(no subject)
Wed, Apr. 7th, 2004 02:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterBrought on by Time Magazine and I guess CNN and the other news sites which ran giant stories about the four Americans killed in Iraq...
Keep in mind that I am in general very iffy and fence-sitting on the entire issue of the US as a sort of global police force. Part of me thinks it's horrible that no one stepped in and stopped what happened in Rwanda ten years ago and part of me think things like what's happening in Iraq is a sort of response or effect of the US as police force.
And I totally get that it's awful four people were killed there, especially with the unsureness as to why they were there at all.
But I also feel kind of disturbed that the deaths of one or two or four Americans makes the front pages everywhere and generates giant articles in Time so much so that the news-phobic me knows about it, while I don't know things like how many Iraqis did we kill there?
If the names of the four people who were killed there are going to be big national news, along with their families' reactions, what about the people whose homes were invaded, who had to live with these other people in their country? I would like to know their stories. And maybe I don't because in general I'm absolutely awful at keeping up with news and politics, which is why I generally try not to make controversial political posts -- I really don't know what I'm talking about over half of the time.
It's the entire ethnic studies problem, in a way -- how to know what's "authentic," which experience is generalized or filtered through a certain ideology?
But yeah, I would like to know what people there think of us being there and of the deaths there of people of all nationalities, because I think it is a big deal that people are being killed down there -- being American does not make it more or less important.
Keep in mind that I am in general very iffy and fence-sitting on the entire issue of the US as a sort of global police force. Part of me thinks it's horrible that no one stepped in and stopped what happened in Rwanda ten years ago and part of me think things like what's happening in Iraq is a sort of response or effect of the US as police force.
And I totally get that it's awful four people were killed there, especially with the unsureness as to why they were there at all.
But I also feel kind of disturbed that the deaths of one or two or four Americans makes the front pages everywhere and generates giant articles in Time so much so that the news-phobic me knows about it, while I don't know things like how many Iraqis did we kill there?
If the names of the four people who were killed there are going to be big national news, along with their families' reactions, what about the people whose homes were invaded, who had to live with these other people in their country? I would like to know their stories. And maybe I don't because in general I'm absolutely awful at keeping up with news and politics, which is why I generally try not to make controversial political posts -- I really don't know what I'm talking about over half of the time.
It's the entire ethnic studies problem, in a way -- how to know what's "authentic," which experience is generalized or filtered through a certain ideology?
But yeah, I would like to know what people there think of us being there and of the deaths there of people of all nationalities, because I think it is a big deal that people are being killed down there -- being American does not make it more or less important.
(no subject)
Fri, Apr. 9th, 2004 10:36 pm (UTC)I waver so much about the US as police force that I probably have whiplash or something ;). Because half the time I feel like crying out about colonialism and imperialism and cultural hegemony, and other times, I read about what happened in Rwanda, and all I can think is, "Why didn't anyone do anything?!"