Muslim writer on patriotism

http://www.freearabvoice.org/articles/patriotism.htm

THE NATURE OF TRUE PATRIOTISM
by Nabila Harb\ FAV co-Editor

Contrary to evident popular belief, engendered and sustained by current U.S. government and media propaganda, patriotism does not consist of blind irrational obedience to the government nor can it be translated into support for a war of unjustifiable aggression against Iraq or any other sovereign nation.

In fact, it was an American President, Teddy Roosevelt who declared that: 'To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.'

He made this statement during the First World War, when thousands of people in the United States who opposed the U.S. entry into the War were jailed for alleged 'treason' or 'sedition' under the Espionage Act. He was absolutely correct to challenge the government on this issue. Now, as the United States and the rest of its 'coalition of the morally weak' proceed with their criminal invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq, it is imperative that every individual be willing to challenge the government and repudiate any perversion of the definition of true patriotism.

The entire system of a democracy is based on the principle of a government 'of the people, by the people and FOR the people.' The essential element in this doctrine is the idea that any member of the government acts solely as an AGENT of the people. The government is the servant of the people, not the other way round. Even in a republic, which is what the government of the United States is supposed to be, the members of government are elected to act as agents of the people.

Unfortunately, individuals elected by the people to positions in the government often forget that they hold power solely as agents of the people. George Bush Jr. is a primary example of this, but he is not alone in his failure to perform his duties to the people. Rumsfeld, Ridge and indeed the entire coterie of government members involved in the so-called 'Homeland Defence' and purported 'anti-terrorist' legislation proceed as if it is they, and not the people of the United States, who are competent to decide what is best for the United States. As they immerse themselves in the unconstitutional pursuit of stripping the people of the United States of fundamental human rights guaranteed by the Bills of Rights and U.S. Constitution, they are guilty of no less than a fundamental breach of their contract to serve the people and must be held to account.

Patriotism is a much-maligned word in contemporary U.S. politics. Its Latin root forms a host of words in the English language, including patriot, patrimony and patronage. The Latin word 'Patris' means 'father', but 'patria' means native land, fatherland, or homeland. Paternus means 'of a father, paternal, native'.

It is the correlation between 'father' and 'land' that forms the basis of the old concept of 'fatherland'. 'Fatherland' refers to the land of ones fathers or ancestors, and the idea that the hearts of the people are rooted in the soil itself. It is a relationship between land and people rather than government and people. Unfortunately, it is leaders like Bush who obscure the principle and act as if the repressive rules of 'Father Knows Best' are at the heart of patriotism. By his definition, loyalty to him and blind obedience to his wishes are the hallmark of a patriot. Forgetting that the President of the United States, as an elected office with a limited term, is nothing more than a job that an individual performs FOR the people of the United States, he chooses to equate America with himself, and the interests of the U.S. with his own.

He is not the first President to abuse his office in this fashion by any means. One of the reasons that his attitude is more dangerous to the people of the United States is his insistence upon waging wars against other sovereign nations, spurred not by a desire to serve and protect the people of the United States, but a complicated and murky tangle of self-serving economic and political reasons. The other reason why his attitude is more dangerous is the so-called 'anti-terrorist' legislation created and passed since the attacks of 11 September. This legislation eliminates many of the safeguards provided to the people against the government, not only allowing a President's personal interests to be given sacrosanct authority, but punishing any opposition to them as treason.

It is the proposed 'Patriot Act II', an infamous piece of legislation that the government initially sought to conceal from the people, that most clearly demonstrates this.

Patriotism originally was defined as 'love of country/fatherland'. It is a concept rooted in an ancient relationship between the people and the land, a relationship that has nothing whatsoever to do with government, which is temporary and ever-changing. In a monarchy, where the ruler actually is perceived as the divine representative of the land, it might be argued, however misguided the belief, that loyalty and obedience towards the monarch are an integral part of patriotic duty. In a supposed republic or democracy, however, government is nothing more than a machine to effect the will of the people and cannot be substituted in place of the land or nation. To attempt to do so is to pervert the very nature of the United States, a nation created in order to throw off the shackles of an authority with the power to take away what were perceived to be humanity's inalienable rights. If 'patriotism' now is defined as loyalty and blind obedience to the will of George Bush or any other government official, then the government of the U.S. has become a tyranny, and George Bush a tyrant.

It can be argued that this indeed could be the case if the people of the United States do not act to repudiate this new perverted definition of patriotism and demonstrate to the government that it exists to do their will and protect THEIR interests and not the reverse.

'Homeland Security' should mean the security and well-being of the people of the homeland. By eroding inalienable civil rights and assuming unlawful powers, the U.S. government is NOT acting in the interests of 'Homeland Security' but in its own interests.

