If you read Jessica's blog last night, you would know that we went to see, at long last, The Pianist. A wrenching, mesmerizing 2.5 hours it was, and I couldn't help but think of the Iraqis as wave after wave of bombings decimate Warsaw. I also couldn't help think of the Lite Fascists in power now when I saw how day by day the restrictions on Jews became just that little bit more outrageous, but still a bit livable until it was work camps and cattlecars.
No cattlecars for us anti-war dissenters yet, but don't you just think that Ashcroft and Rummy often spend the time thinking about it? As the above essay says,
"Fascism doesn't have to involve mass genocidal slaughter, nor does it have to be equal in degree to the fascism practiced by members of the Axis powers. Traits of classic fascism include: strong nationalism, expansionism, belligerent militarism, meshing of big business and government with a corporate/government oligarchy, subversion of democracy and human rights, disinformation spread by constant propaganda and tight corporate/government control of the press."
Sounds like life in America these days, doesn't it?
Meanwhile, a few links: For the blackest of black humor you can't beat the unofficial Operation Iraqi Freedom trading cards. There's a bloody anarchic mess in Basra--so much for liberation. Another person arrested for wearing an anti-war T-shirt, this time in Arkansas. Evil GOP swine in Congress is proposing drastic changes in Pentagon procurement that would allow defense companies to win contracts of up to $200 million apiece without competitive bidding and other safeguards. Cool! The man must be on the payroll of Bechtel or Halliburton. Wolfowitz and Rummy have started to make allusions to attacking Syria. And meanwhile, Alan Bisbort lets us know that things are so bad now that he misses the Nixon administration.
And one last thing, here's that wonderful essay by Gunter Grass
The U.S. Betrays Its Core Values
by Gunter Grass
BEHLENDORF, Germany -- A war long sought and planned for is now underway. All deliberations and warnings of the United Nations notwithstanding, an overpowering military apparatus has attacked preemptively in violation of international law. No objections were heeded. The Security Council was disdained and scorned as irrelevant. As the bombs fall and the battle for Baghdad continues, the law of might prevails.
And based on this injustice, the mighty have the power to buy and reward those who might be willing and to disdain and even punish the unwilling. The words of the current American president -- "Those not with us are against us" -- weighs on current events with the resonance of barbaric times. It is hardly surprising that the rhetoric of the aggressor increasingly resembles that of his enemy. Religious fundamentalism leads both sides to abuse what belongs to all religions, taking the notion of "God" hostage in accordance with their own fanatical understanding. Even the passionate warnings of the pope, who knows from experience how lasting and devastating the disasters wrought by the mentality and actions of Christian crusaders have been, were unsuccessful.
Disturbed and powerless, but also filled with anger, we are witnessing the moral decline of the world's only superpower, burdened by the knowledge that only one consequence of this organized madness is certain: Motivation for more terrorism is being provided, for more violence and counter-violence. Is this really the United States of America, the country we fondly remember for any number of reasons? The generous benefactor of the Marshall Plan? The forbearing instructor in the lessons of democracy? The candid self-critic? The country that once made use of the teachings of the European Enlightenment to throw off its colonial masters and to provide itself with an exemplary constitution? Is this the country that made freedom of speech an incontrovertible human right?
