Complicity in Silence

Now is the time of the furnaces, and only light should be seen
-- Jose Marti


Humanitarian invasions are all the rage in this world of ours. It would have been such an apt argument in the medieval times and would have justified so many wars. The Romans whilst invading nations across the known world, use to send home stories of the chivalry and brave acts of their representative armies. The stories established the legionnaires as honourable men who did brave things and brought civilisation to those half human savages. There were no worldwide news networks, which could partly be a bad thing for the Romans, as imagine the brainwash factor that could have been used by the invaders with one of the Roman equivalent of CNN.

Today, imperialist wars are fought more by propaganda than actual combat. The American Imperialist Invasions of recent years manifest this reality with a potent force. The CNNs and ABCs of this world reinforce the invading army’s pitching line, which are aimed to appease the direct stakeholders, who in this case happen to be the American Public. Occasionally however this smooth system of propaganda runs across hitches. Like the ones currently witnessed in the media about the torture and abuse inflicted by the American and British Invading armies in Iraq. This obviously is disconcerting to the moral ethos of the mainland Americans. The humanitarian invasion malarchy works well for the guilt degeneration process of the American public who support this invasion. It has always been depicted as the White Man’s burden, which has to be carried on, with or without violence. The absolute humiliation subjected upon the Iraqi Prisoners in Abu Ghuraib Prison gives us an insight into the morass that is this occupation. One evil replaced by a greater evil.

Recently a news program commentator took a twisted view on this abuse in Abu Ghraib. He considered it to be proof of how democratic Iraq had become since the invasion. His proof being the accountability that these pictures will ensue has never been the case in Saddam’s Iraq. True, but is this how the west will justify this abuse. One small set of perverts in god’s chosen army. Or is this the pathological state of invading armies and the sub human treatment offered to the natives of the invaded nation. You can pick up history and find Columbus and his degenerates lavishing similar sub human treatment on the natives of the new world. You will find this to be accepted operational standard of any crusader army from the west. You will find the same disease creating havoc in the cities of Saigon during the Vietnam War. There is no limit to the psychological disorder of the invading armies. Human beings when pushed to commit atrocities become degenerate and loose their humanity. The Iraq war with all the slogans of democracy is still an atrocity and the soldiers who are sent in are all pathologically damaged and mentally unstable. Murder, violence and a sense of impending death have this effect on people, and this is only about the invading army. The morass and destruction of the cultural morality of the natives is even more complete. The war ridden African nations and Afghanistan are two examples of the prolonged effects that war has on the social system of the invaded land.

There is obviously a lot of cynicism about the pictures of the British Army’s torture on Iraqi prisoners published by the Mirror. News shows are dedicated to explain how these pictures can be fabricated. The west can go to strange extremes to justify and explain these actions to there humane audiences in the mainland. When America can launch wars on fake and fabricated evidence about Nuclear weapons, yet pictures of smirking soldiers abusing Iraqis are somehow still “not real” just shows the pathological state of West’s selective humanity.

How many of us have started to accept this atrocity in Iraq as just another situation in this world. Like that other Middle Eastern conflict, which has become a standard feature in the world media for the last 57 years. I fear a large number of us have also bought into the Western media’s distortion about “ Palestinian Terrorism & Israeli Activities”. Violence categorised into predetermined classes of Terrorism being the sole domain of the Palestinians blowing themselves up in Israeli Cities and buses and “Response & Activities” being the rather mellowed and justified category for the Israeli Rocket Attacks on civilians, constant incursions into Palestinian refugee camps and the destruction of the homes of suspected militants.

We are as much to blame for this degeneration as Lyndie England, the female soldier who is photographed smirking as she pulls a naked Iraqi on a leash at Abu Ghuraib. Ours is the crime of silence and apathy, towards issues that require our voices. Every smirking soldier and every dieing Iraqi is asking us to make a choice between silence and a stand. If we remain silent than we are complicit in that atrocity, as we have given up the choice to speak up against it. Or we can take a stand and have our voices heard. Individual voices may only make a very inaudible sound, but collective voices beckon to be heard. Can we be break free of the fear that grips us and learn to be brave if only for a moment?