FEEDING THE SNAKE

Can war be funny? 

I’d have to say no.  Not ha-ha funny – not usually.  But maybe tongue-in-cheek humor.  Maybe sarcasm.  Maybe irony.  Maybe ridicule.  Maybe there is dark humor to be found – the macabre.

I usually don’t go for the macabre.  But as I wondered what I could feed my blog here, I remembered a cartoon on the editorial page of The Washington Post from more than a year ago, June 5, 2007, by Tom Toles – a cartoon about feeding a snake.  It’s more shocking than funny.  More ridicule of government policies than amusing.  A graphic portrayal of the downside of Empire-building.

The cartoon is unforgettable:  It is a drawing of a snake labeled “IRAQ,” with its reptilian tongue licking its reptilian mouth. Its bulging belly is labeled “SURGE.”  The tiny artist character in the corner says, “We’re still hoping for a good outcome.” 

Cartoon by Tom Toles

It has been more than a year since the cartoon was published, and I don’t think the solution is to keep feeding the snake indefinitely, with more and more soldiers going to Iraq, and continuing involvement year after year (more than five years so far).  Rather there has to be some creative problem-solving.  And maybe some realistic thinking about what our goals are now.

Is Iraq a snake?  No, but the situation there is ever-ravenous for more lives, more fortune.

Can America get out of Iraq?  Is the situation hopeless?  Not at all!  All we need are leaders with ingenuity, with skills in problem-solving, and who know how to work peacefully and cooperatively with other people.  America could recover its civil liberties and we could get back to feeling good about ourselves.  (Am I being just too, too optimistic?)  Whether the Iraqis will be able to recover anytime soon is doubtful; after all, their country has been wrecked.  The families of slain and injured American soldiers are not going to recover anytime soon.

Searching for another place, a way out of sorrow

Full-size image

I found some tongue-in-cheek humor in a recent issue of the National Catholic Reporter (May 16, 2008), quoting James Baker, secretary of state under President George H.W. Bush, on the PBS program “American Experience,” where Baker said that for years after the first Gulf War, critics asked him why the first Bush Administration didn’t go into Baghdad.  He said, “Guess what?  Nobody asks me that anymore.”

I’ll bet.  Now that tickled my funny bone.

I found some bitter irony in a recent bit of junk mail from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) in a paragraph entitled, “Fighting the Wrong War,” saying that the “disastrous invasion of Iraq has had no effect on Al-Qaeda other than to boost their recruiting efforts – and America is no safer than before.”  Of course the terrorists and also, the Iraqi patriots fighting Empire-building, will intensify their efforts for as long as the Empire-building continues.  How ironic that the outcome is exactly the opposite of that promised by the politicians.

A sad, sad situation but so loaded with irony for those who could see it coming.

I suppose you noticed I said “patriots,” not “insurgents.”  When our press is mostly not free, and when embedded journalists work for news outlets that are in-bed-with the corporate puppeteers who hold the strings in government, then freedom fighters become i-n-s-u-r-g-e-n-t-s.  It’s 1984 and language is a tool to obfuscate the obvious.  (I don’t recall where I found that delightful play on words – embedded / in-bed-with.) 

I always feel a sardonic knowing when I hear war-mongering politicians invoking the Prince of Peace and wrapping themselves in the cloak of religion.  I think of the words of Jesus, “By their fruit you will recognize them.  Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?  Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.”  (Matthew, chapter 7 NIV)

I always look to see what kind of fruit they are producing (heh, heh).

It’s a shame so many people had no qualms about trashing another country for no good reason, and did not turn against the war until they realized there might not be a “victory.”  I am reminded of an amusing and acerbic comment I read on the BBC’s Have Your Say, something about trying to make a hippopotamus fly by attaching just a few more propellers to it.  The powers-that-be would like us to believe it’ll take just a few more propellers, when what we need is more than they can even imagine.  Yes, we need to do something about terrorism – but more propellers ain’t it.

A real lasting peace comes from peaceful and just actions.

And while the rest of the world surges ahead – China doing handstands economically, Russia now the world’s top producer of crude oil, India slurping up our jobs; we are left carrying a ton of debt, still feeding the snake. 

Now that’s nothing to laugh about.

Slide show and music on my main page.

-2008-

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