Like But Not Like VietNam

"We had to destroy the villiage in order to save it." The war on Iraq is like the War onVietNam except for all the ways it is not like it. In each case we talked of defending the Iraqi/Vietnamese people or government as if such an entity existed.There are no Iraqis ,as in We The People, just as there were no Vietnamese. The notion itself is a construct and a very disputed chunk of territory requiring a unified entity to actually manifest.Purple fingers don't do it. It is unclear whether a Lebanon actually exists.Bush declared during his recent trip to Hanoi that the "lesson" of the war was that Americans need to be persistant, to persevere, to stay the course. This lesson is being promoted, just as that horrible war is still being fought, over at blogs such as neo-neocons by people whose whole reality depends on that not having been a huge mistake. Just as they cannot nor ever will admit going into Iraq was a huge mistake. The real lesson, of course, is down the Mall from the Presidents house, a huge black wall with the 58,000 names on it. 3 million Vietnamese. Who knows how many Iraqis. These ghosts WILL haunt us.

What might just save us, as a species, is art. I just returned from watching my daughters dance company perform in Columbia, Missourri and it was a somewhat profound experience, sitting there with a large group of fellow humans watching something so beautiful and thought-provoking and abstract unfold in a magically uniting way. It struck me that this was a form of anti-war. It was all about transcending the base and barbaric and banal aspects of human existence and reaching toward something better, the possible that does exist. That Truth provides a glimmer of hope each time I experience an artform. And it made me proud that I had raised an artist rather than a soldier.

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends but reports are showing that "food insecurity" ,formerly known as hunger, is growing in this land of conspicuous consumption and obscene wealth. Montana's food banks saw a three fold increase in use this past year despite the fact unemployment remains at around 4%. 24% recieve some food support during the year. This means more people with jobs cannot afford to feed their families. Sad. Ten shoppers were injured in a Mall stampede on Black Friday morning, rushing to get at the newest gizmos. We celebrated Buy Nothing Day.