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and the War on Terrorism |
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By Bob Minor Minor Details It's the first of (we're assured) many Independence Days during The War on Terrorism. And LGBT people are expected to be into "United We Stand" with the rest of our leaders because the U.S.A. is better than other places - we have human rights here we wouldn't have elsewhere-- and because those terrorists might attack again at any moment.
Since the tragic and unjustifiable events of September 11, 2001, "the war" has become the dominant factor in American politics. And it has developed into the perfect war for our system. It provides the solution for a nation whose economy since the middle of the last century has been built on the need for war to keep its industries booming, the stock market happy, and its working people employed. In the process, the Pentagon budget has become a money-laundering scheme for military contractors. The Defense Department's own audits indicate that one quarter of its budget is unaccounted for. We've become accustomed to the Pentagon buying over-priced hammers and widgets, their willingness to spend billions on unneeded and faulty weapons, and, no matter how much a U.S. President has requested, the Congress consistently raising his request.
We've been told that the war on drugs, another endless war and one that we have been losing badly, is really a part of this bigger war. We have been told that we may have to fight this war anywhere in the world and seem to be poised to attack in Columbia. All that accompanies this "war" -- fear of imminent danger (prepare again to "duck and cover"); the quaking of the "loyal opposition" party fearing that they aren't loyal enough; marginalizing, dismissing, and pathologizing of peace groups; the dominance of the military-industrial complex in domestic decision-making; the centrality of the "intelligence" community; government monitoring of dissidents; the limiting of civil liberties for "security reasons" -- has the marks of the old Cold War. That's not surprising since our current administration's leaders learned to understand reality only in Cold War terms. One difference is that the development of high-tech weapons has insured us that there will be fewer of our military (the side of the good) coming back in body bags. Another is that the American media are dominated by fewer corporate media owners, and these few are even more invested in the success of the administration and its sponsors than ever before. So, they self-censor and act as cheerleaders more than critics. Still another is the media's attempt to make an unelected, communicationally-challenged president look legitimate with stories that try to convince us that he's not as slow as he appears to be. The most important difference is that we are now the only superpower. We are in charge of it all. We're the only game on the block. We're number one. We can bully anyone into what we want. We have the power and might. And, as the "President" says: "If they're not for us, they're against us." And we will straighten out any country that doesn't agree with us
We LGBT people are supposed to support this because we are united. We're all in this together. Our leaders should be trusted to do the best and we've got to recover our security and get revenge on anyone who would make us feel insecure. In the meantime the regimes we support in the Near East treat LGBT people as useful tools for their purposes and U.S. leaders say nothing in protest. Egypt is pressing prosecutions of gay men. The American-backed Saudi dictatorship has increased its brutal executions of gay men in order to protect its position from right-wing Muslims by proving the Saudi family is really good, orthodox Muslims after all. To do that, gay men are disposable. Still, "United We Stand." And back here at home, how are LGBT people treated for buying into this national unity? Well, in bipartisan fashion, three Democrats and three Republicans from the House of Representatives couldn't wait another minute for "the war's" end to introduce a constitutional amendment against us. It's the Federal Marriage Amendment that reads in part: "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a women." And United We Stand, right? I know it sounds queer to many people, but I'm choosing to stand united with Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich, the head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. A year ago this Democrat defied his John Ashcroft-approving, corporate-bought party leaders to introduce legislation to create a cabinet level agency dedicated to waging peace and the study and promotion of conditions that are conducive to peace. I'd been so jaded by my U.S. war-is-inevitable up-bringing that I too rolled my eyes when I first heard the idea, believing the idea of peace is totally unrealistic. But since I see no future in "The War" of United We Stand, I figure LGBT people have at least as much of a chance with the peace dissidents than with those who will use us under some slogan of unity for this everlasting "war." 
Robert N. Minor, Ph.D. is the author of Scared Straight: Why It's So Hard
to Accept Gay People and Why It's So Hard to Be Human (HumanityWorks!,
2001) and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas. He
was a member of the Values Panel for the Kansas City Star's nationally
award winning "Raising Kansas City Project" which was concerned with the
values we teach the next generation. He may be reached at Minor@libertypress.net.
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Mr. Bush has the power to invade the Netherlands to free Americans held by the Internal Criminal Court in The Hague 
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