In Gods We Can’t Trust
US Propaganda Leaflets
Right wing Conservatives in America, mostly those referred to as the “religious right”, have an immense distrust toward all things Islam. They see Muslims as people that are hell bent on taking out the West, and harbor an innate fear of their intentions. It’s this distrust that drives them to utter their justification for war – “We’re killing them over there so we don’t have to kill them here.” It’s that ubiquitous sign of religious prejudice and paranoia that plagues Christian Conservatives, and when confronted on that issue they heave their chests in support of their beliefs. It’s unfortunate that their cries are so loud they reverberate across the oceans, and that so many abroad seem to think that all Americans are as equally intolerant. Consequently, much of the world has an equal distrust toward American intentions.
Our nation is currently stuck in a financial hangover largely because of the recently diffused war in Iraq, and the current war in Afghanistan, sucking trillions from our coffers of tax dollars. If President Obama were to quit in Afghanistan now, the Christian Conservatives would call to have his head on a pike… again. But as soon as the President signed his first defense budget, the war in Afghanistan was his to own. The Conservatives were overjoyed with being able to pass over their bumbled military endeavor to the Democrats. They pointed their fingers like kids in the schoolyard, “It’s Obama’s war now, yup!”
One of Barack Obama’s presidential-campaign promises was to refocus our military attention on Afghanistan. During the marathon to the 2008 election, when the right wing neo-cons constantly questioned ‘Who do you trust to lead us in war?’, Senator Obama proposed his plan to draw down the troop levels in Iraq and shift the resources back to where they should’ve been all along – Afghanistan. On countless occasions, he accepted the weight of the war on his shoulders before he ever became president. So the sudden surprise that Republicans received was in fact no surprise at all. It was nothing more than another instance where their paying attention to anything beyond anti-liberalism fell short of their blind faith in all things on the right-wing.
Conservatives couldn’t bask in their glory for very long, however, for deep inside they knew what we all know – this is their war, as most wars are. It is the right wing that proposes the inflated defense budgets, normally ballooned to leaving all other domestic spending in its immense shadow. They are those who supported the war in Iraq, even after all of the lies and deceit that the Bush-Cheney administration used in starting the war were uncovered. With regard to the war in Afghanistan, well, why wouldn’t they support it? It’s another war against Muslims and their distrustful religion of Islam.
Earlier this week, the Obama Administration offered a half billion dollars to revamp the infrastructure of Pakistan and Afghanistan with hopes of “earning the trust” of their people. The thought process goes a bit like this: To relieve the chances of rogue cells plotting to wage terror on American soil, the governments of these developing, or third-world countries need to have centralized power, and with influence that stretches to all borders. The only way to do this is to have a first-world populace, and the only way to gain that status is by having a first-world infrastructure. In helping them finance their infrastructure the plan of earning the people’s trust suddenly becomes two-pronged; they are left with their necessary first-world hydroelectric dams, power grid, and hospitals, and secondly the people can see that it was funded by western nations. Once these nations have more control over their pockets of human habitation that might currently be ruled by maniacally greedy people, armed to the teeth, and who lack any sense of value for the lives of fellow humans, these centralized governments can stamp out these terrorist cells themselves. It would allow them to kill them over there so we don’t have to kill them here – A much better scenario than members of the right wing would have it.
The question that needs to be asked, however, is how possible is it for the West to gain the trust of the people in the Middle-East? Can building a couple hydroelectric dams and a few hospitals really work to change their outlook on western civilization? To have a change in mind they must first have a change in heart. Can the upgrade in their power grids erase thousands of years of bad blood? Why should we expect Muslims to trust Christians when the history of war between the two dates back as far as the time when they each realized the other’s existence? Never meaning to imply that America should be considered a Christian nation, but when our federal defense team employs hyper-Christian military forces like Blackwater, now Xe Services, LLC., who have been reported to use extreme religious prejudice in their motives for killing, most nations would venture to bet that ours is a Christian nation. At the very least, theocratic nations would see it that way. Opposing denominations within the Islamic religion alone have spent thousands of years perfecting their hatred for one another; the thought of a Christian from the West extending a helpful hand could surely bring about an uncomfortable pause in the moment, along with at least a short sequence of ocular nerve twitching. Is it difficult to wonder how people whose everyday lives are engrained with their religion, as opposed to the brush-over one might get from a couple hours in church on a Sunday morning, might feel a bit iffy about their historic enemy erecting buildings, and reconstructing power grids on their property? Even supplying them with all of the military goods they needed to repel a Soviet occupation did nothing to earn their trust, why would they now, especially when Christians harbor as much distrust toward them?
Prior to sending troops into Afghanistan, America waged a propaganda war – After jamming radio transmissions and replacing them with those showing a pro-western sentiment, we sent in air-strikes, where military planes dropped thousands of leaflets onto the people below. The leaflets held rewards for the capture of Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders, while also characterizing the Americans as being friends to the Afghani people. It’s now safe to assume the leaflets didn’t have a vastly positive effect on gaining their trust, for it’s one thing to claim a friendship, but another to leave that new friend for the dogs still patrolling their streets, and keeping them intimidated and living in fear.
It appears that the only way to truly gain a long-lasting trust between the Muslim and Western nations is to lose the religion; yes, it’s truly that difficult. For as long as the two cling to their myths like babies to breasts one will always feel the need to enlighten the other, and if need be, by way of great force. As long as someone is being taught to believe that their god or prophet is better than the other’s they will always feel the need to defend their all-powerful omnipresence; apparently gods need the help of humans to defend themselves against the evil other.
At this point it is impossible to say whether or not the helping hand idea will work to benefit either side in the long term. The Mid-East could very easily thank the West before shooting them in the eye. The Mid-East could also thank the West before their own blows it all to smithereens for Allah’s sake. Perhaps it will have such a profound effect on Muslim nations throughout the Middle-East that they’ll open their arms to us as we’ve never experienced before. For now we can only hope to earn the trust of their people through these means, and hope it spills over to when our troops can come home for good, and they themselves can quell the calls for Jihad. Although it seems that as long as there are people willing to die for their god(s), erecting some utilities as a peace offering is futile, and leaves me with a glass half-full of distrust.
