This blog is closed
I am an enemy combatant
I have been thinking a lot these days of the story they tell about King Christian: when the occupying Nazis required Danish Jews wear the yellow Star of David armband, the king donned one for his daily rides through København as an expression of solidarity. This inspired the common Danes, who all started wearing armbands, making it impossible for the Nazis to tell Jew from Gentile.
The story is untrue: Danish Jews faced many dangers from the genocidal Nazis, but they were never ordered to wear the yellow badge. But the story resonates, with its “I Am Spartacus” moral of taking a firm, perhaps risky stand with those who are oppressed.
I have been thinking as well of the Free Speech Fights. Starting a century ago and lasting well into the Great War, municipalities across the western US banned sidewalk oration in response to a surge of union organizing. In Fresno, in Spokane and Seattle and Kansas City and about two dozen other places, union organizers were arrested for the crime of addressing passers-by. The Industrial Workers of the World responded: IWW activists — “Wobblies” — came into town, stood up on soapboxes, uttered the usual Wobbly salutation “Fellow Workers!” and were hauled off to jail. Soon the jails were full to bursting with Wobs, and towns realized they’d better rescind the free speech bans or go broke feeding prisoners. A simple idea behind a strategy that won every time: “They can’t take us all.” The Wobs faced more than arrests. They faced occasional mob violence from the equivalents of modern day Freepers. But they won, and today we assume their victories as our birthright. No Wobs, no blogs.
Forty years ago, one of my late neighbors involved in a very similar Free Speech fight stood on the steps of Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley’s administration building, and told an assembled crowd:
There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!
For all its manifold faults, for all its history steeped in racism and genocide, for all its wars of empire and Know-Nothing heritage, this country was manifestly founded on the notion that a just government bases its authority in the consent of the governed. Now the Bush administration has declared that the interests of this country are coincident with, and limited to, the short-term interests of the administration and its corporate backers, and the most basic, most essential Constitutional rights of the citizenry be damned, not by the odious exceptionalism of privilege that marred this country’s history, but across the board. All of us are three-fifths of a person now, granted the privilege of full protection only if we do nothing that requires protection, unless we are unlucky enough to be falsely accused. And I withdraw my consent.
I withdraw my consent. I am no one: a cog in the machine Mario Savio described. I am a man who would rather tell jokes than argue politics, would rather hike than march. But I have fought, over the course of my life, when the operation of the machine deprives me of the privilege of self-absorption. I have worked the past 14 years to educate, to inflame the public so that they might oppose environmental destruction done to enrich those who run the administration. I have worked the last three decades, if sporadically and without much consequence, to oppose the use of violence in the service of politics — any politics.
The Bush administration claims that all those who oppose it, though they think themselves loyal citizens sworn to defend the US Constitution, are enemies. I have opposed the Bush administration since before it began. The conclusion is a simple matter of logic.
I am an enemy combatant.
I am an enemy combatant, and I admit it freely and without reservation. You who reserve the right to climb up on that soapbox to say things unflattering to those in power: enemy combatants all. I am putting on that yellow armband. There are unlimited yellow armbands to be worn. One size fits all.
Posted by: Chris Clarke
Note: A database glitch in 2008 ate a bunch of archived comments. Don't be offended if yours isn't here, or confused if the conversation seems disjointed. Thanks!
How is it possible that our country has come to this? Are we really so pants-piddling terrified of “outsiders” that it seems sane to torture them?
I wonder at what point it will become so bad that the only reasonable course of action would be to quit my job and camp out on the White House lawn to protest night and day. But the distractions of daily routines and responsibilities always seem to push that day farther along. The water’s boiling, but this frog hasn’t jumped out of the pot. Isn’t this what Germany went through in the 1930s?
Inertia is a powerful force.
By: By Lisa on 2006 09 29
I was so angry last night, I couldn’t sleep. So I watched Attenborough’s Gandhi.
By: By Roxanne on 2006 09 29
I thought it was awesome when Rod Paige, then Secretary of Education, referred to the NEA as a “terrorist organization” a couple of years ago. Becky’s union card might just get her on a no-fly list one of these days.
