21st Centuary Socialism

ZERO SYMPATHY

“My heart is a stork
Perched on a distant dome in Baghdad.
Its nest made of bones
Its sky of death.”
Sinan Antoon, Iraki poet

Some time ago I confronted a young American soldier who was giving me the middle finger for protesting against the U.S.-U.K.-led plunder war on and criminal occupation of Irak in front of the U.S. embassy here in Tokyo. I had asked him why he was going to kill people who had done him no harm. He answered that for him being a soldier was just a job and that it put food on the table. So, I just started throwing things at him, anything I could lay my hands on.
Now, am I supposed to feel sorry for that degenerate if he gets killed in Irak? Never. Good riddance. I often hear how poor young Americans from working class families join the army to escape poverty at home in the U.S. They join the U.S. army so that after they’ve served their greedy country they could afford a college education. So, let me get this straight; the poor young American soldier goes to Irak, among other places, to kill innocent Irakis so that he or she could afford a better life back home in the U.S. He or she kills a young Iraki so that they could go to college. Is this some kind of this joke?! And it is even worse if that poor young American soldier actually makes it back home and has a better life thanks to the Irakis he killed. I feel no sorrow at all for the dead American soldiers. On the contrary, and I don’t like it, I rejoice every time I hear a U.S. sokdier was killed by the Iraki resistance. They, the U.S. soldiers, are the ones killing innocent Irakis so that the West and Japan could get cheap or close to free oil. I wouldn’t feel sorry for them even after I am done feeling sorry for the millions and millions os victims of U.S., Western imperialism. Am I supposed to feel sorry for the raped and the rapist? How am I supposed to feel sorry for someone who’s trying to make one’s life better by killing innocent people? How about I ask the West to feel sorry for the poor young German soldiers who rampaged through Europe during WW2? Or the poor young German soldiers working at Auschwitz as camp guards or escorting Jews to gas chambers and crematoriums? Those German soldiers were young, poor, ignorant, innocent, deceived, misled, lied to…..they didn’t know about Hitler’s plans. Most of them just wanted to escape poverty and misery in Germany. Hell, they even have a better excuse for not knowing what was really going on than today’s U.S. soldiers who at least have the advantages offered by highly developed information technology which didn’t exist during WW2. So, when I am told that the poor young American soldier didn’t know what he was getting into, that he was deceived, misled…. All I can say is: give me a break. So was the young SS. What infuriates me is the people on the Left, their shyness, cowardice when it comes to condemning the rape of Irak. They condemn the war but at the same time they also deplore the deaths, for the sake of political correctness, of the poor young American soldiers who kill, beat, humiliate, rape Irakis, plunder and destroy Irak and camps like Abu Ghraib. The problem of the people on the Left is that they are trying to please everyone. They are being careful not to alienate the public, the notoriously indifferent Western public, at large so they sympathize with innocent poor American soldiers who are supposedly dying needlessly in Irak, the poor young American soldiers who have so far killed more than 500 000 thousands innocent Irakis. According to some sources it could be close to 1 million. This reminds me of another Iraki poem by Sinan Antoon:
“To an Iraqi Infant”
“Don’t be afraid
We’ll arrange your bones
Which ever way you want
And leave your skull
Like a flower on top.”
Why sympathize with or feel sorry for the enemy? The U.S. soldiers and all the vultures that have followed them are the enemy. The Left in the West must embrace the Iraki resistance and give it its full and unconditional support because this is a classic case of imperialist attack carried out by the enlightened West. The invaders and occupiers must be driven out of Irak by any means necessary. All those who took part in this supreme international crime must be, and will be, kicked out of Irak, dead or alive, I don’t care. To me, personally, a good American soldier is one returning home in a body bag from wherever he or she had been extending imperialism. The other day I watched yet another 4 or 5 minute film on a news website called Information Clearing House. Young American soldiers shooting an Iraki dog and laughing because the poor animal just wouldn’t die, it just kept trying to stand up and they kept shooting it, kicking Iraki prisoners, killing, by mistake of course, Iraki civilians riding in a car and accompanying every killing with more laughter, swearing and cursing. But I guess, they were just following orders. So was Eichmann. During WW2, when most of Europe was under Nazi occupation, was it wrong of the French resistance or the Partisans in Yugoslavija, where I come from, to ambush convoys of young German soldiers and kill them all? No. During the imperialist occupation of Vietnam by the U.S., was it wrong of the Vietnamese resistance to kill the American invaders? No. Or the Korean or the Chinese resistance fighters killing the Japanese invaders who were trying to liberate Asia just like what Uncle Sam is trying to do in the Arab world, you know, trying to liberate the Arabs from their oil., so, was it wrong to kill Hirohito’s dogs? No. Is it wrong of the Palestinian resistance fighters to kill the U.S.-West Europe-backed Israeli imperialist invaders? No. This asking a question and answering it myself, I learned it from Donald Rumsfeld. These are just a few examples of great, heroic resistance. So, what’s wrong with the Iraki’s resistance killing the U.S. invaders in order to drive them out of Irak? Nothing. Those so-called poor, young U.S. soldiers have joined the U.S. army voluntarily. Nobody forced them. They chose that job. They live in the most democratic country in the world, the beacon of freedom. I know, I know, they were naïve, they were fooled, they were forced to join by poverty….bla, bla, bla…..but I do not care. If they want to do something about their poverty, they should put up a fight against their government, the U.S. government, against their country, inside the U.S. They could use Timothy McVeigh as their inspiration and guiding star instead of going around the world killing, plundering, destroying, raping.
The U.S.-led coalition of the willing to kill for oil, the U.S.-led coalition of terrorists will be kicked out of beautiful Irak. The invaders, the thieves, the murderers will leave bloodied noses. They will be kicked out of Irak by the Iraki people resistance just like any other imperialist dogs throughout history.
As for calling the Iraki resistance terrorism, in the words of Nizar Qabbani, the Arab world’s poet of love:
“I am with terrorism
With all my poetry, with all my words,
And all my teeth, as long as this
New world is in the hands of a butcher.”

