Tuesday, 26 August 2008

• Patriotism or Nationalism?

  Commentary by Y. El-Harar
  
        I was born in Casablanca, Morocco fifty years ago. A city that boasts the largest artificial seaport in North Africa, bursting with commerce, tourists and foreigners seeking opportunities of any kind. A country that is ruled by a king, without the protections of a constitutional democracy, pillared by a justice system representing individual rights.
  
  I migrated to the United States in 1998 and truly love this great nation for all that it has built upon. I love the American flag, which stands for sacrifice and precious ideals of sovereignty my Moroccan compatriots can only dream of. America is more than a Constitution of checks and balances, more then an institution which has developed and enforced a legal criterion for racial and gender rights. It is a politico-economic phenomenon, unequaled in recorded history and of global proportions. Billions of the world's people, languishing in hopeless poverty, under corrupt governments who serve their own interests and those of the elite, look toward the American people as a shinning example.
  
  My sister and her husband migrated to the US before me and as waiters, are able to live a good life in a home worth a hundred and eighty thousand dollars. In my country one could work hard as a laborer all his life and never rise above the poverty line.
  
  This great story is based on a few simple principles.  For example, (1.) patriotism. My idea of it's meaning is found in defending the rights of all people. Human rights, civil rights, individual rights, ethnic rights. Even the right to be ceremoniously indicted before a body of his peers in a court room, that a person may defend his innocence. A system in which the accused and the accuser can present a body of material evidence and witnesses to defend their claims.  This is a patriotism which pays homage to a practice that is as fair and just as humanly possible. In this way, individuals are empowered by rules that support the probability of just outcomes. Therefore, by definition, patriotism has to do with what a person supports based upon his fundamental beliefs. (2.) Another grand principle that seeks to manifest the intangible vision of freedom is social consciousness. A virtue that flourishes in every community the world over, but not necessarily embraced by every government, which leads me to the third point. (3.) A free society must be governed by men who share and support the same vision of freedom and justice as the rest of society does. The constitution broadly defends, if not guarantees the protection of all rights for all people.
  
  When I was sworn in as a naturalized citizen, I promised to  'support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic'... We (the American people) are all unified under a single principle of faith, that our own government will also be bound by this very oath, to defend the constitution against all enemies. Even those who run the government. 
   
  When we face the American flag and pledge our allegiance, we are devoting our support to what it stands for. A Republic where the People are Sovereign. We are not pledging allegiance to an invasion force that is mandated by political elites. We are not hailing a national leader who is willing to sacrifice the lives of millions of innocent people for the sake of his arrogant pride. We are not paying homage to a pretentious congress that serves foreign interests to the detriment of national security.
  
  As for the current military campaign on the Middle Eastern front, I have studied comparisons made by war opponents with lessons from the Vietnam war in terms of policy and strategy. What I haven't seen is how all of this fits into the current social mood of the American public. In 1971, a State Dept. official handed over a top secret, 7,000 page compilation of the Pentagon regarding war planning and policy to a New York Times reporter who published them. Daniel Ellsberg, the State Dept. officer who leaked the report, later stated that the documents "demonstrated unconstitutional behavior by a succession of presidents, the violation of their oath and the violation of the oath of every one of their subordinates", and that he released the documents in an effort to get America out of - "a wrongful war."  Having said this, the Pentagon Papers revealed that the government was compelled to bring an end to the Vietnam war, simply because there weren't enough troops at home to pacify the growing civilian resistance and rioting that was occurring in US cities. 
  
  In contrast to the generation that so boldly exercised it's freedom to public assembly, we are now witnessing an Iraq war opposition movement that is only diminutive by comparison. So much so, that it has been vanquished merely by the silence of a complacent majority. Notwithstanding horrible afflictions imposed upon millions of homeless, unamed and malnurished civilians, the abandonment of social principle by Americans is an unpious assault against the future of democracy in the world at large, as well as a license to the continued rise of a powerful American military security complex regime. An organization that we Arabs are quite familiar with, such as those of the former Iraq and Afghanistan.
  
  Finally, with the many troubling signs from a White House that openly challenges the most fundamental precepts of constitutional balances and human rights, a more telling sign is that of a self restricting populace. In all of this, Americans are still enjoying the benefits of a long standing foundation and tradition of protected rights. But, as I have heard it said here, "all good things must come to an end."
  
  In this case anyway, the people shall decide.
  
  
  

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