Opinion

Governing officials push war

Bredo C. Johnsen
Guest Columnist

Lucky Orwell! Having seen our language eviscerated and perverted in the service of power, he didnit live to watch us voluntarily sacrifice our minds for good measure.

Secretary of State Colin Powell addresses the world and cites the "latest evidence" of Iraqi perfidy provided by our stout ally, Great Britain. It turns out that the great bulk of this "latest evidence" is between two and 13 years old, much of it plagiarized, though with convenient changes to incorporate the current buzz-label. Does the British government fall? Do heads roll? Donit hold your breath.

Our secretary is not embarrassed; he tells us of an Osama bin Laden tape that will emerge later in the day showing the nexus between bin Laden and Iraq. The tape emerges, and first we hear that bin Laden hates us more than he does Saddam Hussein, and urges all Muslims to help fight us, a stunning revelation. Then bin Laden blasts the godless Saddam, and urges his overthrow by his own people. Now thereis a nexus.

Then he produces a smoking gun: pictures showing that things have been moved in Iraq. The U.N.is chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, points out that thereis not a shred of evidence that the objects moved were weapons of mass destruction.

Later Powell tells us that the inspection process canit be allowed to drag on indefinitely. Heavens, no! Why would we spend millions and millions of dollars on a long inspection process in which no one gets killed, when we could spend billions and billions on a short war in which we incinerate thousands of civilians?

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld comes to Powellis aid by asserting that the nexus is not between bin Laden and Saddam, but between bin Laden and various Iraqis ? you know, the folks who live there, and for whom we had planned a humming democracy. Regrettably, we may now have to incinerate them instead, they being buddies of bin Laden and all.

Rumsfeld sneers at "Old Europe" and its resistance to our war plans. Actually, Old Europe is the continent that tore itself apart for centuries. The New Europe that the secretary apparently canit see is the one that ? with the United Statesi help ? recovered, bound itself together and is trying desperately to help keep the rest of the world from being torn apart.

Our secretaries and other poobahs tell us we canit wait months to see whether the problem can be resolved without warfare, because then we might have to fight in the summer! Better to incinerate Iraqi civilians while itis winter, after all ? war should be reasonably comfortable for the invaders.

And National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, without batting an eye, trots out this staggering argument: The current uncertainty is unfair to the U.N. Security Council and nations in the region. Well, we certainly canit have that; dead civilians are just collateral damage, but unfairness is serious -- that's just sick.

The same poobahs tell us that if we donit go to war, our credibility will be destroyed; therefore, we should go to war. Oh, great ? death and destruction to save our credibility.

Actually, the credibility that would be destroyed is Dubyais ? specifically the credibility of U.S. threats to engage in preemptive warfare without any semblance of a justification for it. It sure sounds good to me. The credibility that actually matters ? Americais credibility as a world leader ? is being destroyed now, before our very eyes.

The founding fathers worried intensely about future administrations abusing the power of the government they were creating, and they warned repeatedly that we ? the governed ? were going to have to keep a wary eye on the people to whom we entrusted that power. 

To fall into line behind a bunch of arrogant, cynical poobahs who make sleazy appeals to a bogus patriotism and sneer at people who think human lives are too precious to lose would be to violate our most profound obligations to the country.

It is our astonishingly good fortune to have inherited this nation and our solemn duty to preserve it for the generations to come.

C. Johnsen, an associate professor of philosophy, can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu.