Re: "Alienation"? was Re: ETUR@Î

["Carl Remick" <carlremick@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> Carl Remick wrote:
> >
> >
> > That said, I have never felt so alienated from my fellow Americans as I
> do
> > at this moment -- not during Vietnam, not during Desert Storm.  There's
> a
> > bloodthirstiness and worship of raw military power abroad in the land
> that I
> > have never seen before.  It's damn ugly.
> >
>
> Carl, I accepted this word (alienation) in one of my earlier posts, but
> I think I was wrong to do so. It's a piece of jargon that simply doesn't
> say anything.
>
> What do you mean by it? That you are pissed off?
>
> But why? You warn against being affected by the media -- and yet it is
> on the evidence of the media that you ascribe a "bloodthirstiness" et
> cetera to the populace.

Alienated meaning that I am more than PO'd at; I'm also alarmed by and
disconnected from.  Admittedly, my firsthand evidence is thin, anecdotalism
at its worst.  And I can't tell how much of the media's drum-beating is
government-induced vs. honest pandering to grassroots bloodlust. But there
are good reasons to think that the American public is now more willing to
support widespread continuous use of military violence than at any time
since perhaps World War II.

Unlike Vietnam -- a war conjured out of thin air via the hokum of the USS
Turner Joy and Maddox attack -- the War On Terrorism was triggered by the
worst direct assault on the US ever, with thousands of civilian deaths.
Also unlike Vietnam, the WOT is being fought by professional US military
forces; young civilian patriots can flagwave fiercely and fearlessly today
with no concern they may draw the wrong draft number.

Also, even more than Desert Storm and Serbia, the WOT has demonstrated the
stunning success of today's high-tech arial weaponry in getting results
presto with minimal loss of life ... to your side.

All these factors augur in favor of strong US public support for punitive
military expeditions worldwide for a long time to come.  Call that
alienating or what you will, it's a depressing prospect.

Carl



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