I have been stunned by the RAGE!!!! that I pick up when I read about Blackwater. Most of the comments are not merely angry - they scream RAGE.
Nearly all are accusatory for none of us know what happened on Sept 16. There are almost no clear facts. Many use very loaded language - even Bill Moyers whom I have admired for my entire adult life uses adjectives and nouns that he should only use if he knew what was going on and who these people were. Most of the mass of comment comes from people who have never met anyone from Blackwater or have never been to Iraq or have never heard a shot fired in their life. So their rage comes from something other than knowledge.
What is going on?
Might it be this?
This is Holman Hunt's Scapegoat. Wikipedia define a Scapegoat thus:
The scapegoat was a goat that was driven off into the wilderness as part of the ceremonies of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, in Judaism during the times of the Temple in Jerusalem. The rite is described in Leviticus 16.
The word is more widely used as a metaphor, referring to someone who is blamed for misfortunes, generally as a way of distracting attention from the real causes. Another term for scapegoat is fall guy.
Why might Blackwater be a Scapegoat? What sin are we projecting on them?
Surely it cannot be because they may have killed people or been aggressive? That is the stated reason. But The US Military do this every week. Here is a report (CNN) of an incident that occurred only a week after Sept 16:
Al-Maliki expressed his concerns to Gen. David Petraeus over Iraqi reports that 10 to 15 civilians were killed in the raid, spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told CNN's "Late Edition."
The U.S. military said its ground forces are "unaware" of civilian deaths in the early morning raid that it said left 49 "criminals" dead.
"There is a great tension in the Iraqi government" over the incident, al-Dabbagh said.
During Sunday's meeting, he said al-Maliki "clearly mentioned that this excessive force ... by the Multi-National Forces used against civilians [is] not creating a good atmosphere."
An Iraqi Interior Ministry source told CNN that 15 civilians were killed -- all men -- and 52 other civilians were wounded, including women and children.
Sadr City's mayor, Hassan Adhab, told Iraqi state TV there were 10 "martyrs" -- including a mother and her three children -- and 42 others were wounded.
Coalition forces were targeting a man they said was a leader in an Iranian-funded kidnapping operation. U.S. military spokeswoman Sgt. Nicole Dykstra told CNN the target was "neither apprehended nor killed."
Adhab described a bloody scene, saying dozens of sheep were killed in the melee, and military aircraft still hovered over the neighborhood hours after the raid.
Do we hear of demands that the US Army be expelled? What outrage do we hear from our own journalists about the poor discipline or the lack of regard for Hearts and Minds?
So it cannot be the alleged "crime". So what is driving the rage - what is the sin that we project onto Blackwater? I don't know for sure - how could I - but here are some thoughts.
We live in the illusion of the "Just War". We in the west only go to war for the best of reasons. After all what was WWII all about? We forget that once a war is under way - it is only a terrible and cruel thing. We conveniently forget Dresden and the fire bombing of Tokyo.
When the American public started to realize that the Vietnam war was maybe not the Just war that it was described by the administration, the scapegoat was the Army. Worse, America spat upon the young men who returned. The sin of the nation was put upon the shoulders of the grunt.
We have recognized this. Now the one group that cannot be faulted is the military - especially the men in the field. The most un patriotic thing to do in America is to repeat the shameful treatment that was routinely handed out in the 1970's.
So as we begin to understand that war is a terrible business. As we start to know that it involves intimidation, the killing of women and children - this surely cannot be us? As our fantasy about war being a John Wayne move with no blood is reveled as just that - a fantasy. We refuse to accept this. There must be a villain that it is politically correct to blame.
There is only the contractors and in particular the ones that we know about - Blackwater.
There is perhaps a deeper sin that we them to pay for.
That is our own inability to make our state work anymore. As I have written before - a feature of the Messy World is that the friction and the self serving of our vast bureaucracies are driving the outsourcing of more and more government services.
Is this the fault of the service provider or us? Might the greatest sin of all be that our state is failing us and that we have let this happen? In every sector, private organizations are replacing the state. Some think that there is a Plot! All of us that deal with government know that there is no plot. I fight a guerilla war all the time with government agencies that purport to serve me but only serve themselves. Surely you have had the same experience? It is the size, power and friction of bureaucracies that make them so incompetent. Think about your school system - the post office - your police. Ask why so many private guards were hired in New Orleans? The issue was trust. Few trusted the NOPD.
An industry of protest and a wave of books are emerging about this trend. It is indeed a shame. But it is not the private schools fault any more than it is Blackwater's.
Rage - RAGE - is rage about its focus? Here is the test. Think of the most angry friend/relative you know. Remind yourself why they are so angry - why they rage. You will remember that it is not about the issue at hand but it is about them - they have to project their anger outward - for it would be unbearable for them to accept that the fault might might be in them.
Can America accept that war is terrible? Can America accept that the republic is dying? Could Germany accept the loss of WWI and the inflation?
Lincoln understood that sin underlies all war - he had no illusions. That is why he chose a hard man Grant to end it - to end it the only way that wars can be ended in an ocean of blood and misery. For war can only be a terrible thing - which is why we surely have to hesitate before starting one. I close therefore with his advice to the American people at a time when the most terrible things had to be done to end the civil war.
He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." 3
In the 1950's America was also swept up in a hysteria - how could we have allowed the Communists to take over most of Europe? It must be someone's fault. We had to blame someone for this gross national failure - for had we not fought a war to free Europe? It had to be the "commie bastards" at home.
Finally a brave man called the Senator out:
In an impassioned defense of Fisher that some have suggested he had prepared in advance,[62] Welch responded, "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never gauged your cruelty or your recklessness[...]" When McCarthy resumed his attack, Welch interrupted him: "Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" He then left the room to loud applause from the spectators, and a recess was called.
