Is America actually in a state of war?
By James Carroll
(James Carroll's folowing column is written on the eve of the coming Congress.Let us all hear our
war President's heroic words after reading this insightful article)
George W. Bush wil present himself as a war
President in the Congress. This identity only defines him.He will justify all of his illegal policies as wartime commander in chief.
So is there an embarrassing question: Is America actually at war with a war president, war hawks, war planes, war correspondents, war cries, even war crimes? Young US soldiers being blown up almost daily, it can seem an absurd question, an offensive one.And, with thousands of Iraqis killed by American firepower. Pentagon is driving war on Iraq, whatever its elements of post-Saddam sectarian conflict. Involved of the United States, something essential is lacking -- and that is an enemy.
The so-called ''insurgents,” are not America's
enemy not our rivals for territory. not our ideological antagonists. Taken as a whole, or in its parts, Iraq is not an enemy.
Do the antagonist have a name and a face, the US is authentically at war?. If Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda are not an enemy, what is? True enough.
Iraq is not a war, because, though we have savage assault, we have no enemy. The war on terrorism is not a war because, though we have an enemy, the muscle-bound Pentagon offers no authentic means of assault.Bush is presiding over a self-serving delusion, in concert with a self-emasculating Congress, his partners as would-be war profiteers.
More reviews about the BostonGlobe