The U.S. invasion of Iraq began last week in defiance of international laws, the U.N., the international community and in defiance as well of the will of the majority of the people of the United States. In the United States, the President of the United States climbed back on his still-warm soapbox to pontificate once more on the necessity and justice of a war that was undeclared, unsanctioned by the United Nations and international community and which in fact constitutes an illegal act of aggression against a sovereign nation as well as a crime against humanity.

Having endured a relentless assault from the official government/media propaganda machine that has gone on for months, the people of the United States were told that any opposition to the war would be 'unpatriotic' and 'un-American' and as more and more sons, daughters, husbands and wives were carted off to the various 'fronts' of this pernicious proposed invasion, the idea that opposition to the war would be opposition to the actual men and women fighting for the 'Stars and Stripes' began to circulate.

The majority of people in the United States did not support this invasion of Iraq. A very meagre possible majority may have supported an invasion if that invasion were led by the United Nations, but those who thought that the United States should invade Iraq without the support of the international community were very much in the minority.

The U.S. government responded to the public climate of opposition by sending more troops to the proposed 'fronts' of any war against Iraq. Effectively, the government took the husbands, wives, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters of the American people HOSTAGE in its bid for complete and unilateral control over American foreign policy. The message it sent through this was clear and unmistakeable: 'Oppose the invasion of Iraq and you spit on the sacrific your loved ones will make when the proposed invasion begins.'

Emotional investment in the proposed war fostered through the relationship between the American people 'at home' and the 'human cannon fodder' of the American military as well as the tedium and anxiety produced by weeks of waiting for hostilites to begin became powerful tools for the U.S. government in its bid for war.

'It's about time,' said Lance Cpl. Chad Borgmann, a 23 year old member of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, when he heard that the war had begun. 'We've been here a month and a week. We're ready to go.' In other words, God save us from boredom! By all means, get the machine of destruction rolling so as to spare the members of the U.S. military the pain of being forced to wait any longer to assume their murderous roles. It is shocking to find the tedium of waiting a far more important consideration than any value of human life and justice.

It is saddening when entertainment value and flag-waving pre-empt rational thought and facts. The proliferation of the 'Stars & Stripes' on almost every porch, window and means of transit in the United States after the attacks of 11 September managed to distract the people effectively from the lack of justification for an invasion of Iraq. The correlation between 19 martyrs in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania and the government of Afghanistan could not endure any logical scrutiny and therefore, the people of the United States were blinded by false patriotism to the point where they were willing to allow bombs to be dropped wherever Bush decided to send them. The fact that both the invasion of Afghanistan and the current invasion of Iraq were planned by George Bush Jr. long before 9/11 evidently escapes attention.

'Pro patria' is the essence of patriotism. The object of patriotism cannot be an elected official, and especially one who continually ignores the interests and the will of the people. True patriotism cannot fuel a war based on greed for oil, the political and economic interests of multinational big businesses and Zionist and American aspirations for control of the Arab Nation and its resources. There is a Latin maxim to the effect that: 'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.' 'It is sweet and proper to die for one's native land'. THAT is the true meaning of patriotism.

If any one wishes to see true patriotism in action, they need look no further than the example of the Palestinian people who each day sacrifice their lifeblood for their homeland and the example of the Iraq people who steadfastly deny the pressures placed upon them by over 12 years of economic sanctions and two wars.

In the United States, the true patriot will ACT against this unjust war and this criminal sacrifice of the lives of Americans and Iraqis for nothing nobler than motivations of greed and power. The true patriots will act now to halt the crimes against humanity committed in their names, both in Iraq and in the United States itself, where the government continues its rape of the homeland and the inalienable rights of its people. Patriotism cannot be obscured by a flag that has come to symbolise all of the worst excesses of greed and corruption. Patriotism is a virtue beyond price, beyond blackmail or bribery, a virtue that transcends any government and indeed demands the denunciation of any government that acts against the will and interests of its people.

Rather than supporting the 'troops' in dying for the corrupt interests of the current government of the United States and its allies, the people must denounce the invasion of Iraq and demand that no more troops be sacrificed for the cause of greed and self-serving multi-national corporations. The Iraqi people who resist the invasion are patriots defending their homeland and theirs is the path of honour and glory. There can be neither honour nor glory in supporting the foreign invasion of Iraq. American patriotism belongs in the United States, not interfering in the homeland of the Iraqi people. The tyrant who acts supposedly in the name of the people of the United States must not be allowed to continue his crimes against humanity. The blood of any American who dies in Iraq is on the hands of George Bush.

Let the patriots of the United States join the Iraqi and Palestinian people in their struggle for justice and

Self-determination and begin to erase the infamous crimes that the foreign policies of the United States have perpetrated supposedly in their name.



Peace