By: By the_bone on 2006 09 29
The past few days, I’ve been pondering the quotation “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just”, even as I worry whether a God that I don’t believe in will care if I don’t observe Yom Kippur. Your post impelled me to google the quotation, which tells me (a) that it’s from Thomas Jefferson’s denunciation of slavery in 1785; and (b) that a lot of other folks are also pondering this, in the context of this latest assault on the principles underlying the founding of our country.
By: By alice on 2006 09 29
I started a short response. It turned long as I began to think:
Bush himself is the enemy of America. It’s been clear to me for about 5 years now that this man, and all the vicious little string-pullers behind him are THE enemy of everything American.
Ann Coulter: It’s like she grew up in one of those Russian sleeper-agent training towns. Taught to act and talk like an American teen, underneath it all is an intensely-indoctrinated hatred for every basic American value. To her, to open your mouth, to question the president, to criticize the government, is to be publicly branded a traitor.
Karl Rove: Drop him down in Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany, and in five years you’d see his greasy smile in every photo of gathered leaders.
Jerry Falwell: Give him his own country and in a handful of years you’d see public executions – and it would be for stuff like premarital sex or blasphemy.
Destroyers with less conscience than snakes, anti-American to the core, and they’ve become rich off it.
...
Enemies without, enemies within: Seven decades of militant Communism in the world couldn’t touch the heart of America. We faced down EMPIRES and walked away proud. But five years with Bush, and the core values and freedoms are faint and tremorous.
What better place for poisonous worms to hide, than INSIDE the apple?
...
And here I’ve just gotten ANOTHER plea from John Kerry to give money so Tweedle-Dumocrats can win their various races.
They want my money, these Democrats, and they promise vast changes, but what do they do meanwhile? They collude. They sit silent on the difference between science and deadly creationist lies. They let religion creep into schools and courts, and they fight to see who can look the most godly. They look on while the oceans die, while the last wild tiger gets turned into a coat, while our closest living relatives turn up on fly-encrusted carts as meat. They play politics with death, they see continuing the war in Iraq as the SAFEST course for America’s foreseeable future.
If they win, what will happen? They will slither into the control room of our ship of state, and THEY will suddenly be the fierce defenders of an unvarying course. Nothing basic must change, nothing critical must be altered, nothing jarring must be said – because now it will be THEY who stand to lose power.
The books will suddenly snap shut, and the inevitable “Rather than dwell on the mistakes of the past, let’s move forward� speeches will be made, and every murderous sonofabitch in and around the White House will walk free. Karl Rove and all the rest will write best-selling books and give well-paid speeches to their fellow America-haters, and will live wealthy and powerful and safe – and INFLUENTIAL – for all their lives.
The lot of us, meanwhile, will continue to be – to the Democrats in power, to the Republicans in power, for the decades to come – nothing more than convenient cattle, to be bred and herded and worked and milked ... and killed ... at will.
This is how it looks to me.
By: By Hank Fox on 2006 09 29
“No Wobs, no blogs.”
“...when the operation of the machine deprives me of the privilege of self-absorption.”
It is so hard (for me at least) to get out of this state of self-absorption you mention. But sometimes you’re forced by such calumnies to lie down on the gears. Thanks for this stirring invitation.
By: By Brett on 2006 09 29
The day seems fast approaching when it won’t even be necessary to proclaim oneself, in so many words, as an enemy combatant. Just announce yourself to be in opposition to the government’s policies, that will be enough.
From what I could tell, only one Senator—Jeffords, of Vermont—actually remembered that he took an oath to uphold the Constitution and that stripping people of the right of habeas corpus is explicitly un-Constitutional.
By: By Charles on 2006 09 29
According to a column by Molly Ivins, one of the “compromises” made in the detainee bill was that the words “severe pain” were replaced with the phrase “serious pain” when describing how far interrogations could go.
“Serious pain,” according to the column, is defined as “bodily injury that involves extreme physical pain.”
I keep thinking it can’t get worse. A stolen election, PATRIOT, lies about WMD, Abu Ghraib, a second stolen election, domestic eavesdropping, a couple thousand dead American soldiers and literally uncountable numbers of dead Iraqi citizens… each one of these events has left me certain that things couldn’t decline too much thereafter.
