Pouring on the Gasoline "While Iraq Burns"

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert has been preoccupied with the juxtaposition of extravagance in the U.S. and carnage in Iraq for quite some time. Two years ago, he accused the Bush administration of “Fiddling as Iraq Burns”: Bush’s second inaugural bash would cost “tens of millions of dollars,” money that could be better spent on the soldiers in Iraq, where “terrible things are happening…and no amount of self-congratulation in Washington can take the edge off the horror being endured by American troops or the unrelenting agony of the Iraqi people.” Instead of raking in the riches, Washington’s crassest class was urged to pour money into the war to provide armor for those serving their country abroad.

In September 2004’s “Bush Upbeat as Iraq Burns,” Herbert hit the common refrain that Bush “never mobilized sufficient numbers of troops,” an irresponsible move that has contributed to the ceaseless “reports of kidnappings and beheadings, of people pleading desperately for their lives, of American soldiers being ambushed and killed, of clusters of Iraqis being blown to pieces by suicide bombers […].”

In his latest, “While Iraq Burns,” (free text here), the inferno rages on: over 7,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in September and October 2006 alone; close to 3,000 American soldiers, as we are well aware, have given their lives; the news coming out of Baghdad continues to be marked by assassinations, torture, and chaos. Given his assessment of the situation in Iraq, I’m sure the liberal Herbert would agree that war is hell. Agitators for peace and the most hardened of warriors have at times found common ground in that premise, and Herbert seems to sympathize with both.

What’s going on stateside this time “while Iraq burns”? Another American army advances on a midnight mission, this one comprised of “gleeful Americans with fistfuls of dollars storming the department store barricades […].” These squadrons of selfishness are perhaps as lamentable as the war itself. “[M]ost Americans,” Herbert sighs, “feel absolutely no sense of personal responsibility for it.”

Herbert’s thinking on the war fits a formula that is all too familiar on the left: war is exalted for the sacrifice that it requires of its participants; the pursuit of pleasure among those who don’t have to – or worse, simply don’t want to fight, is debased. But how can we combat the sadomasochistic fundamentalism that leads people to kill and die without simultaneously affirming desire and personal freedom?

Herbert is frightened by the prospect that we – especially the informed college-age youth representing the future of America who are interviewed in his piece – just don’t seem to give a shit about Iraq. This indifference is particularly troubling if it means that we don’t care about the helpless Iraqis who are ostensibly suffering both because we are at war and because we are not waging enough of a war. (Cutler notes that for Herbert, it’s the elderly, women, children and babies who are worthy victims and objects of our concern; the armed insurgents, apparently, have found a way to speak for themselves.)

While Herbert is jarred by the fact that Americans seem largely uninterested in contemplating “the responsibilities and obligations of ordinary Americans in a time of war,” not once does he explain why you and I should want to think about what the supposedly loathesome Playstation 3-toting, flat-screen TV set has apparently failed to entertain: taking up the “shared burden of responsibility” and “sense of collective sacrifice” that animated the home front during World War II.

Herbert fails to see the contradiction when in the next sentence he adds that “[t]he soldiers in Iraq are fighting, suffering and dying in a war in which there are no clear objectives and no end in sight, and which a majority of Americans do not support.” Sounds to me like a great reason to bring our troops home today. And let’s not forget: ‘tis the season! I’d be happy to support our troops by trading my Pentagon-bound tax dollars for a bunch of gift cards for the soldiers. Why shouldn’t they be able to share the things that we home-front slackers feel so entitled to enjoy not only this holiday season, but year-round?

Herbert’s “liberal” lament for the troops? “They are dying anonymously and pointlessly, while the rest of us are free to buckle ourselves into the family vehicle and head off to the malls and shop.”

In other words, war is hell. Let’s all go down together.

Do You Feel a Draft?

"Rep. Rangel will seek to reinstate draft"

Chalk this one up under "reasons I'm not excited that the Dems took back Congress."

Ellen Willis

Many have written and will write far more eloquently than I could of the passing of Ellen Willis. On sex and gender, music and television, history and war, and everything in between, Willis was always (and, I'm afraid, may long remain) far ahead of the curve. In her writing and activism, Willis tore through the conventional wisdom that binds the left to conservative values, innovatively and insistently reminding us that culture matters and that in any truly leftist project, freedom comes first. Her pioneering approach long ago cemented her reputation as one of the foremost cultural critics of our time. Willis' books and writings (the most recent of which can be found here) have had a tremendous influence on my own thought and writing. She will be sorely missed.