MDMD-related "the picture of America"

[Doug Millison]

Edward Said's article today at Counterpunch is certainly not out of place
in a discussion that takes into consideration M&D's often pointed
references to politics at the time of the novel's creation by Thomas
Pynchon.  (Anybody know where people might be interested in such a
discussion? )


"[...] I have come to deeply resent the notion that I must accept the
picture of America as being involved in a "just war" against something
unilaterally labeled as terrorism by Bush and his advisers, a war that has
assigned us the role of either silent witnesses or defensive immigrants who
should be grateful to be allowed residence in the US. The historical
realities are different: America is an immigrant republic and has always
been one. It is a nation of laws passed not by God but by its citizens.
Except for the mostly exterminated native Americans, the original Indians,
everyone who now lives here as an American citizen originally came to these
shores as an immigrant from somewhere else, even Bush and Rumsfeld. The
Constitution does not provide for different levels of Americanness, nor
forapproved or disapproved forms of "American behaviour," including things
that have come to be called "un-" or "anti- American" statements or
attitudes. That is the invention of American Taliban who want to regulate
speech and behaviour in ways that remind one eerily of the unregretted
former rulers of Afghanistan. And even if Mr Bush insists on the importance
of religion in America, he is not authorised to enforce such views on the
citizenry or to speak for everyone when he makes proclamations in China and
elsewhere about God and America and himself. The Constitution expressly
separates church and state.

There is worse. [...] as Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Democrat, Ohio) said
in a magnificent speech given on 17 February, the president and his men
were not authorised to declare war (Operation Enduring Freedom) against the
world without limit or reason, were not authorised to increase military
spending to over $400 billion per year, were not authorised to repeal the
Bill of Rights. Furthermore, he added -- the first such statement by a
prominent, publicly elected official -- "we did not ask that the blood of
innocent people, who perished on September 11, be avenged with the blood of
innocent villagers in Afghanistan." I strongly recommend that Rep.
Kucinich's speech, which was made with the best of American principles and
values in mind, be published in full in Arabic so that people in our part
of the world can understand that America is not a monolith for the use of
George Bush and Dick Cheney, but in fact contains many voices and currents
of opinion which this government is trying to silence or make irrelevant.

The problem for the world today is how to deal with the unparalleled and
unprecedented power of the United States, which in effect has made no
secret of the fact that it does not need coordination with or approval of
others in the pursuit of what a small circle of men and women around Bush
believe are its interests. [...] "

...continues at
http://www.counterpunch.org/

March 5, 2002
Thoughts About America
By Edward Said