American Leadership
By Doreen Miller -- Source: www.yellowtimes.org America, Where Are You Leading?
The late President Harry S Truman was known for keeping a plaque on his desk that read, "The buck stops here." This was in reference to the idiomatic expression "passing the buck" which describes a shoving off of responsibility onto someone else. As head of the nation, Truman understood that leadership entails accepting ultimate responsibility for those events and developments that transpired under his watch.
My, how times have changed! It seems America has evolved into a society that refuses to admit even partial responsibility for its actions and policies around the world. Not only does this present administration refuse to accept any responsibility for its failure to protect American and foreign citizens from the terror of 9-11, but it refuses to acknowledge any connections whatsoever between our country's policies and the state of the world at large.
Our leaders love to claim the moral high ground preaching to the rest of the world about such things as democracy, justice and peace. Yet, do we, in fact, practice what we preach? Our leaders have become so arrogantly self- serving that they no longer even pretend to try to uphold the democratic principles so clearly outlined in our Constitution. Instead, they continually look for ways to circumvent the burdensome processes of a functioning democracy.
Today, Americans are slowly waking up to some very unpleasant facts: secret, very undemocratic departments unaccountable to public scrutiny are being created by this administration. First, there was the unelected shadow government that had been set up by Bush shortly after September 11 allegedly in the event that Washington was ever destroyed in a terrorist attack. Now, word is slowly beginning to seep out about the fairly recently created Office of Special Plans whose fingerprints appear to be all over Bush's State of the Union lie concerning Iraq's supposed massive stash of weapons of mass destruction.
The Office of Special Plans was created by Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz for the purpose of investigating terrorist links without having to deal with the oversight of the CIA and FBI. Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski aptly criticizes the unaccountability of this select group of individuals as "a subversion of constitutional limits on executive power and a co-optation through deceit of a large segment of the Congress." Indeed, this group engages primarily in closed-loop practices of "groupthink," a process characterized by the exclusion of outside professional and independent views leading to an overwhelmingly uncritical acceptance of the prevailing viewpoint. Certainly, no true democratic processes are tolerated here.
The U.S. speaks of justice, yet fails to follow through with the law in pursuing and bringing to justice so-called terrorists and "enemies of the state." Instead, our leaders opt to bomb poor, third world countries that have no chance of defending themselves against the most technologically equipped military power the world has ever seen. Is there really rightful cause to be so smug about our lightning-speed military victories against such countries as Afghanistan and Iraq?
Then, of course, there's the untidy problem of the many detainees in Guantanamo Bay, most of whom have never been linked to terrorism or officially charged with any crime. Nonetheless, these men, of mostly Middle Eastern origin, continue to live for months on end in a sort of sadistic limbo with little or no contact with family members and loved ones. Not only are they often denied basic legal rights such as the right to a lawyer, the right to face their accuser and the right to a fair, open and speedy trial, but now they face the very real threat of death by mock trials conducted by closed military tribunals using secret "evidence" against them. They essentially live with the sword of Damocles hanging over them in a macabre game of life and death. Does this truly espouse the American ideal of justice? Is this the kind of justice America would like to see emulated across the globe?
Finally, the area in which the United States is most hypocritical is that of its empty promises of peace. How can we profess to be the leaders in creating world peace when we carry such violence and war in our collective heart? Much of the U.S. economy depends on profitable war industries and the military. We are the number one worldwide exporter of death, prostituting military equipment, technology, weapons and bombs across the face of the Earth, in essence, giving a wink and a nod to the violence and destruction we see all over the world. We also lead the world in researching new, even more destructive, weapon technologies ultimately to be used against human beings in whatever countries we wish to demonize over time.
The U.S.A. demands that other countries dismantle their nuclear arsenals, yet is it the U.S. that has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, that has the dubious distinction as being the only nation to have dropped nuclear bombs in wartime over populous civilian cities, and that currently refuses to ratify the Nuclear Test Ban Pact. It is the U.S. that is pushing for renewed research into so-called usable "mini-nukes," as if using the word "mini" makes the deadly radiation emitted by such bombs any less dangerous to humankind. It is the U.S. that has already deployed nuclear weapons on the battlefields in Yugoslavia and in two wars in Iraq in the form of very deadly depleted uranium weaponry, whose radioactive effects will continue to sicken and kill many innocent people ad infinitum, as the half-life of the uranium-238 released on impact is 4.5 billion years! It goes without saying, the use of this latest U.S. military invention, DU weaponry, constitutes a serious crime against all of humanity.
To paraphrase Einstein, how dare we speak of peace when we continually and obsessively prepare for war. If we were truly serious about creating world peace, then we would actively engage in dismantling the military insanity that currently grips this world. We would work towards eliminating all weapons of war and destruction throughout the world, including those located and manufactured right within our own borders. Across the board, we would join the world community in outlawing research into and the development of weapons of destruction (and their delivery systems), conventional, nuclear, chemical or otherwise. We would open our borders to international inspections to assure other nations that we, too, are in compliance with the non-proliferation of weapons of war. We would become true advocates of human rights and leaders of peace not by threatening violence or force, but by courageously "beating our swords into plowshares" and by re-allocating our obscenely huge, military budget towards peaceful, constructive, life- affirming projects both at home and abroad.
The militaristic road the U.S. government is currently traveling will, in all certainty, lead us further away from peace and toward more mutually afflicted suffering, destruction, death, and, plausibly, the complete annihilation of humankind. We are at a crucial crossroads. At our own peril, we ignore the essential spiritual lesson handed down to us throughout the ages: like begets like. War begets war. It does not bring real, lasting peace; it only feeds into its own perverted logic of revenge and self- righteousness, quietly lying in wait to resurface at some unfortunate time in the future.
It's time to say, "The buck stops here." It's time to accept responsibility and to acknowledge the part we are playing in enabling the violence we see around the world. Indeed, if we want peace, we must tirelessly work for the peace we wish to see in the world. The time to take the first steps towards peace is now.
[Doreen Miller lived, studied, worked and traveled abroad for several years, and is currently a Senior Lecturer and educator of international students. She dedicates part of her time to serving the elderly and Alzheimer patients. Mother, musician and poet, she pursues an avid interest in Buddhist and Eastern philosophy. She advocates human rights, social justice, fair trade, and environmental protection. Doreen lives in the United States]
