Last week, my aunt sent out one of her little e-mail jokes. Itwent like this:
Akhmed the Arab, who had grown up in the Middle East, becamesick after only a few weeks of living in the United States. He wentto all the doctors and they were baffled. He went to an Arab doctorwho said, "Take dees bocket, poop in de bocket, pee on de poop, andden put your head down over de bocket and breathe in de fumes forten minutes."
So he follows the instructions, comes out, and says, "I feelbetter. What was wrong?"
The doctor answers: "Homesickness."
I sat stunned. I shot my aunt back a polite reply asking why shewould forward me a racist joke. She said that it was not racist andhad a moral.
"Moral?! All I see is a demeaning image of an Arab with his headin a bucket of crap and the suggestion that Arabs live in their ownsewage!"
She scolded me for being "close-minded." The moral was that"when you go to a new place you should 'take a bit of home withyou.'" She encouraged me to think about it.
I did. The "joke" is a metaphor for the Iraq war. Theoverwhelming offensiveness of the "joke" is the stuff that weanti-war folks are so consumed by:
-Minimum 10,000 Iraqi civilians dead. Probably more.
-Over 1,100 coalition casualties.
-Over 6,600 US troops injured.
-$130 billion of our tax dollars spent and counting.
-No WMDs, no Al-Qaeda connections. (And thus no threat to oursafety.)
-Further alienation of the Arab world against us.
-Diverting resources from the real fight against Osama binLaden.
-Abu Ghraib.
The list could go on. But the "moral" of the story we are toodistracted to see: Saddam Hussein is no longer in power and theIraqis are on the road to democracy.
But to hear the war justified under that is just as pathetic asto hear the racist joke defended with its "moral."
Want to hear something really hilarious? How about the idea thatour foreign policy is about promoting democracy, championing humanrights, and ridding the world of evil men? A quick survey of ourhistory and our current upbeat relations with plenty ofdictatorial, human rights nightmare regimes around the globe provesotherwise.
Of course to even suggest that -- to state simple facts -- is tobe labeled part of the "hates America Left." Funny how hatingsomething your government does means that you hate yourcountry.
You can ignore the facts but you cannot make them go away. Wesupported Hussein against Iran in the '80s, giving him tens ofbillions of dollars in weapons and ignoring it when he gassed theKurds -- as long as he was our boy. But as soon as he invadedKuwait, then all of a sudden he's an enemy. Why? Not because he wasa cruel dictator, but because he was a cruel dictator who did notdo what we wanted.
The hard truth is that our foreign policy is primarily aboutperpetuating our own self-interests.
When our leaders talk this garbage about justifying the war thisway, they are insulting our intelligence and telling the mostoffensive joke of all.
Write to David at
swimminginbrokenglass@yahoo.com
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
