America the Whatever You Need it to be to Make your Point

Article today at Commondreams by James Carroll, entitled America the Destroyer. Catchy title. Anyway in he speculates on what a "shock and awe" campaign against the United States would look like. "If Washington were the target of a ''shock and awe'' campaign, the US Capitol would now be rubble, along with that entire parade of becolumned federal buildings astride seven blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue. The White House a smoldering ruin (like Camp David -- and the Bush ranch house in Crawford, Texas). The Pentagon a fetid sinkhole, in-rushing waters of the adjacent Potomac River having snuffed the burning abyss. The vice president's residence at the head of Embassy Row in ruins. Bolling Air Force Base and Andrews Air Force Base on the Maryland side of the Potomac aflame. Fort Myers and the Navy Annex on the ridge of Arlington, Fort McNair in Southwest Washington and the Marine Barracks in Southeast, the Naval Hospital in Bethesda, and Walter Reed Hospital in far Northwest -- all on fire. CIA headquarters in McLean, Va., a smoking scar on the landscape."

Occasional commentator Caleb also read this article and had this comment.

"I was reading James Carroll's comments today at Common Dreams titled 'America the Destroyer'. He paints a vivid picture of the destruction of our nation's Capital in a shock and awe campaign designed to decapitate America's infrastructure, and then He asks a question.

This question is a singularly foolish one.

It is intended to villainize us for doing the same to Iraq by comparing our perfectly justified actions, as demonstrated by the changed minds of our overly optimistic human shields, with the destruction of one of the most humanitarian minded, generous, and moral governments in the world. The model of representative government to the world is being compared to a cruel tyrant who who is grooming replacements far more dastardly than even he himself, and ensuring their succession by pruning his infrastructure of competent and/or sane leadership. Iraq's government has already been decapitated. We need simply remove the virulent branches, and graft fruitful boughs onto the strong roots of the Middle East's most ancient and productive culture."

Caleb's point is well taken, although he perhaps oversells his point when he describes the United States as one of the most generous nations in the world. Certainly I hope that his optimism regarding the middle east will prove correct.