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FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
April 2, 2004
COLUMN OF THE
AMERICAS
By Patrisia
Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez
The President’s Smog of War
The president's smog
of war is not just metaphorical rhyme for
Errol Morris' "The Fog of War"
-- the acclaimed documentary about Robert
McNamara's views on war. The smog of war
is actually literal.
If anything, it's an
understatement about how President Bush
has been conducting the war on terrorism:
secrecy, arrogance, deceit and a wimpish
assertion of executive privilege. But
even more so, it is commentary regarding
his policies that are wreaking long-term
havoc upon our already extremely fragile
planet.
War is always
controversial because untold (or
uncounted) numbers of innocents die. As
McNamara admits, had the allies lost
World War II, their leaders would've been
tried as war criminals for crimes against
humanity -- for their role in devastating
the civilian populations of Japan and
Germany.
And that was the
"good" war. Yet, the same holds
true for Vietnam.
"The Fog of
War" is not compelling just because
of McNamara's frank talk about Southeast
Asia, but because of its obvious parallel
to the Iraqi war. Of course, it took
McNamara 30 years to come forth with the
truth/lies about Vietnam. (This provides
hope that perhaps Dick Cheney, Colin
Powell, Donald Rumsfeld or Condoleezza
Rice may in time also 'fess up).
The president no
doubt wishes that former chief of counter
terrorism Richard Clarke had also waited
30 years, or at least until after the
election, to level his charges. (Of note:
Incompetence isn't illegal, though waging
wars based on deception is minimally
immoral.) Yet three things are clear: 1)
This election cycle began the day after
the 2000 election; 2) Clarke hasn't told
us anything that former Treasury
Secretary Paul O'Neil hadn't already told
us; and 3) no matter what Clarke alleges,
the charges will be mired in partisan
bickering. (Actually, for this
administration and its apologists,
there's one other certainty: Everything
pre- and post-9/11 was/is Clinton's
fault.)
But the toxic
contamination and smog that result from
the president's environmental policies
don't distinguish between Democratic and
Republican lungs.
The war on
terrorism, one might argue, is a
distraction (war for oil or for U.S.
global military dominance). What's
indisputable is that permanent global war
is being used as a convenient excuse for
shirking global environmental cooperation
and systematically dismantling the
world's environmental laws. (Human rights
are also being shoved aside in the
process.)
This is the real
smog of war, and it's potentially much
more lethal than all the weapons of mass
destruction in the hands of all the
Middle East "evildoers."
The difference
between amoral wars that kill humans and
amoral policies that harm the entire
planet (which includes all life) is that
we have but one planet. On our current
course, the harm to our planet is
irreversible, and in geologic time, the
response is instantaneous, as new cancers
and other environmentally triggered
ailments (lupus and asthma, etc.) are at
virtual crisis levels. Extreme
contamination and its resultant health
crises are no longer confined to the
U.S.-Mexico border region or the nation's
largest cities. (Some scientists say that
because of pollution, we're racing toward
the sixth great extinction of species.)
Truthfully, there are no longer any dark
corners on the planet where we can safely
dispose of our toxic or radioactive
wastes. While we all live in but one
ecosystem, the Bush administration
continues acting otherwise (Kyoto).
Because of the fog
of war, most of the world has, in effect,
been distracted from the administration's
even more duplicitous war on the planet
itself. And tragically, both issues are
intertwined. Even the president's tax
policies that favor the rich are
signficant, as there's no money for
enforcement or a meaningful cleanup of
the environment.
So treacherous is
this second war that politics now
routinely trumps science, even while
polluters are firmly in charge of
"protecting" the environment. A
visit to the Natural Resources Defense
Council (www.nrdc.org/)
or the Sierra Club (www.sierraclub.com/) Web sites only
begins to tell the story of this
unprecedented onslaught. Neither can we
expect relief in Congress or the courts
as polluter-friendly representatives hold
sway in those bodies.
This practice of
appointing representatives of the
energy/oil industry to oversee
environmental protection is akin to
appointing Osama bin Laden to head the
war on terrorism. Neither is this
hyperbole, as the president's
environmental project now relies on
"deregulation," voluntary
"compliance" or
"market-based" solutions,
which, in effect, means a free reign for
polluters. That's the smog of war.
The world awaits a
Richard Clarke within the EPA to lift and
counteract the president's even more
destructive smog of war -- to warn us all
that it's not simply important, but
extremely urgent.
COPYRIGHT 2004
UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
*
If you would like to see Column of the
Americas in your newspaper, please
call/write your local editor.
Also, contact our editor, Greg
Melvin at Universal Press Syndicate GMelvin@uexpress.com
or 1-800-255-6734. Column of the Americas
is available at Universal's website every
Friday at: http://www.uexpress.com/columnoftheamericas/
Gonzales & Rodriguez can be reached
at 608-238-3161or XColumn@aol.com
-- PO BOX 5093, Madison, WI 53705.
For speaking availability, bios,
publications and other info, call/write
us or visit:
http://hometown.aol.com/xcolumn/myhomepage/index.html
* Gonzales is the author of The Mud
People: Chronicles, Testimonios &
Rembrances ($19.95, Chusma House, ISBN:
1-891823-05-1). For ordering info,
go to: www.chusmahouse.com or
email: chusmahouse@earthlink.net
She can be reached at: patigonzaj@aol.com
Rodriguez is the author of Justice: A
Question of Race - Bilingual Review
Press (http://www.asu.edu/brp/backlist/bio/RRod1j.html).
He is also the author of the E-books The
X in La Raza and Codex Tamuanchan: On
Becoming Human (http://www.mexica.net/literat/roberto/).
Both are coeditors of Cantos Al Sexto Sol
- Wings Press (http://www.wingspress.com/
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