American Politics Journal

Ignore This
By William Rivers Pitt

"Ignorance is not innocence but sin."
-- Robert Browning

October 4, 2001 -- BOSTON (APJP) -- The people of Afghanistan are among the poorest in the world. Many are starving and without shelter. They have suffered through a drought that has lasted for three years, and have been in a perpetual state of war for more than twenty years. A new conflict there will certainly elevate their misery by orders of magnitude. Already, U.N. aid workers have fled. If this does not concern you, ignore this.

American military might is crouched and ready to spring at Afghanistan, the ruling Taliban, and Osama bin Laden. If an attack does come, untold scores of innocent civilians, not unlike the people who died in New York and Washington, will die. This is all happening despite the fact that the Bush administration has yet to publicly offer a scintilla of proof that these groups bear the guilt for what happened on September 11th. If this does not trouble you, ignore this.

American soldiers seem almost certain to invade Afghanistan, perhaps the most perfectly constructed natural fortress to be found on earth. They have no intelligence regarding the location, armaments or movements of the forces they intend to enter conflict with. Few, if any, speak the local dialect. Winter is less than a month away. If this does not give pause, ignore this.

After so many years of warfare, the terrain of Afghanistan is littered with some ten million unexploded land mines. If you are unmoved, ignore this.

The last time we entered into a conflict where the land itself stood against us was in Southeast Asia. There, when unable to defeat a hidden enemy in set piece battles, we resorted to mass bombings and chemical defoliation of the terrain. The conflict lasted ten years, and millions of civilians died. If you don't remember, ignore this.

It is certain that any attack upon Afghanistan, or anywhere else, will involve the use of 'Smart Weapons' like the ones utilized in the Gulf War. Those weapons missed their targets over 60% of the time, often striking civilians. If this does not worry you, ignore this.

The 30% of the 'Smart Weapons' that did find their targets in Iraq destroyed facilities necessary to civilian survival, including water and sewage treatment plants. According to UNICEF, some 500,000 children have died in Iraq due to water-borne diseases, and due to the fact that sanctions do not permit medicines into the country. This, by any definition, is biological warfare. If you feel comfortable with repeating that history, ignore this.

Madeline Albright, when confronted with the fact of those 500,000 innocent deaths, said it was a price we Americans were willing to pay. If you agree, ignore this.

Speaking of children, another weapon almost sure to be used is something called a cluster bomb. This device spreads small grenade-like explosives called 'bomblets' over an area the size of a football field. In Iraq, such weapons missed their targets over 90% of the time. Many of those bomblets remain unexploded after impact. They are very colorful and attractive to children. If this does not worry you, ignore this.

On the home front, a man named John Negroponte has been approved by the Senate to be America's representative at the United Nations. Negroponte was the U.S. ambassador to Honduras from 1981 through 1985. During that time, thousands of civilians were slaughtered by government forces sponsored by the United States. When questioned about it, Negroponte dismissed all the readily evident bloodshed as rumor. By our new common definition, Mr. Negroponte is a supporter of terrorism. If you disagree, ignore this.

Because Mr. Negroponte is a representative of the United States, and because his hands are red with the blood of innocent civilians killed in innumerable acts of state-sponsored terrorism, it would seem that America will be forced to bomb and invade itself if it wishes to stay true to the bellicose words of Mr. Bush. If you are not stricken by the contradictions inherent in this, ignore this.

The horrors of September 11th have been framed by Mr. Bush as an attack upon our American freedoms. Attorney General Ashcroft has spent the last two days trying to convince a timorous Congress that the only way to fight such threats is to restrict great swaths of our civil liberties. Ergo, we must save freedom by destroying and restricting it. If this does not strike you as perilously odd, ignore this.

The enemy of America, we are told, is Terrorism. But by whom? From where? How is a fight against these shadow men with the angry eyes waged? In the absence of concrete answers to these desperately important questions, we are instead told to batten down for what appears to be an eternal state of war. If this does not frighten you, ignore this.

The man who is telling us these things, George W. Bush, has been earning high praise for his ability to read words written by others in a clear manner. Seldom is the substance of his comments commented upon. His use of the word 'Crusade' in describing our conflict is offensive and frightening to millions of people who had nothing to do with the attacks against us. If you are totally confident in his ability to shepherd us through this terrible time, ignore this.

Those who should be asking the questions have been totally silenced. These days, to question or (God forbid) dissent is tantamount to treason. Also, this will be a war waged almost completely in secret, much the way the Gulf War was. The American media is out of the loop, and has accepted the lapdog role of beaters of the battle drum with almost incomprehensible ease. If you have no interest whatsoever in observing what your government is doing around the world in your name, ignore this.

Thoughtful considerations and debate regarding why this wretched attack has befallen us have not happened anywhere in public discourse. Instead, we are placed into siege mentality where thought is buried behind fear. There is ample evidence that our international activities over the last several decades had a hand in the deaths of thousands of American civilians on that Tuesday, and even more evidence that we appear to be gearing up for even more of an active and violent role in the world. If you do not believe that history repeats itself, or that our actions have consequences, ignore this.

If you do not believe that desperation, hunger, fear, and political exploitation create fertile fields for fundamentalist extremism, ignore this.

If you do not think the way to win this war is to end those terrible worldwide realities, ignore this.

If you do not believe that war begets war, terror begets terror, fear begets fear, and that wheel will roll on if we unleash our armies, ignore this.

If your rage and sorrow at what has happened to us has rendered you incapable of any emotion beyond a desire for revenge, ignore this.

If you have forgotten how to think for yourself, if you agree that dissent and questions are unpatriotic in a nation founded upon those very ideas, ignore this.

If you have done what those who pray for war wish you to do and forgotten everything, ignore this.

If you have learned nothing, ignore this.

I dare you.