But reading that paragraph in Ivins’s column left me hopeless.
By: By the_bone on 2006 09 29
Some bloggers go even further;
http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com/2006/09/come-arrest-me.html
I’m not without sympathy.
By: By Rob G on 2006 09 29
So what does this mean? What do we do?
I want to withdraw my consent too. But how do I do it?
Write to a Congressman? I think we’ve seen just how ineffectual that is.
So what is appropriate resistance here? Anyone have any clue?
By: By The Grouch on 2006 09 29
We have not even begun to write. Senators, Representatives, newspapers, online venues and offline venues. You think the current noise from our side is the limit of what we can do? There was more protest in the 1980s. This is nothing. Talk to your neighbors, your co-workers, your co-parishioners. Blog comments are nothing. This blog post is nothing. This battle is won or lost in the minds of your neighbors. Talk to them.
And incidentally, this is an arena where pseudonymity is of debatable merit. We laugh at people — and rightly so — whose commitment doesn’t even extend to putting a real bumper sticker on their SUV, but simply a magnet that (as Kathy McCarty pointed out here a few days ago) can come off without a trace should the winds shift.
I recognize that there are plenty of good reasons for pseudonymity and there may well be more to come, but in this instance pseudonyms aren’t all that different from EZ-off magnetic decals. The more people on the left take an open stand, the more persuasive it will be.
By: By Chris Clarke on 2006 09 29
Oops, it wasn’t Jeffords, it was Leahy.
By: By Charles on 2006 09 29
Go outside, pick up a rock, and throw it into an intersection
Are you going to do that? I think it’s actually not a bad idea, but not something that isolated individuals should be doing. A lot of organization has to go behind this sort of thing, and I’m afraid there aren’t enough people who are pissed off enough. Maybe start smaller. I’ve been preaching (trying not to overdo) to friends and family for years. Some impact, but complacency’s a hard nut to crack (“I’m OK. How bad can things be?”).
By: By Rob G on 2006 09 29
Exactly right, Chris.
This morning I wrote this in argument with someone I know who likes John McCain: “Out of all the terrible, terrible things that have happened under this administration, this bill is the worst. The most un-American, the most dangerous, the most morally cowardly, the one last act of betrayal that makes me truly fear for the future of my country.” And that fear, which has been a rumbling in the back of my mind ever since I realized to what use this administration could put 9/11, is now a near-certainty that my country is irreparably broken.
I am an enemy combatant. I withdraw my consent. This Congress does not speak for me. This president does not speak for me.
I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what will work. I don’t know if anything will work. But this is wrong.
By: By Stephanie on 2006 09 29
I recognize that there are plenty of good reasons for pseudonymity and there may well be more to come, but in this instance pseudonyms aren’t all that different from EZ-off magnetic decals. The more people on the left take an open stand, the more persuasive it will be.
You gonna pay my mortgage when my boss fires me for time spent on the internet posting stuff he doesn’t like?
Pseudonymity on the internet does not preclude action under one’s own name elsewhere. Why should I be derided for, apparently, cowardice, if I make choices about where I want my name to be known?
By: By zuzu on 2006 09 29
Like I said: Plenty of good reasons for pseudonymity.
By: By Chris Clarke on 2006 09 29
At more length: the Grouch asked for ideas of how to be more effective, and that’s the only reason I mentioned pseudonymity. I am not about to second-guess anyone’s decision in the matter. There are people whose lives require their more controversial thoughts be spoken from behind a mask, and I recognize that. Which is why I said so in that comment up there.
In the same way, there are good reasons to use those magnetic ribbons. I know I’ve refrained in the past from putting environmental bumper stickers on my truck because of the time I spend in the red state outback where the only person for miles is likely a wingnut survivalist.
All I’m suggesting is that people consider the issue.
