This article by Harold Pinter, first appeared in the Guardian in December 1996
Republished Friday 26 December 2008 to mark his passing away on Wednesday 24 December 2008
| Harold Pinter - English playwright, screenwriter - google image |
"The general thrust these days is: "Oh come on, it's all in the past, nobody's interested any more, it didn't work, that's all, everyone knows what the Americans are like, but stop being naive, this is the world, there's nothing to be done about it and anyway, fuck it, who cares?" Sure, as they say, sure. But let me put it this way – the dead are still looking at us, steadily, waiting for us to acknowledge our part in their murder."
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| Map showing 115,273 targets of U.S. secret bombing of Cambodia between 1965-1973 - credit: google |
Harold Pinter
Can it be true? Are the other "major powers" in the world finally moving towards a position where their contempt for the assertion of US power is actually being embodied in action? For the fourth year running the United Nations has voted for the motion condemning the US embargo of Cuba, this time by 137 votes (including Great Britain!) to three.
The countries against the motion were the US, Israel and Uzbekistan.
The European Union is taking the US to the World Trade Organisation panel, arguing that the Helms/Burton bill is illegal. Fourteen out of 15 members of the security council (including Great Britain!) voted against the US veto of Boutros Boutros-Ghali. The US was on its own.
How can any country stand out against such a consensus? How can any country, in the light of such blanket condemnation of its policies and actions, not pause to take a little thought, not subject itself to even the mildest and most tentative critical scrutiny? The answer is quite simple. If you believe you still call all the shots you just don't give a shit. You say, without beating about the bush: Yes, sure, I am biased and arrogant and in many respects ignorant, but so what? I possess the economic and military might to back me up to the hilt and I don't care who knows it. And when I say that I also occupy the moral high ground you'd better believe it.
The US is without doubt the greatest show on the road. Brutal, indifferent, scornful and ruthless it may be, but it's also very smart. As a salesman it's out on its own. And its most saleable commodity is self-love. It's a winner. The US has actually educated itself to be in love with itself. Listen to President Clinton – and before him, Bush and before him, Reagan and before him all the others – say on television the words: "The American People" as in the sentence, "I say to the American People it is time to pray and to defend the rights of the American People and I ask the American People to trust their President in the action he is about to take on behalf of the American People." A nation weeps.
