Dr. King, we could have used you last week

Another one of Casey's many worlds is the anti-war activism of his family. Lifetime members of Veterans For Peace, Gene and Victoria have been at it for a while now, trying their best, in the words of Howard Zinn, to throw a few "wrenches in the machine...acting on what we feel and think...against the abstractions of duty and obedience." Here's a much different take on one of the biggest US media frenzies of the decade. A view shared by most of the US Peace Movement, and written by Casey's dad.  


May 7, 2011

Hate for Hate: Joystick Justice

By Gene Marx

"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars."~~Dr. Martin Luther King


Late last Sunday night, with the weekend news cycle still squeezing the life out of the first royal kiss and "NATO's" targeted assassination attempt of Muammar Gaddafi, killing his youngest son Saif Al-Arab and three young grandchildren, provoking a mainstream media feeding frenzy not seen since Balloon Boy, we were informed that the President would soon announce -- within minutes, it was leaked -- to a grateful, fearful, xenophobic nation that Osama Bin Laden had been taken out, double-whacked, by an elite team of American assassins in Pakistan.

As a jubilant mob of flag wavers on Pennsylvania Avenue were gathering within earshot, a somber Obama took the mike and delivered the goods -- short on details, long on rhetoric.

"No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties."

AP reports disputed casualty counts at Bin Laden's compound from the start, but let's give Obama the benefit of the doubt. Let's say a Special Forces sniper or two surgically removed the devil incarnate from North Waziristan with a head shot, a pink mist burst clearly visible, without additional "bug splat," another one of the Pentagon's more compassionate references for civilian casualties, as if pink mist wasn't dehumanizing enough. Real Xbox Call of Duty: Black Ops stuff. A military recruiter's wet dream.

And when did Obama start worrying about civilian casualties or collateral damage estimates anyway? His Hellfire missiles have been raining down on al Qaeda operative suspects since the first Afghan or Pakistani wedding parties were taken out within weeks of his Inauguration.

"And yet we know that the worst images are those that were unseen to the world. The empty seat at the dinner table."

The "empty seat at the dinner table"? With Drone kill-rate estimates of 10-14 to 1 -- innocent civilians to possible combatants -- there have been hundreds of empty seats at the table created by the CIA each week. And make no mistake, the whole world is watching. Of course, the US Air Force console ace in Nevada with the joystick could care less.
 
"Children who were forced to grow up without their mother or their father. Parents who would never know the feeling of their child's embrace. Nearly 3,000 citizens taken from us, leaving a gaping hole in our hearts."

Iraq war casualty figures released by WikiLeaks in October 2010 revealed more than 285,000 killed and wounded, with dead locals guilty only of proximity, comprising 63 percent of the toll -- 90 percent of these women and children.

Afghanistan by contrast ... well there is no contrast actually. The civilian casualty counts continue to soar, with countless lost embraces, from the elders and the young, receding to wisps of recollection. According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, casualties have increased by at least 15 percent each year through 2010, nearly 2,800 in 2010 and 8,832 killed since 2006.

"On September 11, 2001, in our time of grief, the American people came together" We reaffirmed our ties to each other, and our love of community and country."

Like the reveling going on in Benghazi earlier in the weekend, with news of the NATO near-miss on Muammar Gadhafi and the collateral damage done to the Colonel's immediate family, an orgy of spontaneous celebrations spread from the White House fence, an epicenter for peace movement arrests, through the Heartland to the Left Coast. This time a different sort of exuberant intransigence garnered hugs, with a cordon of police protection, replacing indifference and zip cuffs reserved for anti-war resisters.

"The American people did not choose this fight. It came to our shores, and started with the senseless slaughter of our citizens. After nearly 10 years of service, struggle, and sacrifice, we know well the costs of war."

One could argue this point, in spite of poll ratings of 70 percent or higher in 2003, but the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts are currently being waged by choice. The senseless slaughter of civilians will no doubt continue, but the vast majority of Americans will never know wartime service, struggle, and sacrifice -- and the true costs of war is another issue. However, many will, if they don't already, suffer the consequences of a war economy long before they can spell Afghanistan or even point it out on a map.

"Justice has been done."

Operation Geronimo and Bin Laden's demise was preordained long before 9/11, and if anyone needed to be served up some frontier justice it was the neocons' anti-Christ that lived long enough to realize his long-war strategy come true -- to bleed America to the point of bankruptcy. So excuse me if I don't wave a flag and join a crowd of discordant revelers in an off-key chorus of the Star Spangled Banner.

So where do we go from here?

First of all, the war is not over, even if we want it to be. Somewhere elite teams within the US Special Operations Forces are planning another pre-dawn raid to mete out Pax Americana justice, streamlining otherwise cumbersome adjudications in the face of international scrutiny. Virtual reality or not, another high-value target's days are numbered and after all, the International Criminal Court is so passé.
 
Somewhere a suspected low-level operative is being stalked by a Predator or Reaper Drone, targeted for killing by a US foreign policy gone postal and willing to relinquish hearts and minds and international law for -- or in spite of -- collateral damage estimates. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle research and development has expanded the range of killer Drones to 40,000 miles, rewriting asymmetric warfare in response to real or imaginary bogeymen. Targeted assassinations and joystick justice, beginning in Yemen in 2002, now have a global reach.

So where were you the night Osama answered for 9/11 the easy way, and what were you thinking while Americans "reaffirmed their ties," reclaiming another much-needed phantom victory with howls of "USA! USA!" and suppressing any meaningful reflection on how we got to this point in history?

As the revelers paraded through my own neighborhood, thousands of miles from Ground Zero, and the reports of sporadic fireworks could still be heard, I thought of Martin Luther King Jr. We would have been reminded by King that while Osama bin Laden is no longer taking up useful space, the menace of his sway on global terrorism is alive and well; that "darkness cannot drive out darkness."

Somehow I miss Dr. King now more than ever.



Author's Website: www.vfp111.org

Author's Bio: The author of this piece is Vietnam Veteran and former Naval Aviator Gene Marx, the Secretary of the National Veterans For Peace Board of Directors and Communications Coordinator of the local Veterans for Peace chapter in Bellingham, Washington (Chapter 111 - www.vfp111.org). Marx is a retired federal employee (Federal Aviation Administration) and the father of two sons, his oldest a nurse, his youngest a train master and two-tour Iraq War Veteran. He became politically active following his youngest son's first deployment. Activities since retirement have included some work with local Progressive non-profits and campaigns, also some writing and managing of websites and blogs. His passion though continues to be anti-war activism with wife Victoria and the Veterans for Peace - locally and nationally. A constant companion is a rescued Border Collie, Casey - the protagonist of his daily blog, Casey's Worlds on Blogspot.