By: By Chris Clarke on 2006 09 29
I’ve given up on the whole nom de blog thing. I’m still using it, as it’s an offline nickname as well, but Google searches on my full name still turn up three references to my blog in the first ten results and six references when substituting “Chris” for the preferred “Christopher.” Oh, well. All I can say is that if future employers/dates/friends decide they don’t want to know me based on some very strong lefty political opinions, I don’t need them anyway.
By: By the_bone on 2006 09 29
i struggle with this issue of how to speak out. i have obligations to people, strong ones, in other contexts, and i can’t compromise them. but i’ll be damned if i agree with this piece of shit legislation, and the lawless posse it rode in on.
By: By kathy a on 2006 09 29
I applaud your courage, Chris. Thank you for speaking out. The truth is that whoever critiques the administration is going to be considered their enemy, so why not be proud of our status?
By: By San Cai on 2006 09 29
Thanks for the answer, Chris.
I’m talking and talking in real life. But what success I’ve had has been limited to raising the awareness of people who are already leaning against Bush but don’t know the full extent of the government’s evil (even beyond the president), or who are staunchly opposed to the stuff that’s going on but aren’t actually aware that it is going on. For instance, I can point out to anti-torture people that torture is happening, and I can get rid of their misconception that it’s not happening in large numbers.
But people who don’t share that anti-torture conviction, or who refuse to believe Americans can do it…I can’t reach them. Reason doesn’t reach them. And there are a lot of them.
Which is no excuse for not trying. I’m just venting a little frustration here.
By: By The Grouch on 2006 09 29
Grouch, I share your frustration. I was discussing this problem with some family members today and was depressed to see how deep the “it can’t happen here” mentality runs.
Is there no way to wake people up?
By: By San Cai on 2006 09 29
You’ll just ridicule it by comparing it to EZ-off magnetic decals.
Way to get people to consider it.
Far be it from me to come to the defense of my brother, but it is directly comparable.
Taking a stand involves taking a risk. Whether you’re deciding that the stand isn’t worth risking your job or your paint job, that’s just a matter of degree. Its still a decision based on not wanting to lose a level of comfort rather than based on a fear of losing life or liberty.
Some people risk and lose their lives to fight fascism, in this country we’ve all pretty much decided its not worth the risk of having our big screen TVs repossessed.
We’ll risk maybe a postage stamp and the time it takes to write a letter - not much else.
Not that I’m saying I’m any better, mind you. I have less to lose than just about anyone else. No job, no real income to speak of, no family of my own, no mate, no friends. No prospects of ever having any of those things. If I were locked up it wouldn’t be much more than a change of scenery. The meals would be more regular.
I’ve risked my job in the past to stand up for less than freedom… I risked it to stand up for myself against harassment, risked it to get a recall on an unsafe product, to demand a raise, risked it to not have to wear a necktie. Maybe not having dependants makes that easier.
But I’m still pretty much too scared to do anything about this mess in the creepy red state I live in. Partly because of the feeling that it would be pointless. I wouldn’t even be a blip on the radar. Not without a crowd with me. I’d just me a nut getting himself locked up.
I’m guilty too. What have we really done to fight this? We’ve whined. Except for a very few, we’ve all decided that its not worth risking our ipods and tivos let alone our lives. As a country we’ve chosen a comfy padded cell.
Where are the mass protests? Where are the millions descending upon Washington? I know, I’m not there either. We’ve apparently decided it’s not worth it.
Maybe Chris won’t ridicule our decision, but I will. It IS ridiculous. The fact that this is happening with the only opposition being blog posts is goddamned fucking ridiculous. We’re all ridiculous.
Blog post too risky? It has to be an anonymous blog post? Beyond ridiculous - pathetic.
I don’t mean to pick a fight, but damn. If we can’t sign our names, our REAL names to a statement opposing torture, opposing totalitarianism, supporting our own constitution - not at risk of facing death squads but instead only at risk of facing an unemployment line, then fuck it. Might as well just dig a hole and lie down in it. We don’t deserve shit.
As far as getting people to consider it - what exactly is the logic there?
“I would stand up for my rights, I would stand up for the rights of others, and I would risk temporary financial inconvenience to do it - in fact I was all set to, but then some guy on the internet said something sortof critical, so now it’s out of the question.”
