COMMENTARY
'Peace on Earth?' Go tell that to the president

By C. Keith Haugen
U.S. Army veteran, local entertainer, writer and educator

"Oh, wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us!"

Yes, and it was Robert Burns (1759-1796) who put it so well.

"Take him out," President Bush says of Saddam. But how'd you feel if another country's leader wanted to force a regime change on us? Advertiser library photo • Nov. 8, 2002

I often try to stand back and look at myself too. How are we seen? How are we perceived in the eyes of others? Do they think that we are all like our president? Do they think that just because there is so much corruption in our government, and we condone it, somehow we too must be corrupt? Do they hear the lies that are leaked to the press by government officials and think we are all liars?

For many decades, we've wondered why people all over the world hold us in such disdain. Why don't they like us? What is it about America that turns off so much of the rest of the world? Is it because we are truly the "ugly American"? Is it our arrogance, our imperialistic approach to those who are different from us?

Is it because we are thought of as rich, and much of the world is poor by comparison? We are the "haves" and they are the "have nots."

Or perhaps it's that we don't practice what we preach. Are there good reasons that they think of us as a war-mongering nation? Do we, as a people, really believe that we are the chosen people and it is our lot to rule and tell everyone else how they should live?

I've heard "experts" discussing this at length in recent years, especially when we have invaded other countries, attacked other sovereign peoples, started wars that were clearly for our benefit, not those of the "oppressed" whom we pretended to help.

We've watched our government shift from the democracy that was the dream of our wise founding fathers to an oligarchy that governs a huge and powerful people who are fast becoming a two-class system.

There are the rich and the poor. Our rich are much richer than all but a few sheiks or sultans in the oil-rich Middle East (and of course, the queen of England), and our poor are not as poor as those of Third World countries ... where they are starving to death by the millions. Our rich are the leaders — the president, the members of Congress, the military leaders, the heads of corporate America. The military and the working class are made up of the poor. The middle class has all but disappeared.

What would we do if asked to let U.N. investigators in to look at our nuclear sites? We don't even let our own people know about them — so what makes anyone think we'd share that information with anyone else? After all, we are a country with nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. And we're the only country in the history of mankind that has used nuclear weapons.

What if the situation were reversed and Iraq was flying military planes over a "no-fly" zone in our country, attacking and bombing on a daily basis for more than a decade, while they continued to promote an embargo that denied our children food and medicine they need just to survive?

What if they asked to take our nuclear scientists and their families out of our country to interview them? How would we react to that?

We talk with our friends from other countries, and they openly tell us how they view America, our president and, yes, us Americans. We're all tarred with the same brush when we blindly follow the dictates of our leader. Does it surprise anyone that we have millions of Americans who dare not speak out, in this day when we are losing more and more of the freedoms we gained by shedding our own blood over the past 225 years?

I often wonder if our leaders ever even talk with "ordinary" people — other than the powerful leaders and their representatives — in foreign lands. Can it be that their leaders are just as much out of touch as ours with what their electorates think about the world situation?

What would our leaders do if some foreign power amassed hundreds of thousands of troops, warships, missiles and bombs and bombers near our shores in preparation to start a war by attacking us? What would we, the people, think and do? What must the Iraqi people think of us? What must their neighbors in that region think of us? What do the poorer, less powerful countries of the world think of us? Why don't we care what they think of us?

How would we react if news organizations from these other countries set up biased "reporting" teams in our country, and dishonestly reported what they believed would help their leaders to decide how and when to launch the attack?

How would we feel if the foreign media "honestly" reported all the things that go on in our country? Why is "peace" suddenly a bad word? And who appointed us the imperial power that would make all the decisions for all the people of the world?

There was a time when we won the respect of the rest of the world. When we stood up to the colonial rule of the British and became a free nation. We objected in those days to foreign powers coming in to tell anyone how to run their own affairs. Then we became a colonial power ourselves.

Patriotism ran high again after we were attacked in 1941, and we came together as no other nation in the history of mankind and went on to turn that horrible defeat at Pearl Harbor into a victory, without even removing the emperor of Japan from the Chrysanthemum Throne.

Now we talk of "regime change" as if it is entirely up to us to decide who should rule in every country in the world. "Take him out," our president's father says of a leader he doesn't particularly like. "Take him out," echoes our president. What would we say and do if the president of another country decided to change the regime in our country? What would we say and do if some other country's leader told his people that they should "take out" our president? Or what would we say if some foreign power in another part of the world decided that a "regime change" was best for the people of Canada, our neighbor?

Remember, the president doesn't go to war. He sends the soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen. Bobby Darin put it so well in his 1969 hit song, "Simple Song of Freedom," when he said that "we the people here don't want a war." He wrote: "Now no doubt some folks enjoy doin' battle; like presidents, prime ministers and kings. So let's all build them shelves where they can fight among themselves, and leave the people be who love to sing."

Even the most patriotic Americans, those of us who want peace and freedom for all, are openly criticized if we speak out against starting another war. People ask me how I "dare" to be so vocal. And the conservative radio and television talk shows now serve as little more than apologists for the president, giving us daily pro-war hype to prepare the public for what they say is inevitable. But it is now that Americans must stand up and speak out. If you wait until our president pushes the button to start Gulf War, Episode II, it will be too late. If you speak out after he has attacked the Iraqis, your government will say you are not supporting our troops.

And we should think of the troops — the men and women who make a career out of being in the military. Most of them don't want to fight; none wants to die. But they don't dare to say that. They don't even dare to speak their minds.

They are told that it will ruin their careers, adversely affect their families, if they dare to question the authority of their commander in chief. If the president tells you to attack and kill innocent women and children — or the leader of another country — you will do it. To do otherwise would make you a "traitor" in the eyes of the president.

Peace on Earth, good will to all men everywhere? Don't you dare suggest that when we're talking about war, incarcerating anyone who looks different from the president. As a patriotic American, a veteran who loves and cares about my country, I do care how people see us and what they think about us. I think it is time for us to do what our forefathers thought right. I come from a family of patriots ... veterans all. My father served in World War I, my brothers in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and my only sister's husband with the Marines at Iwo Jima. They're all gone, but I'm sure they would agree that now is the time to stand up and be counted.

Speak your mind, even if it incurs disfavor from those in power or those who stand to gain from yet another war. Write to the president, tell him what you think. I did. Don't be afraid to speak out. It's your country, even if some people criticize you for doing so.

"If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything."