tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post3919727466244719152..comments2024-03-27T13:13:25.164-04:00Comments on johnshaplin: Every Man In This Village Is A Liar by Megan K. Stackjohnshaplinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post-45649201885246783322010-08-23T11:26:40.880-04:002010-08-23T11:26:40.880-04:00“Every Man In This Village Is A Liar; An Education...“Every Man In This Village Is A Liar; An Education in War” By Megan K. Stack; Doubleday, 2010 <br /><br />“There is nothing further away from Washington than the entire world.”- Arthur Millerjohnshaplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post-22628353151821672382010-08-23T11:25:32.545-04:002010-08-23T11:25:32.545-04:00Here is the truth: It matters what you do at war. ...Here is the truth: It matters what you do at war. It matters more than you ever want to know. Because countries, like people, have collective consciences and memories and souls, and the violence we deliver in the name of our nation is pooled like sickly tar at the bottom of who were are. We may wish it were not so, but action amounts to identity. We become what we do. You can tell yourself all the stories you want, but you can't leave your actions over there in Iraq and Afghanistan. You can't build a wall and expect to live on the other side of memory. All of that poison seeps back into our soil.<br /><br />And it makes us lie to ourselves, precisely because we want to believe that we are good, we do not want to interrupt a noble national narrative. But there are things we try to obscure by talking about terrorism: things we do to others, and to ourselves. Only the mos hawkish Israelis say that they are oppressing people in order to take away their land. There are other stories to tell; other ways to frame and explain military campaigns. Israelis are looking for security; they are fighting terror; it is ugly but they have no choice. Every nation needs its stories, never more than in times of war. And so Israelis tell themselves they are making the desert bloom, that they are the only democracy in the Middle East, a humane land that is sometimes forced to behave inhumanly, and we Americans tell ourselves that we are fighting tyranny and toppling dictators. And we say this word, 'terrorism', because it has become the best excuse of all. We push into other lands, we chase the ghosts of a concept, because it is too hard to admit that evil is already in our hearts and blood is on our hands.johnshaplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.com