Feh.
I’ll note here that it’s 3am and I’m a bit manic, dealing with insomnia, and I’m as pissed and disgusted at myself and my uselessness in this as I am at anyone else and probably moreso.
So don’t take any of this personally. Unless it somehow helps for some strange reason.
By: By Craig on 2006 09 30
Spyder, OK. I read your comment and was imagining myself standing at a busy intersection, waiting for a red light, and lugging a small boulder into the middle of the road. In my younger days, I could have outrun most enraged drivers. Now, not so much.
Craig, well put. I would only add that, with the media in the bag, even having a crowd behind you doesn’t get noticed much.
By: By Rob G on 2006 09 30
Throwing a rock into an intersection? This is criminal—and undemocratic—just like all individual vigilantism. The difference between Spyder almost killing an innocent cop and the massive movements in Bolivia is so abundantly evident that I doubt I really need to point this out.
Now, if Spyder and a substantial number of Spyder’s buddies want to block an intersection with their persons and with debris, that’s another story. They might actually be able to come off as a movement rather than one crazy person. They might get the chance to voice real concerns.
By: By Brett on 2006 09 30
There were several hundred of us in an intersection just last Saturday—a peaceful march in opposition to policies of war, torture, and deceit. No a single media outlet in my city covered the event, but lots of people saw us, and lots of them signaled there support. The idea that the only opposition is happening in blog posts is an effect of that media campaign of silencing dissent. How many papers reported the pro-immigrant actions that took place in LA on Sept 28? In many places, people ARE standing up and voicing their opposition, some at great personal risk. One thing we can do is to make these actions more visible.
By: By Joanna on 2006 09 30
There=their. drat.
By: By Joanna on 2006 09 30
Joanna, it was such a good comment I diidn’t even notice the typo.
By: By Chris Clarke on 2006 09 30
Thank you.
I refuse to consent, and I will be circulating that refusal. Maybe we can all be enemy combatants, and maybe something can be done.
I’ve linked you, here, by the way; I couldn’t figure out how to do a trackback: http://takingsteps.blogspot.com/2006/09/what-matters-more-than-this.html
By: By little light on 2006 09 30
This is criminal—and undemocratic—just like all individual vigilantism.
Well, it’s irresponsible if timing and visibility are not taken into account, and it’s ineffective on a small scale. But criminal and undemocratic? In context, that’s comedy. Black comedy.
By: By Rob G on 2006 09 30
I agree with Rob. Is there some way that we could perhaps coordinate protests such as Spyder’s to account for timing/visibility? For instance, starting things very early in the morning and filling the intersection before rush hour in order to have people reach the intersection and stop because they can’t get through, rather than placing rocks throughout the day?
By: By San Cai on 2006 09 30
Spyder:
I’m not sure that I’m making ad hominem attacks when I say that one person throwing rocks into traffic is undemocratic, though I certainly apologize if it feels personal. (Rob G thinks I’m being blackly funny—I guess my keen sense of leftist irony is not what it used to be because I don’t get what he’s talking about.) It is undemocratic in that it is the individual, vigilante, commandeering of what should be a collective expression.
My real problem, though, is not in whether or not it’s appropriate for one person to do direct actions of dissent or protest. My problem is throwing rocks into intersections. You might hurt someone quite seriously. The prospect of hurting someone can only sound attractive to you if your anger has completely overcome your other motivations to protest the current regime.
By: By Brett Hendrickson on 2006 09 30
I don’t get what he’s talking about
Well Brett, I do think that coherence, like moderation and sanity, are vastly overrated, but in this case I can help you out. I don’t think the humour was intentional, but consider the criminality and undemocracy (??) of what just happened in Congress, and has been happening for the last 6 years. When your legislators fail you, what is your recourse?
Exactly how many people placing rocks in intersections renders the act democratic? Five? A hundred?
By: By Rob G on 2006 09 30
I hear these cries of “what can I do?” all the time.
There is so much.
