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For the lack of an American Solzhenitsyn!
By Ben Tanosborn
ccun.org, August 7, 2008
Editor's Note:
The author wonders in the last paragraph, "Why is it that
here in America we don’t produce notable figures, heroes of
humankind?" I'd argue that we have thousands of them. The list
includes all those who have opposed the Bush wars through their
writings, speeches, marches, protests, and interactions in any
level. The main reason why none of them has been noticed nationally
or internationally was simply because of denying them space in the
pro-war, Zionist, corporate media, which gave prominence to
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, for its own purposes.
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This past Sunday another citizen of the world, Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn, started his walk in that never-ending pilgrimage we
refer to as immortality. And he did it, not just as a laureate
man of letters, but as a man of well thought-out choices, conscience
and true humanity; a man who proudly and joyfully accepted his
Russian beginnings, but also conceded highest priority to dignity
and humanity as inalienable rights for every man.
News of his death came to me over the Internet as I was reading an
article by AP writers Charles J. Hanley and Jae-Soon Chang, “Seoul
probes civilian ‘massacres’ by US,” that had just come over the
wire. Thoughts from those two pieces of news were running
parallel in my then emotionally-charged mind: here is a man
searching for truth (Solzhenitsyn) and, running parallel to it, here
is truth searching for a man, some American great man acknowledging
that truth… and finding no one.
While reading data of the horrific victimization, actually murder,
of countless Korean civilians – as usual, mostly women, children and
old people – at the hands of the US military during that 1950-1
period, I couldn’t help but think of the Gulag created by Joseph
Stalin, “the whiskered one,” as described by Solzhenitsyn, and
emulated militarily by followers of our own American empire: first
in Korea, later in Vietnam and, these days, in Afghanistan and Iraq.
How many thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, innocent civilians
were strafed by bullets, or napalmed, in Korea?
Indiscriminately, yes, for our soldiers couldn’t tell “one gook from
the next,” as they claimed… from the North, in flight to the South…
or simply trying to find safety, refuge…anywhere. Over 200
incidents; some, like the one that happened at No Gun Ri, where
survivors estimate 400 Koreans died at American hands, have been
kept under wraps from the American citizenry; all the military brass
needed to do is just classify any and all the facts with the
“secret” or “top secret” stamps thus letting the angry-radioactivity
cool off, as if converting it to depleted uranium or denying it to
be uranium at all, until two or three generations have passed.
By then, who will be charged with war crimes? It’s not a
cover-up since Americans pretend, and some actually believe, that we
never engage in torture or cover-ups. The White House has for
decades given a free hand to the Pentagon… after all, crimes of war
“just happen,” and the only crime Americans are not permitted to
commit is one which may result in lowering the morale of the troops;
or one bringing dishonor to the country.
Then I thought of Solzhenitsyn, and his recollection of being an
officer in the Soviet Army, observing the inhumane treatment that
the Soviets had inflicted on the Germans, military and civilians, in
1945 as WW II came to a close; perhaps crimes that many would excuse
as retribution for what the Germans had done years earlier to them;
a retribution that he would not find acceptable.
Today’s counterpoint is simply the ease in which the American
military accepts crimes of war, often candy-coating them and making
them PR-acceptable, as simply “collateral damage.” Our
American military has gained vast experience at decriminalizing many
repugnant acts of war during the past six decades, from No Gun Ri to
My Lai to Fallujah, expecting future generations to be the ones
passing judgment, if at all. It will probably be three decades
or more before we get to know the truth of what happened in
Fallujah, Haditha and some of the other unresolved war crimes
committed in the Middle East. Documents will then be
declassified as memories fade and many, or most, of the witnesses to
the war crimes, as well as the perpetrators, are dead. Also,
after much of the anger in the victims’ families has subsided.
Solzhenitsyn was a loving son of Russia and its history; but his
humanness made him a great citizen of the world. He denounced what
to him needed to be denounced in every facet of life, whether it
pertained to the inhumanity of man towards man; or the way modern
society was evolving, including such areas as music. To his
regret, and in spite of his desire for privacy, he was used in
propagandistic ways by men he did not hold in high esteem, such as
Ronald Reagan; and even criticized by many liberal-secularists who
failed to understand that his acceptance of religion in the form of
Christian Russian Orthodoxy had little to do with faith, and the
inhumanity that faith may have caused, and much to do with history
and tradition as basis for change.
Why is it that here in America we don’t produce notable figures,
heroes of humankind?
Do we prefer not to be “snitches” to those who commit crimes, not to
be “traitors” to the ugly face our country may show at times; this,
when in truth we really are, maybe without realizing it,
whitewashers of crimes… and traitors to our own humanity?
Ben Tanosborn
www.tanosborn.com
ben@tanosborn.com
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