Not To Be Thrown Away
Without further comment, a very short excerpt from a remarkable essay about being American, and why we might might question whether those who loudly claim their greater love of country are really to be believed.
Right after the Abu Ghraib photos surfaced, but before I had had time to truly assimilate them, I was at a working meeting with some Canadian academics. We were talking about the war, and one of them said: how, exactly, is America better than Saddam Hussein? That's an idiotic thing to say, I replied. We don't just throw people in prison for no reason and torture and kill them. At that point someone asked: are you sure?
[…]
The thought that I could not say, with complete confidence, that my country would never throw people in jail and torture them, would never beat innocent taxi drivers to death for no reason, would never ship prisoners off to be tortured in other countries, and would never try to lock up its citizens without charges, trial or counsel — that was among the most horrifying thoughts I have ever had. And it was horrifying because I love my country, and because I love it not just because it is mine, but because of what it stands for. And I cannot stand to see it thrown away.
[hilzoy, "More Things We Throw Away", Obsidian Wings, 9 June 2005.]