Cycle of hypocrisy

Talk about irony. We'd need a whole lot of irony to fall on Mr. Martin Samuel for him to realize how truly appropos it is for the blood stained steel from the World Trade Center to be melted, fastened, bolted, and burnished into U.S. Warships.

Martin Samuel's screed entitled, "Turn 9/11 rubble into a killing machine? Hello?" is... uh, a piece of work to be sure. The layers of blame-America-irony are thick.

In this way, the 2,800 souls that perished as an indirect result of an interventionist foreign policy that achieved the exact opposite of its stated aims can be honoured by a vessel built to ensure that this flawed cycle of violence continues. The USS New York will carry 360 soldiers and 700 combat-ready Marines. It puts to sea with the motto: “Never forget.” Except they do. They always do. Times Online

Classic liberal-speak. What flawed cycle of violence would that be? Certainly not terrorist violence, eh? Not hatred being preached by islamic imams and funded by their dictatorial governments? No, Martin is incensed that Americans would choose to defend themselves with more than tired liberal pacifist self-hatred.

"...an indirect result of an interventionist foreign policy that achieved the exact opposite of its stated aims..."

Is he talking about Clinton foreign policy? Or just the entire history of American policy because he sure as hell can't be talking about Bush foreign policy before 9/11. Perhaps the vagaries of time lapse memory are playing havoc with Martin's judgement.

The ships would commemorate the attacks, if that is the right word, which it is plainly not. Exactly what is being commemorated anyway? Not the memory of the victims, as nothing is known of how they want to be remembered, and certainly not whether they would wish a warship to be dedicated in their name. Who knows in which direction their anger would be channelled? It could be that some of the dead might have thought over-reliance on warships was their downfall in the first place. Times Online

Oh, I don't know... I'd be willing to guess that most of the victims of 9/11 and their families don't take offense to 360 soldiers and 700 combat-ready Marines defiling their memories by being borne by the same steel that held them in the World Trade Center. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that they would be proud of our men and women in uniform having that steel being beat into swords to protect America; the steel bones of their tragedy being beat into massive weapons of war.

In essence what is being commemorated here is failure; the failure of American foreign policy to protect fully the interests of its citizens or make their world a safer place. America came under attack because the actions of successive governments have made it the enemy to large swaths of humanity. Anti-Americanism is growing alarmingly because, since September 11, the world’s most powerful nation has continued to alienate and divide even its allies. While not excusing wicked acts committed by terrorists, it would be foolish to view the behaviour of terrorists as motiveless. If we regard terrorism as the work of madmen and unrelated to our relationship with their world, we learn nothing from history.  Times Online

The real crux of the problem

Martin believes both that it is America's responsibility to make the world a safer place and that its 'interventionist policies' are to blame if they fail to make it a safe place. The cycle of hypocrisy is complete.

Martin's vision is dimmed by the pale light of liberal anti-americanism. To actually believe that 9/11 is America's fault is not just an instance of blaming the victim, it is an instance of being brainwashed by decades of Soviet propaganda. To believe that large swathes of humanity have valid reason to hate America is not logical. It is not even coherent. It is merely dogma.

Martin probably doesn't even consciously understand why he believes in the inherent evil of America. Can he answer why, in his mind, the building of U.S. Naval warships had more to do with causing 9/11 than the hatred preached by imams and funded by the dictatorships of the middle-east? I doubt it.

Since the September 11 attacks, the familiar argument is that the West did not start this war, but is determined to finish it. Yet the USS New York with its 700 combat-ready Marines was already on the drawing board before the World Trade Centre was hit, in all but name. Had the towers not fallen, there would still be a deadly billion-dollar vessel under construction in Louisiana. It would just be called the Saucy Sue and might not be built from the habitats of dead people and imbued with such heavy symbolism that workers in the shipyard are said to have treated its components with religious reverence.  Times Online

Martin's argument is that  9/11 was America's fault. To him the symbolic use of steel from the World Trade Center is an admission of guilt. Thus the apparent irony. The true irony is how uninformed and unintelligible Martin's arguments are because Martin has surrended his mind to the arguments and propaganda of the last enemy that America spent enormous amounts of blood and treasure to defeat in order to keep the world a safe place.

And while USS New York may currently be serving metaphorically as a symbol of American indefatigability and courage, it will one day be engaged in a genuine sense in the propagation of a foreign policy that continues to contribute to recycled violence, from continent to continent, with New York office workers the occasional collateral damage. To turn the rubble they left behind into the machinery for the next big mistake shows an ignorance of cause and effect that explains why some still believe George Bush and Tony Blair were right about the war, but wrong about the peace; as if the two can be separated. Our mistake was that we didn’t have an exit strategy, they say. Makes the entrance a pretty dumb-ass move, then, doesn’t it, Sparky?

“I think somebody should do a marker,” said Gerry Howard, editorial director of Broadway Books, “to say that irony died on September 11, 2001.” Wrong, Gerry. Turns out it was just hitting its stride. How ironic is that?

[H]egemonic Word count: 1052

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