Ok, before anyone goes reporting me to the FBI, let me explain myself. I was reading an article in Guardian today about Congress’s passage of the latest Iraq war funding bill and the fact that neither Clinton nor Obama voted for it when I came across this bit
Both Ms Clinton and Mr Obama faced a dilemma over how to vote. A no vote opens them up to accusations by Republicans of being unpatriotic by potentially denying US troops in combat necessary funds.
What infuriates me most about the word ‘unpatriotic’ is how frivolously people have used it since 9/11. The Bush administration and Congressional Republicans have been the worst offenders: namely that Congress passed the ridiculously overbearing USA Patriot Act soon after 9/11. Most Congress members admitted they hadn’t even read it and just rubber stamped it because, if you didn’t, you were unpatriotic. If you didn’t support the war in Iraq you were unpatriotic. Even now with the war going so horribly and the voting public turning agains the Republican party and the President, Clinton and Obama still run the risk of being labelled unpatriotic just because they did not vote for this war funding. Now, let me also state that I am in no way saying that the troops should not get this war funding; I’m not unhappy it passed. I am, however, proud of Obama and Clinton for making a stand agains this illegal, ongoing bloodbath.
In my MA dissertation I argued that the war on terror was going to be a new cold war for the 21st century in so far as it is a constant threat to America just as the Soviets were. The similarities are so striking in the language and rhetoric used during these two time periods. Bush uses “you’re either with us or against us” and “evil-doers” and Cold War language used “it is also a struggle for supremacy between two conflicting ideologies: Freedom under God versus ruthless, godless tyranny.” (John F. Kennedy) Communism was an evil red network of extremists aiming for our God-fearing Democratic country and institutions. Terrorists too are painted as a network of extremists who are just waiting to attack our country again. I’m not saying they’re not dangerous but what can be extremely dangerous, in my opinion, is this enormous language that makes everything Good vs Evil. The world is not black and white, it is mostly grey.
And that my friends is why the Republicans have been able to point the finger at anyone over the past seven years and accuse them of being ‘unpatriotic’ and forcing them to vote for bills that most, in good conscience, would not have voted for. And that is also why I am proud to be unpatriotic if it means I’m standing up for what I feel is right and not bowing to pressure to support a war I don’t agree with.