Not Knowing, Not Caring

JUST FOR FUN, try this: invite people to type in the name "April Glaspie" on google, and scroll down to the link "conversation with Saddam". April Glaspie was America's ambassador to Iraq at the time, the first woman to ever hold such a position vis a vis an Arab country. The conversation transcript clearly reveals that the Bush administration (the first one) deliberately encouraged Saddam to attack Kuwait in the summer of 1990. Clear as a bell, available for all to see. One week before the Iraqi army invaded and conquered Kuwait, the United States told him to be our guest, we didn't care. When one gives another a blank check, one presumes that the recipient will fill in the numbers as said recipient duly chooses. As did Saddam Hussein, who, the transcript reveals, "smiled" at Glaspie's statement. "President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker have instructed me to inform you that the United States has no interest in or concern about conflicts or matters involving Arab nations." Or something to that effect. The rest, as they say, is history. Several thousand dead Americans, tens of thousands of dead iraqi civilians, and, most recently, the Islamic State, self proclaimed. I enjoy doing this, and then monitoring the various reactions. From most people I never hear back. I assume they didn't bother to follow my suggestion. Oh well, their loss. Of those who do, I divide the reactions into three groups. There are those who say they really don't know much about it, and have no reaction. Then, there are those who simply don't care. Ancient history. Too late to do anything about it. Then, there are the patriotic rationalizers. There must have been a good reason, he misinterpreted her words, that sort of thing. The confused, the apathetic, and the blindly patriotic. How do you draw to that? Well, so much for my massive protest and revolution. Aint hapnin'. In the late sixties and early seventies it was fashionable to decry America's ignorance and apathy. Unconcerned citizens, unresponsive to their patriotic duty. Itsstrangely comforting to know that these traits can also be put to use in service to one's country, no matter how villianous one's country. It worked well in Germany during the thirties.