Soapbox

The Value of Silence

I’m so confused. I thought that Republicans (the right-wing kind anyway) were the “moral values� crowd. No seriously, I’m sure I remember being told over and over that trying to create a second-class citizenry of gays and forcing women to live out the religious beliefs of some old guy in a suit was “values voting�. Yet when it comes time to put the values on the table, to really walk the walk…where are the conservatives?

The military is about to release the results of their investigation into the incident in Haditha, Iraq last November that finally has made the mainstream news. I’m referring to the apparent massacre of 24 civilians by a squad of Marines bent on revenge. All the details are not known to us yet, but those that are make it pretty clear that several young marines from  3^rd battalion, Kilo company, lost it after a fellow marine was killed by a roadside bomb, and rounded up civilians and shot them in cold blood, including women and children. Photos taken after the event show that some victims were kneeling when shot, which certainly puts the lie to the official military story that the civilians were killed in a firefight.

This is pretty awful. Most of us recognize that the incredible stress put on these young men week after week, as both the Iraq mission and the Iraqi nation break down before their eyes certainly contributed to what was nevertheless a criminal act. Our heart breaks for all the people involved. And yes, many are angry at President Bush about it. Why?  Because:

1) it was his Attorney General Gonzales who, at the administration’s request, set Geneva Conventions aside, calling them  “quaint� and said, in effect, that whatever has to be done in the pursuit of terrorists is Ok,

2) It was President Bush who wanted this hideous war so badly that he was willing to lie, cheat and steal to start it, and

3) The press secretary  says that the president didn’t even know about this until a reporter for Time magazine asked him about it. He told the world that the gunning down of unarmed civilians months ago by United States Marines is so unimportant to the Bush administration that no one bothered to tell the Commander in Chief about it. So, as with the incidents at Abu Ghraib, while we blame the ones who committed the acts, we also hold the Bush administration responsible for setting the stage.

When the investigation is complete we need to determine what should be done to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Until then, here’s what’s being done about it right now by the “moral values crowdâ€?: they crow, night after night on FOX News and CNN that the only wrong done here was done by congressman John Murtha, who spoke up about this incident (when he learned of it from the Marine corps itself), and by the press reported it.

Here’s where my confusion comes in. The only outrage I see over this murder from the values voters is outrage that it was talked about. Murtha and the “left-wing press� are “besmirching America� by admitting that this happened and calling for action, according to Bill O’Reilly, Glen Beck and others.

So I guess gunning down children is a family value but prosecuting the shooters is traitorous. It doesn’t weaken America to murder children, but talk about it and here come the terrorists! I’m not sure how this is pro-life, but it certainly demonstrates a remarkably consistent inconsistency. This is exactly the same song these folks sang when the truth about Abu Ghraib surfaced. While decent people of all political stripes were asking “How dare they do that in our name?â€?  the right-wing “moral valuesâ€? gang was puffing up their chests, sharpening their knives and shouting, “How dare you  talk about it?â€?

The next time you hear Ken Blackwell, Pat Robertson, Newt Gingrich or any other self-appointed guardian of the nation’s virtue talk about their precious “values�, ask yourself what it is that they value. Is it honesty? Justice? Responsibility? Standing up and admitting your mistakes?

No, no and hell no. Look at Haditha, and at Abu Ghraib, and you’ll see that what they value is silence.

Shhhh. If you don’t talk about injustice, it doesn’t matter.