As a general rule of thumb, the more I learn about the United States of America the lower my opinion of that nation sinks. Whether it be historical, such as the Native American holocaust(1) or the conduct of early US citizens when fighting on both sides of their 'war of independence'; or contemporary, such as their current antics in Cuba and Iraq; they always seem to manage to plump new depths of indecency.

Not believing in absolute concepts like good and evil however, I have to maintain a serious effort to remember that there is another side to this self righteous, war-addicted land. looking about me right now at the CDs, DVDs and many, many books, I cannot help but recognise the various examples of greatness produced by this very same country.

HST, HP Lovecraft and Hendrix are three H-type examples that spring readily to mind. I love them all and they all came from across the pond. More recently I've started watching, 'The Daily Show,' on More4 and found myself not only amused but surprised.

There's been plenty of great US comedy I'll admit, but what got me about this spoof news show is the satire. I'll be honest, until I saw this show I wasn't sure the US really got what satire was, I thought maybe it was just some cultural concept utterly lost in translation, like irony for example.

It was nice to be pleasantly surprised in this way. It gave me the feeling that maybe there was some hope, that maybe this other US I keep hearing of, and occasionally enjoying the fruits of, was somehow more real and gathering some kind of momentum.

Another similarly pleasant surprise was the speech I caught on C-SPAN the other day. Democrat John Murtha was speaking about why he felt the US needed to 'redeploy' their troops, ie. get them home within six months. The former marine and defence advisor almost broke down, and deeply moved me, when recalling the regular visits he makes to his local veteran's hospital and the people he encountered there.

This guy had seen combat, seen Iraq and seen the aftermath and had clearly entered the beyond-outrage-disbelief within which much of the rest of the world has been sitting for the past few years. As clearly passionate as he was about the sicker and sicker true tales he recounted, his points were simple and delivered in a calm and constructive fashion.

Before I sing this guy's praises too much I should mention another thought the speech and subsequent press conference inspired: where the hell was all this two years ago? I can't really blame Bush for being Bush, he's an out and out fascist and his genocidal madness was to be expected. The Democrats, on the other hand, are supposed to be the counter balance that protects both US citizens and the rest of the world against him.

They have so far failed miserably in their task but, if they want to change that, they should take some pointers from Mr Murtha and grow some balls. In the US at the moment I'd guess it takes a pretty brave politician to go on national TV and say things like:

we have now become the targets, we are uniting Iraq against us and causing more problems than we're fixing,

the decisions killing our troops are being made by people in air conditioned offices who have never seen combat and have no concept of the reality they are sending our children into,

the Iraq conflict is not just like Vietnam, it's worse!

we don't give purple hearts to those maimed by 'friendly' fire,

we ignore those with mental wounds and scars,

first time round Bush Snr at least entertained by partisan opinion, even if he didn't always listen to all of it, this administration won't listen to anyone, even Republicans,

These are dangerous words in a country of rabid flag wavers but I was impressed and waited to hear the response. A group of Republicans had held a meeting to discuss the issues raised by Mr Murtha and gave their own press conference to announce their conclusions.

I gave them a chance, I swear I really did, but after the fourth or fifth sour faced guy had delivered yet more of the same old rhetoric I switched channels. None of the valid and pressing points made by Mr Murtha were directly addressed, just the same tired bullshit about, '..9/11 justifies everything..', '..not cutting and running..' and how '..America never surrenders..' etc yawn.

At this point I'll level with you all and admit that this post, up to this point, has really been intro and filler to try and disguise the fact that I only really have one small point to make here today. It was while forcing myself to seriously listen to and analyse the Republican response that I suddenly realised something I hadn't before.

They seemed to keep implying that them killing Iraqis was some how keeping the rest of the world safe from terrorism. The fact that all the terrorist attacks on western targets(2) they mentioned occurred after their illegal invasion of Iraq went unmentioned, but all of a sudden I got it, it finally made sense. So here it is, the rational for the utterly irrational, the explanation for the totally inexplicable and the reason for undeniably unreasonable:

The US is either unwilling or unable to stop terrorists killing their citizens. If however, they give the terrorists sufficient numbers of the right kind(3) of US citizens to kill on the other side of the world then maybe the rest of them can be safe at home.

The young men and women dying horribly and the many more being maimed are simply human sacrifices in the truest sense of ancient traditions. In order to placate the great dark beast from which you cower you hang out a few of your best young specimens and hope it'll be satisfied.

footnotes

(1) A lot of people throw this word about without really thinking about the weight it carries, I am not one of them. The US government is estimated to have slaughtered at least the same percentage of Native Americans during their pursuit of manifest destiny as the Nazis did European Jews in WWII.

(2) As pointed out in the current issue of Adbusters, (#62, Vol.13, No.6) these attacks were against those who supported the US. The UK but not France, Spain but not Germany, Australians in Bali. Of course Blair and the like insist that there is no connection with Iraq but then he's the kind of guy who'd insist he wasn't choking even if you stood on his neck.

(3) The 'right kind' of US citizen in this case is the disposable kind, ie. the poor. The disgraceful fiasco surrounding the recent hurricanes to hit the South East of the US demonstrated quite clearly that the poor in the US are not so much actively oppressed as completely ignored. Below a certain income you just don't exist in the US, and who's going to miss someone who never really existed in the first place?