Quest of the Spirit: From Suffering to Acceptance

68. U.S. Commitments: Galbraith, Gore,Chomsky,Orwell, Adams

 1.   The lack of postwar planning leaves new governments vulnerable to all forms of exploitation. This shows that in Afghanistan, Russia, Iraq, and other newly formed democracies, the U. S. has failed to live up to its obligations. Peter W. Galbraith writes in The End of Iraq (2007), "Although President Bush had decided on war with Iraq not long after September 11, he never addressed the big issues of how postwar Iraq would be governed" (Galbraith 119). Russia is another example. In The Assault on Reason (2007), former Vice-President Al Gore stresses that "the abrupt reversal of progress toward political and economic freedom in Russia might not have occurred had the United States not abandoned its own commitment" (Gore 177). In his book Deterring Democracy (Hill and Wang 1992), Noam Chomsky echoes a similar theme of betrayal when he say that "rich countries--notably the United States--welcomed, and in some cases, helped to force the transitions to civilian rule in Latin America, but without sufficient commitment or recognition of longer-term challenges" (Chomsky 72).   He then points out that the exploitation and destruction that follows this course of abandonment. In a particular case, Chomsky describes the events in Guatemala, but these same unfortunate circumstances are also occurring in Latin America and other Third-World countries today. Chomsky cynically remarks, "If in Guatemala more people are unemployed, and more people eat out of garbage dumps, than ever in memory, the "army who maintains its vicious and murderous regime,' and the military and super-rich who rule behind a thin civilian facade persist in what the Catholic bishops call the 'inhumane and merciless' abuse  of the impoverished peasants, then it must be a reflection of their inherent worthlessness" (Chomsky 72). Gore agrees with Galbraith when he says, "An extensive investigation published in the Knight Ridder newspapers uncovered the astonishing truth that even as the invasion [ of Iraq]began, there was literally no plan at all for the postwar period" (Gore 116).   Sadly, the suffering of people today in the Middle East all manifests similar elements of inhumane and merciless abuse. In his typical style, Chomsky says, "As regularly in the past, the cost is paid in blood and misery by the unimportant people. The basic principle, rarely violated, is that what conflicts with the requirements of power and privilege does not exist" (Chomsky 79).  American leadership must  work with other countries and fulfill our commitments to them; and not  be deceived into thinking that nationalism and American dominance should come first. Leaders  can deceive themselves and their public. As George Orwell said, "We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield. "

 2.            Henry Adams' novel Democracy (1880) describes the pitfalls of the democratic process which is run "of the people, by the people, and for the senators." Published posthumously , the story depicts the practices of senators who justify their  selfish and immoral legislation  in the name of the greater good. As the narrative commences, a young cultured widow of thirty named Madeleine Lightfoot Lee  goes to Washington, D. C. to learn  the intricacies of U. S. government because she is bored with life and its apparent purposelessness (13). While there, she is courted  by Silas Radcliffe, a prominent senator interested in becoming president but dedicated to following his political party, even to the lengths of immorality in the name of what he  describes as  the bigger picture  of a corrupt system (24).  In this case, Adams shows how democracy, though the best form of government for the poor, still oppresses and manipulates its constituents, and cannot be improved  where "money and power" are involved. In short, Radcliffe proposes to Madeleine, but a friend of hers named Carrington divulges Radcliffe's immoral business practices (Adams 179). After Mrs. Lee discovered that Senator Radcliffe had  initially refused to consider a particular bill's passage, but later did so after taking a bribe of over one hundred thousand dollars from the Inter-Oceanic Mail Steamship Company (170-171), she declines the senator's offer (183).  Carrington, too,  loves Madeleine, and  at this point in the novel,  Adams suggests possibly a future engagement of the two, but the story ends sadly, with Mrs. Lee's conclusion that nine out of ten of [her] countrymen would say [she] had made a mistake" (191). Adams' cynicism parallels Winston Churchill's statement "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others " (Lash 228).

                                                                       Works Cited

Adams, Henry. Democracy. New York: Signet, 1961.

Chomsky, Noam. Deterring Democracy. New York: Hill and Wang, 1992.

Gore,  Al.  The Assault on Reason. New York: The Penguin Press, 2007.

Galbraith, Peter. The End of Iraq.  New York: Simon & Schuster,  2007.

Lash, Joseph P. Roosevelt and Churchill 1939-1941: The Partnership That Saved the West. New                 York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.,1976.