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When America Breaks Your Heart
A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
by
Maureen Farrell
I
love you like the pilgrim loves the holy land
Like the wayfarer loves his wayward ways
Like the immigrant that I am loves America
And
the blind man the memory of his sighted days.
- Writer and Oscar-winning screenwriter, Steve Tesich
Steve Tesich's largely autobiographical, Four Friends is perhaps the most charming, palpably heartfelt love letter to America the silver screen has known. Its theme, achingly obvious within opening minutes, is embodied in Tesich's alter ego, Danilo, who whispers "America" with a reverence most reserve for prayer. "My friend Danilo is a national anthem freak," one character asserts. "He goes to football games so he can stand up and blend with the crowd of thousands to sing 'Oh say can you see.' In all of the time I've known him, I never heard him say the United States once. It was always America, like he saw something when he said it. . . . America."
The movie, released in 1982, was awarded the highest rating, four stars, by critic Roger Ebert, who applauded its "clarity" and "truth." Yet within a decade, Tesich would clearly see another truth; a truth far more sinister and frightening than the naïve, optimistic, America-adoring Danilo could imagine.
"My brother Steve (Stojan) Tesich was fifty-three when he died July 1, 1996 of a massive heart attack," his sister Professor Nadia Tesich wrote. "In his short life he had written many plays, novels, many film scripts, of which 'Breaking Away' is the best-known.. . . This country was also his main subject -- America and the 'American Dream' -- until the dream turned against him. .. . . His rage was great and this man, known for his jokes and laughter, changed during these past horrible five years. When I heard my brother was dead, my first words to his wife were, "America killed him." Yes his anger against it was huge. On some days, powerless, dying for justice, we could only howl together. . . ."
"My brother was not a simple minded nationalist" she added. "He was not even a political person. . . . Yet he noticed the deadly display, advertising of weapons, and destruction during the US war on Iraq. Both of us saw it, both of us opposed it. Metallic monsters in the sky, no opposition to them in the media -- thus began a new era of the US 'New World Order.' . . . [W]e watched lies and deceit in every paper, every channel, as the US propaganda machine (more modern, more deadly than anything Geobbels tried) moved to fabricate a new enemy, to fill its own void -- a new monster had to be found. .."
The watchdog group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) shared Tescish's outrage. Describing the first Gulf War coverage as "enthusiastic cheerleading" and "boosterism for the war effort," FAIR deemed Gulf War coverage "one of the most disturbing episodes in U.S. journalistic history." http://www.fair.org/extra/best-of-extra/gulf-war.html
Then, like now, airways were crammed with promises that bombing campaigns were "surgical strikes against military targets," even as some Pentagon staff openly copped to deliberately destroying parts of Iraq's infrastructure. Pundits' comparisons of shock and awe to "action movies" characterize the familiar disconnect between deed and consequence and Donald Rumsfeld's promise of "precise" and "humane" military strategies doesn't reassure. As we watch the blitzing of Baghdad and Pentagon spokesmen warn that U.S. missiles, meant for Iraq, "may have landed in Iran," ghosts of blunders and fabrications past hover within history's ether. "The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base," Harry Truman declared. "That was because we wished in this first attack, to avoid, as much as possible, the killing of civilians." 100,000 were killed at Hiroshima. Most were civilians.
Lights, Camera, War!
As officials and correspondents assure Americans that only evil doers will be killed during "Operation Iraqi Freedom," if the pre-war sales pitch is any indication, the coverage during Gulf War II promises to be jam-packed with even more blatant propaganda. "Smart bombs" have given way to "the Mother of All Bombs" and in lieu of 15 year-olds fibbing about babies in incubators, we have the President of the United States lying about nearly everything. Anchors bray about our military power and strength (one NBC commentator even suggested that Baghdad residents must be "awed" by U.S. intelligence capabilities) while others inform Stepford citizens of their fearless leaders' emotions. The description of the White House's "upbeat mood" during preliminary shock and awe stages was only slightly more appalling than observations on the coup that put Saddam's party in power, which, like good propaganda, conveniently ignored the US' role in any of it. http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,916235,00.html
Moreover, as Ari Fleischer mentions our 3000 dead to justify horrors unleashed (overlooking, once again, that Iraq had nothing to do with those deaths), correspondents report from a far off land where GOP and military control meld with Hollywood razzle dazzle. Even as Colin Powell was sharing fabricated evidence and pretending, for a time, to let inspections work, the U.S. military was constructing a $1.5 million media center in Qatar, designed, in part, by Hollywood set designer George Allison, the art director who adds the Orwellian ambiance to George Bush's "Corporate Responsibility" speeches.
