More Than Peanut Butter
Here is the way that U.S. military officers describe their purpose in Year Nine of the Long War: “Our goal is to take care of the people, not kill the Taliban.” The speaker is Captain Ryan Sparks, commander of the Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, currently engaged in operations that aim to deliver good governance to the people of Afghanistan’s Helmand Province.
Yet this sort of thinking finds application well beyond war zones. The same edition of The Washington Post that quoted Captain Sparks included a column in which Michael Gerson paid tribute to America’s “tenderhearted legions.” Gerson was reporting on U.S. military contributions to earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.
Haiti, it turns out, is Afghanistan all over again, only with weapons kept on safety. One Marine officer interviewed by Gerson put it this way: “It is very similar to Iraq and Afghanistan, except that here there is no bad guy. We’re helping the populace, winning their trust. This is right up our alley.”
U.S. forces today don’t win wars by defeating enemy armies; they win trust by distributing alms and doing good works. The Centurion has become the Good Samaritan. Gerson, for one, is impressed.
U.S. forces have distributed tens of thousands of jars of peanut butter to Haitian schools, he reports, while onboard a navy warship “a 96-year-old Haitian woman in intensive care is attended like an admiral.” All of this reflects what Gerson calls “a dramatic shift in military thinking,” credited to General David Petraeus, which today finds U.S. forces “practicing a kind of noninvasive surgery—providing structure and security, but cultivating community institutions that must continue to stand after America leaves.”
In Gerson’s world, the peanut-butter-distributing United States military just now discovered Haiti. His column contains no allusion to the fact that from 1915 to 1934 Marines occupied Haiti and ran the place. The “community institutions” that remained after they departed—mostly a corrupt, rapacious indigenous officer corps—didn’t exactly serve the interests of the Haitian people.
But why recall such unpleasantness? Forget history, and it becomes so much easier to persuade yourself that the presence of U.S. forces in the Caribbean or on the other side of the world represents not a latter-day version of imperialism, but the benign and generous purposes of the United States itself, helping to bring light to a dark and troubled world.
Here’s hoping that Haitians, Afghans, Iraqis, and other targets of American beneficence have memories as conveniently selective as columnists employed to produce sentimental drivel for The Washington Post.
Comments are closed.
Does the President enjoy terrorism more than peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?
Do you wonder if he ever feels any kind of genuine responsbilities in any of this or mostly just a kind of euphoria?
Terrorism, do you ever get the sense that our Chief "gets a kick" out of it? That terrorism is fun for him?
A kid on a holy mission in a fearmongerer’s candy shoppe?
Get off the crack please!! OR go fight and quit whining like a two year old baby…
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You are a great example of mindless liberalism, thank you.
I do know he fears pretzels more.
But yes,it often appears as if Dubya’s playing out some kind of warrior fantasy.
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Yes, he thinks he has control over us when we are fearful.
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he uses terroism as an excuse to pop a cap in someones ass…. I don’t think a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich has any illegal firearms in storage, now does it?
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Terrorism means money to the President and his cronies…They love to spread fear because they think it legitimizes the 450 billion dollars wasted on another country…
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Bush is a psychopathic mass murderer. He likes all forms of killing, including terrorism. The only exception would be if one of his rich corporate or Saudi Arabian friends or family members were killed.
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no the president does not enjoy it {the president is a good man and you will be a good man when you no longer critisize} Satan is our real enemy.
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When was the last time Georgie had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? That’s gourmet for the poor.
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I really think he thinks in his warped mind that the terrorists are his playmates , when he eats Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches he states, "Be shore you’ns cut that thar crust off.
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I would bet that the only thing he ever thinks about when creating policies regarding terrorism or any thing else is how good a PB&J sandwitch would actually taste.
Even while getting a good mouthful of terrorism instead.
All other things he could put into his mouth are probably just as bad.
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um no he went to war to end terrorism… everyone hates him because of 9/11 except al lthe sane ppl like 50 percent of the population but it wasnt his fault and im tired of all of this he’s and idiot he enjoys terroism stupid stuff. this war is so 9/11 doesn’t happen again
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No he loves killing terrorists
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No. Study more, pay attention in class, and stop the biased rhetoric, and you too, shall say NO to Liberal foolishness.
Good Luck.
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shrub is a sociopath. understandable, given his forebears, but not excusable. it is questionable whether he has ever had a PB&J, but he sure does like terrorism, his father helped to invent international terrorism, again understandable, considering the Barb, but again, not excusable.
a kid on a holy mission, heh. probably, but shrub will never be the man his momma is.
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More Bush bashing. Boring and pointless.
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Yes, especially since he and everyone in his administration is behind all the terrorism–Cheney, Rice, Rummy, etc., along with the Cia, Fbi, Nsa, British MI5/MI6, and Israeli Mossad.
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Well, he better not enjoy terrorism. I do’nt like the man, but
my President better realize how serious this is. Getting
rid of Saddam was like cutting the head of five-headed
serpent. I and many other citizens can call all terrorists
stupid, but afraid something drastic has to be done and
no, I do’nt have the answer. Besides a peanut butter and
jelly sounds yummy right about now.
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Well since terrorists have been attacking us for more than 30 years, you must mean all presidents? Do you remember 911?. You are as sick as the terrorists if you think the president enjoys the war on terror. At least he has taken them on, something that Bill Clinton was afraid to do….he cared more about his approval rating than national security……I think it’s time for you to have you diaper changed, you are starting to whine
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I’m not sure what you mean, but from what I can tell you are asking if the president of the United States of America enjoys terrorism. This doesn’t seem like a sensible question. What kind of terrorism? The kind where innocent people die? I don’t think any reasonable person enjoys that. I sense you are trying to be funny, but I’m not laughing.
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not as much as pb&j, but it is his bread and butter
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