I'm
An American Tired Of American Lies
Thursday
October 17, 2002, The Guardian
The
man who drives me to and from work is named Woody too. A relief
to me, as it minimises the chance of my forgetting his name.
I call him Woodman and he calls me Wood. He has become my
best friend here, even though he's upset that I have quit
drinking beer. He's smart, funny, and there's nothing he hasn't
seen in 33 years behind the wheel of his black cab. He drove
me for a while before I felt confident he liked me; he doesn't
like people easily, especially if they have a rap for busting
up black cabs.
Woodman
and I agree about a lot of things, but one thing we can never
agree about is Iraq. He thinks the only language Saddam understands
is brute force. I don't believe we should be bombing cities
in our quest for one man. We've killed a million Iraqis since
the start of the Gulf war - mostly by blocking humanitarian
aid. Let's stop now. Thankfully, most of the Brits I talk
to about the war are closer to me than to Woodman. Only your
prime minister doesn't seem to have noticed.
I
have been here three months doing a play in the West End.
I am having the time of my life. I love England, the people,
the parks, the theatre. The play is great and the audiences
have been a dream. Probably I should just relax, be happy
and talk about the weather, but this war is under my skin
- it affects my sleep.
I
remember playing basketball with an Iraqi in the late 80s
while Iran and Iraq were at war. I didn't know at the time
that the US and Britain were supplying weapons to both sides.
I asked why they were always at war with each other and he
said something that stayed with me: "If it were up to
the people, there would be peace. It's the governments that
create war." And now my government is creating its second
war in less than a year. No; war requires two combatants,
so I should say "its second bombing campaign".
I
went to the White House when Harvey Weinstein was showing
Clinton the movie Welcome to Sarejevo, which I was in. I got
a few moments alone with Clinton. Saddam throwing out the
weapons inspectors was all over the news and I asked what
he was going to do. His answer was very revealing. He said:
"Everybody is telling me to bomb him. All the military
are saying, 'You gotta bomb him.' But if even one innocent
person died, I couldn't bear it." And I looked in his
eyes and I believed him. Little did I know he was blocking
humanitarian aid at the time, allowing the deaths of thousands
of innocent people.
I
am a father, and no amount of propaganda can convince me that
half a million dead children is acceptable "collateral
damage". The fact is that Saddam Hussein was our boy.
The CIA helped him to power, as they did the Shah of Iran
and Noriega and Marcos and the Taliban and countless other
brutal tyrants. The fact is that George Bush Sr continued
to supply nerve gas and technology to Saddam even after he
used it on Iran and then the Kurds in Iraq. While the Amnesty
International report listing countless Saddam atrocities,
including gassing and torturing Kurds, was sitting on his
desk, Bush Sr pushed through a $2bn "agricultural"
loan and Thatcher gave hundreds of millions in export credit
to Saddam. The elder Bush then had the audacity to quote the
Amnesty reports to garner support for his oil war.
A
decade later, Shrub follows the same line: "We have no
quarrel with the Iraqi people." I'm sure half a million
Iraqi parents are scratching their heads over that. I'm an
American tired of lies. And with our government, it's mostly
lies.
The
history taught in our schools is scandalous. We grew up believing
that Columbus actually discovered America. We still celebrate
Columbus Day. Columbus was after one thing only -gold. As
the natives were showering him with gifts and kindness, he
wrote in his diary, "They do not bear arms ... They have
no iron ... With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make
them do whatever we want." Columbus is the perfect symbol
of US foreign policy to this day.
This
is a racist and imperialist war. The warmongers who stole
the White House (you call them "hawks", but I would
never disparage such a fine bird) have hijacked a nation's
grief and turned it into a perpetual war on any non-white
country they choose to describe as terrorist.
To
the men in Washington, the world is just a giant Monopoly
board. Oddly enough, Americans generally know how the government
works. The politicians do everything they can for the people
- the people who put them in power. The giant industries that
are polluting our planet as well as violating human rights
worldwide are the ones nearest and dearest to the hearts of
American politicians.
But
in wartime people lose their senses. There are flags and yellow
ribbons and posters and every media outlet is beating the
war drum and even sensible people can hear nothing else. In
the US, God forbid you should suggest the war is unjust or
that dropping cluster bombs from 30,000ft on a city is a cowardly
act. When TV satirist Bill Maher made some dissenting remarks
about the bombing of Afghanistan, Disney pulled the plug on
him. In a country that lauds its freedom of speech, a word
of dissent can cost you your job.
I
read in a paper here about a woman who held out the part of
her taxes that would go to the war effort. Something like
17%. I like that idea, though in the US it would have to be
more like 50%. If you consider money as a form of energy,
then we see half our taxes and half the US government's energy
focused on war and weapons of mass destruction. Over the past
30 years, this amounts to more than ten trillion dollars.
Imagine that money going to preserving rainforest or contributing
to a sustainable economy (as opposed to the dinosaur tit we
are currently in the process of sucking dry).
I
give in to Woodman, and we stop for a few beers. He asks me
what I'd do in Bush's shoes. Easy: I'd honour Kyoto. Join
the world court. I'd stop subsidising earth rapers like Monsanto,
Dupont and Exxon. I'd shut down the nuclear power plants.
So I already have $200bn saved from corporate welfare. I'd
save another $100bn by stopping the war on non-corporate drugs.
And I'd cut the defence budget in half so they'd have to get
by on a measly $200bn a year. I've already saved half a trillion
bucks by saying no to polluters and warmongers.
Then
I'd give $300bn back to the taxpayers. I'd take the rest and
pay the people teaching our children what they deserve. I'd
put $100bn into alternative fuels and renewable energy. I'd
revive the Chemurgy movement, which made the farmer the root
of the economy, and make paper and fuel from wheat straw,
rice straw and hemp. Not only would I attend, I'd sponsor
the next Earth Summit. And, of course, I'd give myself a fat
raise.
Woodman
drops me at home and I ask if he likes my ideas. He offers
a reluctant "yes". As he pulls away he yells out,
"But I'd never vote for a man who can't handle a few
pints at the end of the day!"
·
Woody Harrelson appears in On an Average Day at the Comedy
Theatre, Panton Street, London SW1 until November 3. Box office:
020-7369 1731.
Special
report United States of America
Source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,813189,00.html
