Some people have professed to be shocked that Timothy McVeigh referred to the
deaths of the children in the day-care center in the federal building at
Oklahoma City as "collateral damage."
Why in heaven's name does that shock anyone? Timothy McVeigh did not invent
that phrase. He was a soldier, and the American government always refers to
civilian casualties as "collateral damage."
It is much more than an Orwellian euphemism to describe the deaths of innocent
human beings. It is meant to close the topic, to stop the conversation, to
dismiss the lost lives as not worthy of any further discussion. They are,
after all, merely "collateral damage." And one does not assume moral
responsibility for "collateral damage."
I have visited with McVeigh's mother and seen pictures of McVeigh as a boy and
as a young soldier. He is, whether we wish to admit it or not, a typical
American in many respects. He has absorbed the lessons of modern America.
What are those lessons?
First and foremost, that violence is an acceptable way to settle a dispute.
Look how many times the American government has resorted to violence -- in
Lebanon, in Libya, in Panama, in Grenada, in Somalia, in Iraq, in Sudan, in
Afghanistan, in Yugoslavia. And in Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho. In
every single instance, the deaths of innocent people were dismissed as
"collateral damage."
Yet in all those instances, Americans did not profess to be shocked, nor did
they refer in hushed, horrified tones to the callousness of the government. In
most cases, they cheered the violence. They, too, dismissed the dead children,
the dead mothers, the dead fathers as "collateral damage." The U.S.
government has killed a million times more civilians than Tim McVeigh, its
decorated soldier. And soon it will kill him.
People who are selectively horrified, depending on who the victim is, are, in
fact, amoral people. The children in the federal building were no different
than the children in Iraq, Yugoslavia or in the West Bank and Gaza. Nothing
stings a Palestinian more than to see the American press give prominent
attention to the death of a Jewish child while routinely ignoring the deaths
of Palestinian children. They are all equal in their preciousness and
innocence. It is racist to attach more importance to the death of one than to
the death of the other.
Many Americans, while they may not wish to admit it, see themselves when they
look at McVeigh. Oh, they don't have the nerve to act out their malice as he
did, but they are always eager to advocate violence; they, too, have
cockamamie opinions based on propaganda; they, too, think that not all lives
are equal and that some can be sacrificed for political reasons.
Some are already saying what "we should do to the Chinese" if they
won't release the crew on the Navy spy plane that landed on Hainan Island.
Well, there is an ugly fact that Americans had better remember before their
blow-hard pseudo patriotism goes beyond rhetoric. Those American crew members
are in China, under the control of the Chinese government, and whether they
will be released is entirely up to the Chinese government. Unless you wish to
consider their lives as "collateral damage," I would suggest that
diplomacy rather than bluster and threats is the better course of action.
The pilot, by the way, should not have delivered an American intelligence
aircraft to the Chinese. He should have -- Navy folks tell me -- used his 60
miles to head toward the nearest American or friendly ship and ditched the
plane. The crew did, however, dump some of the machines and destroy the codes
before landing, the Navy says.
At any rate, we are creating our own Frankenstein monsters, and McVeigh isn't
the only one by a long shot. A society that sends a message to its children
that violence is the way to settle disputes, that might makes right and that
not all lives are equal in value should not play the hypocrite when its sons
and daughters learn their lessons well.
For once, I'd like to see the entertainment industry, which also teaches that
violence is the way to solve problems, condemned for being the perverse
purveyor of pornography that it is. For once, I'd like to see the American
government actually play the peacemaker instead of the bully. For once, I'd
like to see Americans grieve for the deaths of all children whatever their
race, ethnicity or religion. For once, I'd like to see people realize that
military action or other government force is the last resort, not the first
option, and only then in defense of innocent life.
McVeigh in one sense is also a victim. The deaths he caused were useless, and
his own death will be useless. No one will have served any useful or
worthwhile purpose; certainly not him but just as surely not the government,
either. Just pain and grief. We seem to produce both as mindlessly as
Hollywood produces trash.
Reach Charley Reese at 407-420-5315 or [email protected]