The Thin Veneer of Civilisation
Perhaps the greatest revelation to emerge from
"Operation Freedom" in Iraq, is not who the goodies and baddies are, but the
inescapable conclusion that given the right conditions, all of us are capable of
the atrocities currently taking place in that most unholy of regions; ironically
deemed to be the birthplace of civilization. It is also where the three great
religions, branches of the God of Abraham, emerged, which now serve as the
facade of justification for an orgy of slaughter for which there is no
foreseeable end.
The facade of religion is a convenient tag,
useful for delineating the 'them' from the 'us' as much as anything else. The
tags of evildoers, terrorists, cowards and murderers can all be applied with
equal justification to either side of the bloody conflicts in the middle east,
and given the right conditions, they (and we) are capable of doling out the most
horrific retributive 'justice' the mind is capable of
devising.
Who, amongst both the pro or
the anti-war lobby, hasn't had a 'serve the bastards right' moment during the
Iraq conflict? The letters to the editor pages are becoming more and more
divisive as the war continues, with many writers now comparing the relatively
benign nature of 'our' atrocities, as opposed to the incomparable
examples of the much worse 'their'
atrocities. It was a cycle of retribution and counter retribution, death versus
death, revenge versus revenge at an ever escalating rate which was foreseen by
the opponents of the war. Whatever slant the proponents of 'Operation Freedom'
would like to place on it, no lives will be saved as a result of the invasion,
and none of the deaths which have occurred and will continue to occur, can ever
be undone.
Who is to blame for the
abuse of the prisoners then? The guards? Their superiors? The Pentagon? George
Bush? Well yes, but despite the unprecedented opposition to the war, unmatched
even by the demonstrations against the Vietnam War (which came when the war had
well and truly begun) Bush and his cronies were able to garner enough support
from the gullible, the fearful, and the Murdoch Press to launch their invasion.
The most uncomfortable truth of all, is that the horrors we are viewing are
perpetrated by our own species, and the shame and the pain of it belongs to us
all.
The horrific events in Rwanda, in
Bosnia, in South Africa and in the Israeli/ Palestinian conflict ought to be
lesson enough as to how thin the veneer of civilized behavior is. It is ironic,
considering the efforts to manipulate the media through 'embedding' and by the
charades of press conferences, that it is the poor bastards doing the the dirty
work of killing and being killed, who are the documenters of their own crimes
via the personal digital media being carried by the US troops (soon to be
banned, surely). We have never been so close to our own failings, from so far
away.
How does one accommodate such
horrors? There is the overwhelming sense that there is nothing one can do but
accept that we are what we see, that we will not change, that conflicts like
this are our lot to the end of our days. An unlikely alternative would be that,
confronted by horror for long enough, we realise the futility of our doctrines
of division, and make the appropriate changes. For now, we can be thankful our
failings are confined to our televisions. For now.....
Posted: Thu - September 21, 2006 at 04:44 PM
