by Edward Said
One opens The New York Times on a daily basis to read the most
recent article about the preparations for war that are taking place
in the United States. Another battalion, one more set of aircraft
carriers and cruisers, an ever-increasing number of aircraft, new
contingents of officers are being moved to the Persian Gulf area.
62,000 more soldiers were transferred to the Gulf last weekend. An
enormous, deliberately intimidating force is being built up by
America overseas, while inside the country, economic and social bad
news multiply with a joint relentlessness. The huge capitalist
machine seems to be faltering, even as it grinds down the vast
majority of citizens. Nonetheless, George Bush proposes another
large tax cut for the one per cent of the population that is
comparatively rich. The public education system is in a major
crisis, and health insurance for 50 million Americans simply does
not exist. Israel asks for 15 billion dollars in additional loan
guarantees and military aid. And the unemployment rates in the US
mount inexorably, as more jobs are lost every day.
Nevertheless, preparations for an unimaginably costly war continue
and continue without either public approval or dramatically
noticeable disapproval. A generalised indifference (which may
conceal great over-all fear, ignorance and apprehension) has greeted
the administration's war- mongering and its strangely ineffective
response to the challenge forced on it recently by North Korea. In
the case of Iraq, with no weapons of mass destruction to speak of,
the US plans a war; in the case of North Korea, it offers that
country economic and energy aid. What a humiliating difference
between contempt for the Arabs and respect for North Korea, an
equally grim, and cruel dictatorship.
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