Grass: The U.S. Betrays Its Core Values

[pynchonoid]

The U.S. Betrays Its Core Values 

by Gunter Grass
 
BEHLENDORF, Germany -- A war long sought and planned
for is now underway. All deliberations and warnings of
the United Nations notwithstanding, an overpowering
military apparatus has attacked preemptively in
violation of international law. No objections were
heeded. The Security Council was disdained and scorned
as irrelevant. As the bombs fall and the battle for
Baghdad continues, the law of might prevails. 

And based on this injustice, the mighty have the power
to buy and reward those who might be willing and to
disdain and even punish the unwilling. The words of
the current American president -- "Those not with us
are against us" -- weighs on current events with the
resonance of barbaric times. It is hardly surprising
that the rhetoric of the aggressor increasingly
resembles that of his enemy. Religious fundamentalism
leads both sides to abuse what belongs to all
religions, taking the notion of "God" hostage in
accordance with their own fanatical understanding.
Even the passionate warnings of the pope, who knows
from experience how lasting and devastating the
disasters wrought by the mentality and actions of
Christian crusaders have been, were unsuccessful. 

Disturbed and powerless, but also filled with anger,
we are witnessing the moral decline of the world's
only superpower, burdened by the knowledge that only
one consequence of this organized madness is certain:
Motivation for more terrorism is being provided, for
more violence and counter-violence. Is this really the
United States of America, the country we fondly
remember for any number of reasons? The generous
benefactor of the Marshall Plan? The forbearing
instructor in the lessons of democracy? The candid
self-critic? The country that once made use of the
teachings of the European Enlightenment to throw off
its colonial masters and to provide itself with an
exemplary constitution? Is this the country that made
freedom of speech an incontrovertible human right? 

[...]  Many people find themselves in a state of
despair these days, and with good reason. Yet we must
not let our voices, our no to war and yes to peace, be
silenced. What has happened? The stone that we pushed
to the peak is once again at the foot of the mountain.
But we must push it back up, even with the knowledge
that we can expect it to roll back down again. 

<http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0407-05.htm>
Published on Monday, April 7, 2003 by the Los Angeles
Times 


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