Headed by former Bush campaign aide Jim Wilkinson, (the spokesman for the Miami-based protestors trying to stop the Florida recount during the 2000 election), the entire Qatar-based public affairs operation is responsible for overseeing 42 military public affairs officers charged with managing hundreds of international correspondents covering the war. And given veteran BBC reporter Kate Adie's report that the Pentagon has threatened to shoot down independent journalists' satellite uplink positions, it's safe to say that most of the news Americans see from Baghdad will be U.S.A. approved. http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/courses/ed253a/from_buzzflash.html
Michael Moore Explains it All to You
This isn't to say that America will be living behind an iron curtain, of course. It's still a free country, as they say. The Oprah Winfrey show, for example, recently featured a Michael Moore interview, and, through a clip from his Oscar-nominated Bowling for Columbine introduced millions to a side of American foreign policy few ever see. As Louie Armstrong sang, "What a Wonderful World," the following statistics flashed upon the screen:
1953: U.S. overthrows Prime Minister Mossadeq of Iran
U.S. installs Shah as dictator1954 U.S. overthrows democratically-elected President Arbenz of Guatemala. 200,000 civilians killed
1963: U.S. backs assassination of South Vietnamese President Diem
1963 --1975: American military kills 4 million people in Southeast Asia
September 11, 1973: U.S. stages a coup in Chile. Democratically-elected President Salvador Allende assassinated. Dictator Augusto Pinochet installed; 5,000 Chileans killed
1977: U.S. backs military rulers of El Salvador. 70,000 Salvadorians and four American nuns killed
1980s: U.S. trains Osama bin Laden and fellow terrorists to kill Soviets. CIA gives them $3 billion
1981: Reagan administration trains and funds 'contras' 30,000 Nicaraguans die
1982: U.S. provides billions in aid to Saddam Hussein for weapons to kill Iranians.
1983: White House secretly gives Iran weapons to kill Iraqis
1989: CIA agent Manuel Noriega (also serving as president of Panama) disobeys orders from Washington. US invades Panama and removes Noriega 3,000 Panamanian civilian casualties
1990: Iraq invades Kuwait with weapons from the U.S.
1991: U.S. enters Iraq. Bush reinstates dictator of Kuwait
1991- present: American planes bomb Iraq on a weekly basis. U.N. estimates 500,000 Iraqi children die from bombings and sanctions.
1998: Clinton bombs "weapons factory" in Sudan. Factory turns out to be making aspirin.
2000-01 U.S. gives Taliban-ruled Afghanistan $245 million in "aid."
September 11, 2001: Osama bin Laden uses his CIA training to murder 3,000 people.
Though most are now aware that anti-American sentiment is rising, many avoid introspection, and instead join pundits and politicians in pointing fingers at France. And so, Moore's timely reminder has never been more urgent: "The rest of the world knows we've done these things," has says. "We just don't want to believe this about ourselves. And I mean, who would?"
Remaining ignorant is costly, however, especially as we forge ahead with the same kind of behavior that's brought us to this place. "Well, you lost 3000 people," Moore imagines citizens in other countries saying. "We here in Southeast Asia lost 4 million. We here in Guatemala lost 200,000. We here in Chile lost 10,000 people. . . They're not so sympathetic if we are going to ignore what's being done in our name."
And that's where we find ourselves. Like Steve Tesich, those of us who've deeply loved America, and believed, despite her flaws, that she was the land of the free and home and the brave (with liberty and justice for all, amen) feel betrayed, heartbroken and angry by what's transpired since Sept 11. If Russia or China behaved this way, Americans would unite in condemnation, and correspondents would be acting like objective journalists, instead of cheering the carnage on.
But make no mistake. The rest of the world will never forget our preventative war -- or scenes from the blitz on Baghdad. We've crossed a sad and horrifying threshold from which is no return, no matter how swift and successful this military campaign may be. How can we support our country's actions without betraying conscience? How can we express this sinking feeling without (as many accuse) betraying our troops?
On some days, powerless, dying for justice, we [can] only howl together.
A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
Articles in the BuzzFlash Contributor section are posted as-is. Given the timeliness of some Contributor articles, BuzzFlash cannot verify or guarantee the accuracy of every word. We strive to correct inaccuracies when they are brought to our attention.
