Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 10, 1991 TAG: 9103110285
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bob Willis
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It wasn't enough. What, they both reasoned, could be of greater interest to the public, or a better circulation-builder, than a war?
Almost as soon as conceived, it was delivered. The papers vied with one another to hype items about alleged Spanish atrocities in Cuba, trumpeted the mysterious sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor as Spanish sabotage, kept popular anger at fever pitch. Even as Spain was trying, desperately, to settle this manufactured dispute on amicable terms, Pulitzer and Hearst sounded a call to arms to cast these brutal foreigners out of the hemisphere.
Sure enough, it came. On the day fighting finally broke out, Hearst's paper put an "ear" atop the front page - in one corner, where you see a capsule weather forecast daily - with the swashbuckling question: "How do you like the Journal's war?"
Newspapers still commit their quota of sins, but fortunately they seldom lead the way in warmongering. Indications are, however, that - like a generation nearly a century earlier - Americans liked their 1991 war just fine.
Similar to the Spanish-American conflict, it put America on the side of beleaguered, occupied people, against a crowd perceived as aggressors, bullies and beasts. The Gulf War also was short, filled with triumphs and low on U.S. casualties. Yellow ribbon blossomed. Flags sprouted from lapels. "Operation Desert Storm" stickers appeared on automobiles. The day the war ended, the clerk in the convenience store where I bought gasoline sported a button: "U.S. Kicks Butt."
Was all this really just a big football game? Not even a career-ending knee injury on either side?
I'm among those who hoped Iraq could be forced out of Kuwait without war. When that didn't happen, I was glad the fighting was pressed to a quick resolution and that the allies won decisively. Whether or not the war itself was just, the allies were on the side of right. And whatever happens now to Saddam Hussein is bound to be better than he deserves.
But I am left profoundly depressed by the home-front reaction. Nothing is easier than rallying 'round the flag, cheering our conquering heroes and welcoming them home. That's the warm, fuzzy stuff we like. It's all emotion.
Is it too much to hope, now we've torn the goalposts down, that more sober thoughts will intrude? Can we acknowledge that no matter what the cause, modern warfare is a terrible thing and that - given our increasingly sophisticated methods of death-dealing - every war is worse than its predecessor, therefore harder to justify?
Most people seem to consider patriotism - whatever that much-abused term means - an unalloyed good. I won't argue the point here. I will say that the kind of patriotism on display for the past several months spawned a number of unattractive attitudes:
Xenophobia. We're OK, the people we're fighting are not. Sam Nauman, who teaches school in Alleghany County, was harassed by students; some parents wanted him fired. Why? Through no choice of his own, he was born in Iraq. We demonize the enemy; in fits of silliness, we buy Saddam Hussein dolls and stick pins in them.
Intolerance. Always we're told that we fight wars for the cause of freedom, but freedom always is one of the first casualties. Dissent is a right guaranteed under the Constitution; but try to exercise that right in time of war, and you risk not only insults but also physical attack from "patriots."
Swagger. Might makes us all right. President Bush exults that we have buried the self-doubting Vietnam syndrome. If it takes winning a war over an outgunned foe to make America feel good about itself, we are a nation of neurotics.
I am not among those who fear that this victory will make resort to war easier and more appealing in the future. Unlike the United States in 1898, we are not expansionist or jingoistic; and if the New World Order means we must be a global policeman, I don't think Americans will have much patience for that. Maybe enlightened diplomacy, rather than balance-of-power politics, will come back in style.
My concern is that, because of this quick and overwhelming success, we will measure our worth, prowess and promise solely by our military power - and forget what truly makes our nation great. We have constitutional government and a Bill of Rights. We set a standard of freedom for much of the world. We offer opportunities that the downtrodden and dispossessed of other lands still long for.
We also have massive social, economic and other problems that challenge our full commitment to freedom, justice and equality. Poverty is spreading; health care is becoming unaffordable; crime and decay are destroying the cities; financial institutions are tottering; special-interest money is corrupting our national government; even the technological might that brought us victory in the gulf does us little good on world markets. The litany is familiar, and it could fill this entire page.
We won a war. Fine. It was easy compared with what else faces us. If next we can kick some domestic problems' butt, we'll have a right to be proud.
by CNB