A Lonely Whistleblower Amidst Many Obedient Gunfighters

May God watch over Eli Israel; and if we cannot summon God, then let us watch over him ourselves.

The US.-led invasion into Iraq and the occupation that continues to ensue in its wake constitute international crimes of war. This truth is widely known and accepted, supporting evidence abounds, and counterarguments have steadily diminished in strength; there is nothing left of meaningful, emotion-neutral dialogue

…and still the cannons blaze.

It is for want of willful action on the part of the people, not for insufficient knowledge or awareness, that the prominent decision makers responsible for this horrible conflict are still able to enjoy their privileges and prestige without fear of reprisal for the evil they have committed and the suffering they have caused. Innocent blood saturates the sands of the Middle East, replenished daily as every yesterdays’ victims fade into the searing heat, and survivors of the lost can be confident they’ll be soon to follow. This uninterrupted cycle of violence and injustice is enabled by the masses who suppress their sympathy and refuse their intervention, those who instead mouth empty platitudes of patriotism and allegiance to a war-loving god. There may be no hope in these masses.

The hope for justice, for the return to peace, rests solely in the potential and the willingness of men and women to act, to resist the repugnant but seductive leadership practices, and the cultural norms they seed, of a government that openly detests and deters foreign states’ right to self-determination and self-governance on their own terms.

We are fortunate, as citizens of a free democracy, to have such an opportunity for action; I am fortunate to write the things I write without fear for my own personal safety. I need fear nothing but the frustration that accompanies the exercise of free speech unmet by a forum of concerned citizens.

But not all are so lucky. Eli Israel, a soldier currently deployed in Iraq with the Kentucky National Guard, has discontinued his involvement in a conflict he believes is illegal and unjustified. This is the sort of precedent that can reestablish a global order of peace, recover global norms of nonintervention upon which stability is based, and at long last restore honor to the American identity. But without support, it cannot do any of these things. The precedent will wither and die if not taken up collectively and sustained by the people, by us.

People of comfort, such as ourselves, can do much to protect those brave few who have the strength and courage to boldly act on the front lines. Opportunities to act on the popular but abstract adage “Support our Troops” have never been clearer.

“Please rally whoever you can, call whoever you can, bring as much attention to this as you can. I have no doubt that the military will bury me and hide the whole situation if they can. I’m in big trouble. I’m in the middle of Iraq, surrounded by people who are not on my side. Please help me. Please contact whoever you can, and tell them who I am, so I don’t ‘disappear’”– Eli Israel

Post written by Daniel Black

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Silence, the Virtue of Fools

Sir Francis Bacon’s immortal words, though centuries old, have enjoyed a revival in our culture these recent years. “Silence,” asserts Bacon, “is the virtue of fools.” Although I invite everyone to contribute their thoughts and ideas on the subject, I worry they’ll be dissuaded from doing so by our current government, a government that is encouraging other Americans to join the distinguished group that Bacon describes. Silence, though not yet a public mandate, is clawing its way into the minds of the mainstream, attempting even to affect our children.

Two examples of stifled thought and word, which both occurred this past week, shall suffice. If you think the following words of a serviceman deployed to Guantanamo Prison Facility, “Yeah, this one detainee, you know, really pissed me off, irritated me. So I just, you know, punched him in the face,” would lead to disciplinary action, you are correct. The speaker, however, (the man who undoubtedly is “gathering intelligence” and contributing to the “noble calling of our time”) is not the object of such action; the individual who repeated them is, instead. Sgt Cerveny, a legal aide who spent a week in Guantanamo, repeated these words to investigators and subsequently made herself a target. The investigation was discarded by a superior officer of hers, who called the entire process “oppressive”, but the ordeal is thought-provoking nevertheless. Attempted repression of free speech is alarming even in cases where it does not succeed; the criminality (in constitutional terms) of this behavior is not diminished by the incompetence with which it is executed. I don’t think that anyone could have predicted the remarkable ineptitude with which our political leaders fight our wars, but their crimes are crimes whether committed in fashions sloppy or slick.

Another assault on first amendment rights reached into a public school classroom just before the weekend. On the other side of the Hudson River, a class of fourth graders has been stripped of their right to speak out against “the war.” These kids have written a song appealing to the public conscience to, among other things, be respectful and responsible, end the violence and save humanity, and, ultimately, to “end the war”, but the song was pulled from the program; these children cannot perform the song they wrote together because it is “to political”. Although which war “the war” specifically refers to is never overtly specified in the song’s lyrics, it is the belief of the Goshen PTO that preserving some individuals’ willful ignorance of world affairs supersedes the rights of these children to creatively express themselves and voice their values as a class. A triumph for democracy, I suppose, is known to nations other than ours. Although Francis Bacon’s words might have sounded a bit general or abstract when he expressed them, there’s certainly no mistaking their meaning today.

– – Daniel Black

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