Somewhere in the city your live in is an organization working on prisoner’s rights, civil rights, worker’s rights, women’s rights, etc. Support the ACLU, MoveOn, NOW, FOR, clean election campaign, green party, democrat, local labor unions, student organizations, etc. THEY ALL NEED YOUR HELP. Pick one, pick many. Spending a couple of hours in their office helping to make phone calls to get people out to an event or getting outside with a clip board to get signatures makes a difference.
During the 2004 election thousands and thousands of people volunteered to knock on doors to help turn out voters. All those short-term commitments added up to one of the largest mobilizations of volunteers the left has seen in many a year. Even though Bush stole the election those volunteers had a huge impact in many communities and increased voter turnout by significant margins. Why wait for the day before an election? Most of us have a few free hours. Lets use them.
By: By DG on 2006 09 30
I guess it’s obvious I think grammar are overrated as well.
By: By Rob G on 2006 09 30
Spyder, one of Chris’ posts about Zeke made me think of Cockburn’s Islands In A Black Sky, which I searched for in vain on YouTube. Some of my remaining neurons also made the link to If I Had A Rocket Launcher, as well as Lovers In A Dangerous Time. Very apt.
By: By Rob G on 2006 10 01
Oh yeah, a very relevant line from the last song;
Gotta kick at the darkness ‘til it bleeds daylight.
By: By Rob G on 2006 10 01
I was at a lecture by Ward Churchill last night, and he made several interesting points, but relevant to this is that he never gets questions from people about what they can do from any other audience than an (usally white) audience with a certain level of privilege, money, and education.
So here’s what I’d recommend:
In the immediate future, start acts of direct action. As per the Savio quote above, the question then becomes “Are you prepared to lay your body into the machine and risk getting crushed on the gears?” If you are, then acts of direct action can be efficacious. You can employ adopt-an-intersection techniques, as shown in “We Interrupt This Empire…” (available online), sit-ins, die-ins, teach-ins, using human blockades to various parts of the war machine, as Earth First! did when it blockaded logging roads, etc. Learning this history is helpful for crafting direct-actions yourself.
Then get a gun, preferably from a gun show, and learn to use it—including shooting and cleaning and care. You don’t have to start a revolution, but you should have no illusions about the fact that they have every intention of rounding up American citizens and that the time may come when you’ll have to defend yourself. If you are prompt when they start disappearing the far-left dissidents, rather than waiting for them to go after ordinary liberals, then you’ll have an even greater force to eke out yours.
Learn military tactics and theory. Most police forces have become militarized or at least have a paramilitary segment, and these forces operate on the assumption of the efficacy of conventional military tactics and submission by excessive use of force. Learn how to subvert their models by employing guerilla tactics as described in various books and manuals (Marighella and Guevara come immediately to mind). Also make a study of the tools of the military and police. Determine their effectiveness, their weaknesses (if any) and how to use them if any should happen to fall into your hands.
Concomitant with all this preparation, you should also learn something of basic electronics, automobiles, engineering, and any other field which might make a difference in the conduct of a war.
When the government gives itself the freedom to lock up its citizens at its whim, and disallows judicial review of its actions, then we have a government which is being starkly frank in its intent to impose fascism on the nation. This is America’s Enabling Act, and we should be prepared for the worst.
By: By Kansas Anarchist on 2006 10 01
;-) To Kansas Anarchist:
Great satire! (I hope….)
By: By Brett Hendrickson on 2006 10 01
Sorry, but when Congress decides to give the president unchecked and uncheckable powers to throw me in prison and have me tortured for an indefinite period of time, satire is kind of out of the question.
Of course, your mileage may be different, since I’m also not the sort of person to use the adjective “innocent” as a modifier of “cop”...ever.
By: By Kansas Anarchist on 2006 10 01
Hey, I’ve known some nice cops. I would estimate around one in four or five, but that’s in Toronto. Innocent? Well, who is?
On the other hand, a friend of mine took part in the demo in Halifax when Bush visited a couple of years ago. He was roughed up pretty good.
And I’ve often thought the Toronto cops’ motto “To Serve And Protect” wasn’t complete. I was about 18 when I realized who they were serving/protecting. I’m slow that way.
By: By Rob G on 2006 10 01
Categories:
