The Future of a Delusion

In a column in today’s paper, Pat Buchanan points out that “a Democratic House that came to power denouncing the rush to war on Iraq is about to vote to demand that Bush commit an act of war against Iran” -- said act being a blockade of Iranian imports of refined petroleum products, as well as imposing inspections on everything entering or departing Iran – i.e. we are to become a doorkeeper for the country of Iran, period. What’s behind this madness is, of course, and as Buchanan points out, the efforts of AIPAC, as well as various high-ranking Israeli officials. There could be no clearer proof that Israel has the U.S. in the palm of its hand, foreign policy-wise, and that it’s starting to squeeze even harder than usual. Buchanan’s proposed response to this is for the American people to threaten to vote against any congressman who votes for the resolution in question – i.e. the one that turns American foreign policy and strategy over to Israel in a blatantly overt way. Well, sorry, Mr. B., but that ship has sailed, decades ago. Americans are, by and large, convinced that not only whatever is good for Israel is good for us, but that Israel is worth defending every bit as much as the U.S. is. In fact, many are convinced that Israel is _more_ worth defending than the U.S. – those would be the “Christian Zionists”, who really don’t care one way or the other what happens to the U.S. economy, or its military, or civil liberties, as long as Israel is kept on life support until the Rapture, or the Second Coming, or whichever milestone they happen to be focused on at the time. If you throw an apple core out a car window – to paraphrase H. L. Mencken – anywhere in America, you’re likely to hit someone who believes that it makes perfect sense to send our troops over to whatever godforsaken shithole was on Dick Cheney’s mind when he woke up this morning, just because Israel wants us to. And if troops on the ground aren’t enough, well then we have missiles, and bombers, and all the other peacekeeping tools that have proven so effective of late in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An added difficulty with this particular situation is that the few people who are skeptical are afraid to speak up, even in private, for fear of being labeled "anti-Semitic", “haters”, “isolationists”, “Nazis”, “fascists”, or any other calm, level-headed term that forms such a vital part of our everyday political discourse, and that encourages fearless and open discussion of the important issues of our day.

It strikes me that it is the sheer madness of this situation that keeps people from realizing how wrong it is. When things are this far out of kilter, but our leaders are all for it, and the media never object, and no one says a discouraging word in public, then the tendency is for the human brain to sort of short circuit, and refuse to see things as they are. The psychology of it is similar to what is called “the Big Lie” – if it’s outrageous enough people will go along with it simply because they don’t have the intellectual mechanism to oppose it. Lincoln convinced half of the U.S. that it was necessary to destroy the other half in order to “preserve the Union”. Hitler convinced the Germans that the Jews were “the” problem, when anyone could have seen that the Jews were way down on the worry list for Germany at that time. Lenin and Stalin convinced the Russians that the Church had to be done away with – you know, that entity that had been central to Russian history and culture for 1000-odd years? But it had to go. FDR convinced the American people that socialism was the only answer to our woes – you know, the ones that were “caused” by free enterprise and capitalism? JFK, LBJ, and Nixon said we really “needed” to be over in Vietnam, fighting -- in effect -- the Vietnamese people for control of their country. And now it’s Iraq, Afghanistan, and the “Global War on Terror” that are next in the long and tragic line of delusion and folly. But this time, at least, it’s not entirely our idea. There is another country that believes in what we are doing, and that’s supposed to make it OK. Every time the shadow of a doubt crosses the mind of one of our leaders, someone from AIPAC is right there, behind the arras, ready to cheer them up and reassure them that all is well. Talk about hiring (or voting for) the handicapped! In the entire Bush administration there is not one intact spine to be found – and the same holds true for the presidential candidates of the two major parties. And yet, all this inspired leadership has yet to cause the slightest ripple of indignation in the American public; in fact, the worse things get, the more people will get behind vapid notions like “staying the course”. At times like this it’s always tempting to just say, well, people get the leaders they deserve, and let it go at that. But something made Americans subscribe to all of these delusions, and maybe the process can be reversed. Simple failure won’t do it – we see this in the case of Vietnam, which most still, to this day, see as a worthy but flawed effort. “If it weren’t for the damn left-wing media…”, etc. And now we have the Internet, which is pretty good at “outing” various kinds of folly, delusion, deception, and treachery. But the broad baseline of skepticism which would be needed to achieve any real change is not there, as yet. And speaking of "change", don't count on Obama; he's already sold out, and he won't even be in office (if ever) for another six months.