with their shiny, brightly-colored objects to manage the investment that is their birthright.

It's all so sad and maddening. And so we write our blogs.

alan b