THE NATIONALIST DILEMMA: U.S.
WAR ON TERROR
By Chris Farvel
Copyright © Chris Farvel June 2004, All rights
reserved
We are nationalists, deeply in love with our country,
willing to defend her with our lives if need be.
This way of life and mode of thinking is at the essence
of our being.
For this reason, we hail our comrades and folks who
defend their countries from outside aggression, with all
the means at their disposal.
We share the great passion the United States has for
freedom and security, and we understand their grief and
sorrow, their fear and anger after September 11.
We too will fight to the bitter end to defend our land,
and we will defeat aggression with all the means at our
disposal, against all foes, whether they come from
Russia, Germany, Saudi Arabia or the United States.
The dilemma of being nationalist these days, is not how
to feel solidarity towards fellow nationalists, it is to
cope with the idea that their nationalism can be deadly
to us.
In so far as nationalism stays within the boundaries of
the nation, from which nationalism has been born and was
created, it is nationalism and it is totally and utterly
all right with us. However, when nationalism extends to
exporting with the help of guns and tanks one's beliefs
and values abroad, it is not nationalism any longer.
There is much difficulty in grasping this difference.
To be clear, as long as you stay at home and are patriots
and love your country, that is OK with us, and the rest
of the world, but to export your nationalism is
imperialism, and colonialism. It is conquest and it is
murder.
The idea that: they came to us and they slaughtered us,
for that reason, we can go to them and spread terror and
we can kill as many as we want, is a tempting one, but it
is very wrong, it is vengeance and it is illegal.
There is one aspect that has not been explained to the
people, and it is about you and us. We too had casualties
in the bombing of the World Trade Centre.
There were many nationalities, many foreigners killed.
Have they had any say in the enquiries, have they had any
voice in the war preparations, have they had access to
all the information, no is the answer to all these
questions.
No. France had several dead, did they go to war in Iraq,
no. Why? Are not the French as patriots as Americans? Oh
yes, and they have proved it, again and again against the
Spanish, the Arabs, the English, the Prussians, the
Dutch, the Germans, the Italians, and whoever has ever
attempted at conquering the country. Even US troops were
required to leave after the war. Not out of lack of
gratefulness, but because it hurt the patriot feelings of
the population, who had seen the Germans flee to be
replaced by US troops. No sovereign state can accept
occupation of its soil, for whatever purpose.
There is no such a thing as an-occupying-yet-liberating
foreign armed forces.
When you apply these rules to your own people, you see
how clear they are.
The dilemma in the US is to accept that those rules
apply to everyone, not only to them. We do have the
right, the moral duty, out of love for our country, to
defend her with all the means at our disposal, be they
stones, bombs, bamboo sticks or nuclear devices. You
recognize that right for yourselves, you must recognize
that right for us too.
You have not been told what we see in you these days. It
hurts, I know, but if we want to be friends again,
because we are not out of love for you, we cherish the
values, the culture, the principles we share, we are
dismayed and disgusted to see, in our so-called civilized
times, resurrect the old demons of the Far West, of the
Spanish conquest, when thousands of natives lost their
lives and their land for the sake of colonialism, bigotry
and greed.
Vengeance is acceptable only in a very few cases,
religion principles and human values ask us to be fair
and magnanimous, to kill hundreds of thousands for the
sake of a mere few is slaughter. Remember that not all
the victims of 9/11 were Americans. We have not given you
the right to avenge our dead!
You went abroad to spread death and destruction and there
is no real, logical reason for it. That is how we see it.
You must be told. We, the people, cannot condone the act
of barbarism committed by the few of your selected
leaders in your name, and we cannot validate their taking
over our rights without our permission. We will not be
accomplices to genocide. We cannot endorse the defense of
the interests Jews against our own principles, morals,
and against other peoples whoever they may be.
We know you are wiser and you do love freedom just as
much as we do. You have been betrayed, you have been lied
to. By now, you have figured it out. You will see the
proofs as they come along. You have been fooled, because
you have faith in a few shady characters, they misled
you, they openly lied to all of us, they obviously
manipulated us, they were not successful with us, they
should never had been successful with you.
The lesson here, is that we must get rid of the dilemma
posed by the US nationalism. We must recognize the right
for each nation to rule within its own borders. We must
assert that acts of war against a potential enemy is not
a way of conducting world affairs, as this creates
dangerous precedents.
Think back! When Germany was at the top, it thought it
would never be defeated, yet, the country was, and who
could had thought it could occur in one's lifetime, that
it would ever happen. Yet, Germany has paid a heavy price
for its deeds.
It can happen to you. No one can know the future with
certainty. What will we do the day Egypt, Jordan, Saudi
Arabia, or whoever it might be at that time, conducts
preemptive strikes on us?
It is not logical to think that we will annihilate one
billion Muslims, who are our foes today, and there are
still 6 billion others who might be, one day our
potential enemies. Are we going to kill them all?
What gives us the right to kill them and why would not
they have just the same the right to kill us?
The dilemma for us, nationalists is to tell you how much
we like you as a people, and how much we dislike you as
self-appointed world leaders.