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Showing Original Post only (View all)Chris Hedges: The Ghoulish Face of Empire [View all]
from truthdig:
The Ghoulish Face of Empire
Posted on Jun 22, 2014
By Chris Hedges
The black-clad fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, sweeping a collapsing army and terrified Iraqis before them as they advance toward Baghdad, reflect back to us the ghoulish face of American empire. They are the specters of the hundreds of thousands of people we murdered in our deluded quest to remake the Middle East. They are ghosts from the innumerable roadsides and villages where U.S. soldiers and Marines, jolted by explosions of improvised explosive devices, responded with indiscriminate fire. They are the risen remains of the dismembered Iraqis left behind by blasts of Hellfire and cruise missiles, howitzers, grenade launchers and drone strikes. They are the avengers of the gruesome torture and the sexual debasement that often came with being detained by American troops. They are the final answer to the collective humiliation of an occupied country, the logical outcome of Shock and Awe, the Frankenstein monster stitched together from the body parts we left scattered on the ground. They are what we get for the $4 trillion we wasted on the Iraq War.
The language of violence engenders violence. The language of hate engenders hate. I and the public know what all schoolchildren learn, W.H. Auden wrote. Those to whom evil is done do evil in return. It is as old as the Bible.
There is no fight left in us. The war is over. We destroyed Iraq as a unified country. It will never be put back together. We are reducedin what must be an act of divine justice decreed by the gods, whom we have discovered to our dismay are Islamicto pleading with Iran for military assistance to shield the corrupt and despised U.S. protectorate led by Nouri al-Maliki. We are not, as we thought when we entered Iraq, the omnipotent superpower able in a swift and brutal stroke to bend a people to our will. We are something else. Fools and murderers. Blinded by hubris. Faded relics of the Cold War. And now, in the final act of the play, we are crawling away. Our empire is dying.
We should have heeded, while we had a chance, the wails of mothers and fathers. We should have listened to the cries of the wounded. We should have wept over the bodies of Iraqi children lined up in neat rows in the morgues. We should have honored grief so we could honor life. But the dance of death is intoxicating. Once it begins you whirl in an ecstatic frenzy. Deaths embrace, which feels at first like sexual lust, tightens and tightens until you suffocate. Now the music has stopped. All we have left are loss and pain. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_ghoulish_face_of_empire_20140623
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The NYT ran him off over his objections to the war. He was very vocal in opposition before and after
Skeeter Barnes
Jun 2014
#85
"the Frankenstein monster stitched together from the body parts we left scattered on the ground"
dixiegrrrrl
Jun 2014
#61
Interesting point. "Blinded by hubris" implies good intentions but failed due to arrogance. I don't
stevenleser
Jun 2014
#15
I do no think the definition of hubris includes genuine good intentions, ever.
Fred Sanders
Jun 2014
#20
The phrase is "blinded by hubris" not just plain hubris. Blinded by hubris implies there was good
stevenleser
Jun 2014
#22
That's correct. But what is being suggested is altered by the two words proceeding it. nt
stevenleser
Jun 2014
#28
It's not hubris. It's "blinded by hubris" were talking about a phrase, not a word. nt
stevenleser
Jun 2014
#44
Exactly. It always and always will be about the money. All the way down the chain.
raouldukelives
Jun 2014
#25
Hubris, imperialistic hubris, is what it was, and for many, still is; is it a good thing?
Fred Sanders
Jun 2014
#14
I think "hubris" gives the Bush admin too much credit. See my post above. nt
stevenleser
Jun 2014
#17
"But the dance of death is intoxicating. Once it begins you whirl in an ecstatic frenzy...
factsarenotfair
Jun 2014
#29
Was that privately addressed to frazzled or was it posted publicly on the internet..
truebrit71
Jun 2014
#65
That tends to happen when you get caught plagiarizing other people's work.
name not needed
Jun 2014
#33
I know...in today's world where everything tends to blend together it is very easy...
truebrit71
Jun 2014
#52