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this dame edna theory of american foreign policy--we give and give and give--is really nonsense.
it has no contact with the history of american foreign policy, the reality of american uses of its military power, etc.
it is, at best, a weak ideological justification for anything----anything-----the americans choose to do, outfitted in high passive aggressive style (bend over and see how nice we are--we give and give and give).
and it is a demonstration of the point i was trying to make above--the basic argument seems to be that what matters is the political justifications for unlimited uses of violence, not the unlimited uses of violence themselves. i am a nice person--all my friends are nice people--all my friends are american--therfore all americans are nice. when nice people like us do things, we mean well, therefore everything we do means well.
you should try this argument out on some iraqi civilians who may have lost some of all of their families to american firepower, for example. or to people who had spent a lovely vacation in the legal black hole of guantanomo. or any number of other people who have run into the reality of american foreign policy and/or uses of military power.
i am sure they would welcome such an understanding of what happened to them.
i am sure they have been waiting around for it.
i am sure that this kind of powerful argument would disabuse them of any illusion that legality and american actions had anything to do with each other.
because what matters, really, is that we are nice.
we give and give and give.
see?
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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