Brkic Sulejman
20/01/2008

Brkic

Where does your position leave you, or more importantly where does it leave the opponents of imperialism, morally and politically? Your point about German soldiers in WW2 is instructive, although not in the way you intended. The enemy was fascism, not the individual German soldier. Obviously if a soldier is wearing a Nazi uniform he is by definition a legitimate target, but that is not the same thing as perceiving the individual soldier as the personification of personal evil. With a few exceptions, the average German soldier was no different to a working class Soviet or British soldier.

You need to distinguish between imperialism and ordinary people from imperialist countries who are enlisted (in all kinds of ways, not just militarilly) into doing imperialism's dirty work. Leaving morallity aside for a moment, the consequence of refusing to distinguish between the two is that YOU end up doing imperialism's dirty work by accepting their dehumanising and racist agenda of pitting one working class national against another. Think about it.

I do not believe in demonising soldiers, no matter their origin. Even if our opponents do, and they do (case in point : use of the word 'terrorist'), it is unjust to blame someone for fight for what he believes is right. Rather, blame the people who have fed the soldier the lies and fallacies that lead him to believe that what he is doing is right.

While there are some psycopaths fighting in all armys, including red ones, I hold to the belief that soldiers are just people like you and me. Many of them are very good people. They're just blind, that's all. Handicapped by their upbringing of nationalist rhetoric and flag-worship. Poverty only gives them a final reason to join the army; they do not see themselves as simply 'kill innocent people for money'.

Alot of them have had their eyes opened by war. Many end up traumatised, disturbed, realising the terrible things they've done; It might be pointed out that the U.S. has a higher proportion of destitute ex-soldiers than any other. Also, a few rare brave soldiers, like Private Joshua Key, have chosen to desert rather than compromise their morals, and are prepared to face the concequences. But we can hardly expect most soldiers, however good their intentions, to show this kind of heroism. Most of us aren't heroes.

Of course, a soldier's job is to fight and die, and so I do not criticise the Muqawamas for killing these 'imperial' soldiers. And I do cheer when I hear of victories against Israel and America, but only because it reminds me that people are still standing up for themselves(and because it means that for once the Muqawama are not murdering eachother and their own countrymen). This does not take away from the fact that good people are dying on either side. The best that can happen is NOT that the invaders are driven back in a wave of blood, rather, the best would be an orderly withdrawal by the imperial powers. And it is up to socialists and internationalists, worldwide, to try and get that kind of thing to happen.

Whatever they do, soldiers are still people, and they only represent the views that have been forced upon them; there is no difference between an imperial soldier and a socialist revolutionary, only the particular ideals of their peoples. If you rejoice in the slaughter of American soldiers, you might as well rejoice in the slaughtering of American civilians, as I'm afraid many on our side do.

-----

Soldier, soldier, you frighten me,
In all your blind brutality,
For behind that soldier's mask I see,
A man, just like me.

(From Soldier, Soldier by Eric Bogle)

- Aidan.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/2008 09:54PM by Aidan.