Let's bury the Statue of Liberty

It's nice that in these dark days, the impending war can still provide a few laughs. I still can't work out if this site is a troll or for real. It argues that the French are being beastly to the poor Americans by trying to stop them from "defending themselves" (that's one of the things that made me think it was a troll at first, then gave me pause for thought - probably a large number of Americans really do think they are about to kill several hundred thousand people in self-defence). Consequently, America should return the Statue of Liberty to France.

Actually, this is not such a bad idea. As the site itself states:

"When the people are afraid of the government, that's tyranny. But when the government is afraid of the people, that's liberty."
-Thomas Jefferson

The American government is obviously not afraid of its people, and an increasing number of Americans are afraid of their government. France is currently ruled by a corrupt, unprincipled megalomaniac, who nevertheless seems terrified of the people he precariously governs. The French, having had revolutions in 1789, 1830, 1848 and 1871 (plus a near-revolution in 1968) are always happy to contemplate another one. Obviously they deserve the Statue of Liberty more.

Or as e.e.cummings put it:

"so rah rah rah democracy
let's all be thankful as hell
and bury the statue of liberty
because it begins to smell."

From the last Gulf War ...

The next day, as they drove up on trenches filled with Iraqis, all waving white flags, they started shooting them. Shot them as they ran, machine-gunned them en masse. Then his commander instructed him to drive down in the trenches.

To this day, his dreams are filled with images of arms, legs, hips, heads, crunching and sticking out from underneath the tank treads. He drinks, he says, just to be able to fall asleep, just to be able to forget, not feel, for a little while.

Looking on the bright side.

Now war seems inevitable, it's time to sit back, take stock, and maybe look at the positive side. The possible negative consequences of war are to obvious to be worth mentioning, but it's worth contemplating what the world could gain from this mess.

1. It is just possible that in the end Bush and Blair's promises of a new, democratic, peaceful and prsoperous Iraq rising from the ashes will come true. I wouldn't count on it, and I don't think it makes the war legitimate ("Hi, we're going to invade your country to give you a better political system and raise your standard of living!") but it would be a major compensation, not just for the Iraqis, but for the region as a whole.
2. The rifts in international institutions caused by American and British arrogance (plus, to be fair, French opportunism and bloody-mindedness) might open a serious debate on the role of those institutions, notably the UN, and how they can function in a world dominated militarily and economically by the USA. It is not that Europe and America can't be friends; it is more that America needs to be made to realise that its idea of a "friend" needs revising considerably. A more responsible role for Russia seems to be one of the unexpected side-effects of te current crisis.
3. Americans are waking up to the misdeeds of this and previous administrations. The prospect of war made a lot of people do some serious personal research, and they didn't like what they found: US support for Islamic fundamentalism and repressive regimes, electoral fraud, criminal negligence in the lead up to September 11th, erosion of civil liberties and a piling of lies upon incompetence. An impeachment is too much to hope for, but some soul-searching is inevitable.
4. Most importantly, Bush and Blair have to be thanked for creating a new entity, the world public. We saw the beginnings of this phenomenon with the anti-globalisation protests, but they were still the work of a small sector of the left. Now there is almost a counter-coalition formed of millions of people from all countries and walks of life. They might not have stopped the war, but they have shown that it is not only domestic public opinion that politicians have to look out for. This time, the protests were spontaneous and largely unco-ordinated, but in the future, world public opinion will be more organised, articulate and powerful.

Dissimile

I'm wondering if there's a name (preferably a nice Graeco-Latin name) for knowingly using a poorly-fitting simile or metaphor. For example, the following line from a friend's LiveJournal:

"A nicely lit fishtank in a darkened room can kind of be like a glowing fireplace, just wet. And not warm."