The Already Forgotten War

The Already Forgotten War

[col. writ. 9/11/10] (c) '10 Mumia Abu-Jamal


Did you notice that the war was over?

If you blinked, you may've missed it.

It is amazing that a war which began with such fanfare, such awful rhetoric and such martial strains could pass from the 'combat phase' with such quietude, such nonchalance, such silence.

Nearly 8 years of carnage, and what did it achieve besides the balm of forgetfulness?

For what was the war fought?

Weapons of mass destruction? Nope. Democracxy? Nope. An end to torture? Nope. Women's freedom? Nope. A model for the rest of the Middle East? Um-umph.

It was fought for U.S. face; American ego and martial exhibitionism, to place the flag over oil wells, and to dominate the region for generations. It was fought because George w. Bush aspired to be Eisenhower -- a "war president" -- resplendent in military glory as Commander-in Chief.

The nation lies exhausted, spent, and maddened with anger 8 years later. At who? Muslims. Mosques. And brown-skinned Others. Even Latinos.

Why not at those who stoked the flames of war? Newspapers; TV networks; cable channels: think tanks: war-mongering politicians; or apocalyptic preachers who saw this as the 'end times'?

Iraq is more a ruin than a nation, a shattered shell of its former self, paranoid and distrustful of its own people; an example, if anything, of what not to be.

Is America safer?

From what? Roiling Muslim rage? From the bitter harvest of tens of thousands of veterans who went to war, and lost their youth and souls for Halliburton, ExxonMobil and BP?

From its own angst? From itself?

War is a fever. It is a psychic illness where the warring nation discharges its sickness upon another nation -- like pools of phlegm spat on the floor.

And yet because the causes have not been named nor treated, the sickness remains; to infect others.

The war is over...for now.

(c) '10 maj