Evan sees the war

Há mais ou menos um mês eu recebi um texto de um amigo americano sobre a guerra, a falta de suporte mundial aos EUA e outras baboseiras. Nem me lembro bem o que dizia, tão imbecil que era o texto. Esse meu amigo é uma graça de pessoa, bonzinho mesmo, e, sinceramente, não me irrita que ele pense assim. Josh sempre me perguntava coisas sobre o Brasil, simplesmente porque ele não sabia nada sobre lugar nenhum - e tinha consciência disso. Ele até me enviou um e-mail um tempo atrás falando sobre o Lula, que tinha lido um artigo sobre as idéias dele para combater a fome e tal. Mesmo tendo sido em tom de brincadeira, para dizer que não era tão tapado como eu pensava, conseguiu me impressionar.

Mas Josh cresceu assim, aprendeu a cantar o hino americano provavelmente antes de dizer "mommy", teve a educação pífia de High School, que não ensina nada sobre o mundo, sobre pensamento crítico, História, Geografia, nem mesmo gramática da Língua Inglesa. A culpa não é totalmente dele. Por isso, desisti de mandar uma resposta "reply all" para o texto que ele enviou a mim e a vários outros amigos (americanos). Sabe quando dá preguiça de explicar algo para alguém que você sabe que não tem meios de entender o que você vai dizer? Então preferi perguntar como ele ia, o que andava fazendo, se estava namorando, surfando muito, já voltara a San Diego ou ainda se escondia em sua cidadezinha no interior, vendo TV e comendo peanut butter.

Mas ontem cheguei em casa tarde da noite depois de um churrasco com amigos. Estava naquele clima de viagem austral e não conseguia dormir, então fui checar meu e-mail, intocado havia dois dias. E lá estava uma mensagem enviada por uma amiga americana. O assunto: “Speech”. Já sabendo o que estava a caminho, me preparei psicologicamente para ter paciência de ler até o final sem praguejar.

Os argumentos eram os de sempre, os piores e mais ignorantes possíveis. No mesmo estilo das barbaridades que eu ouvia por lá: o mundo tem inveja da riqueza americana, os americanos morrem pela liberdade blábláblá.
Olhei para quem mais ela havia enviado: as meninas do meu time, técnica, assistente, minhas duas melhores amigas, mais um povinho que eu conheço e uns que não tinha idéia de quem eram. Não tive dúvidas: cliquei em "reply all".

Obriguei-me a driblar minha mania de totalidade, de querer colocar todos os argumentos possíveis encadeados, fazendo sentido. Não podia construir o quadro completo das relações internacionais, das guerras no mundo, da culpa que os EUA têm em vários cartórios, da unilateralidade do pensamento dos pragmáticos norte-americanos. Até porque não sou professora de nada e sei pouquíssimo desses assuntos, apenas o suficiente para entrar em uma discussão com leigos na Cobal do Humaitá.
Então selecionei uns trechos do “speech” e fiz embaixo uns comentários educados, na esperança de que pelo menos a Carolina, minha amiga argentina, leria e concordaria comigo, mesmo que não se manifestasse. Eis o que respondi:

Just a few comments on that speech:

"Above all, America is hated because it is what every country wants to be - rich, free, strong, open, and optimistic."
Believe me, it is not envy. America is hated mostly because of its government's arrogance. I disapprove this anti-Americanism that is going on in the world. But I understand it.

"Or do you really think the USA is the root of all evil?"
No, I don't. But the USA is capable of defining who are the roots of all evil - the "axis of evil", which can change from time to time, according to the interests. That is not being 'the root of all evil': that is being arrogant.

" To our shame, George Bush gets a worse press than Saddam Hussein. Once we were told that Saddam gassed the Kurds, tortured his own people and set up rape-camps in Kuwait."
In the 80's, America supported Saddam in the war against Iran, and gave him money and weapons. Something like that The same happened to Osama bin Laden, who was trained by the CIA. And America guided the Taliban in Afghanistan, also in the 80's, because it was a way of keeping Russia out.

"Remember, remember September 11. One of the greatest atrocities in human history was committed against America. No, do more than remember. Never forget."
I agree. It was an atrocity and innocent people died. But also remember September 11, 1973. Does anybody know what happened then? Does anybody remember how many people died when a man called Henry Kissinger (does anybody know him?) killed Chile's president Salvador Allende and set up a dictatorship in the country, when Chile was a democracy? Does anybody remember what happened in Nicaragua, in 1985? And who supported dictatorships in Brazil and everywhere else in Central and South America that killed thousands of people during more than 20 years? Do more than remember. Never forget.
***
You know I loved living in the US. I love the people, I have made great friends and I miss them all. You are a great people, but please don't close your eyes for your government's mistakes. And atrocities happen everywhere, every year, but you do not hear it, because press coverage in the US is limited. Yes, it is. Read a guy called Noam Chomsky. Or even listen to Michael Moore...I wish everybody there could see things in a different way - like the way these two American guys see it.
Love,
Renata.

Não esperava nada além de uma ou duas respostas ligeiramente desaforadas, ou alguém dizendo “hey, how are you, girlie?” e ignorando meus comentários.

Mas um carinha me surpreendeu. Evan McIntosh teve a paciência de ler e responder o meu e-mail. Conheço-o de “Hi”, no máximo. Ele trabalhava na Public Safety (“polícia” da faculdade) e parecia o Clark Kent daquele seriado, um super-homem meio japa e cheinho. Não tinha opinião formada sobre o Evan: devia fazer parte da “massa”, apenas um estudante de American college como milhões de outros, um jovem que queria um diploma para conseguir emprego e ganhar dinheiro. Provavelmente um dos 70 e tantos por cento que apoiaram a guerra, ou talvez um que nem parava para pensar nisso. Ele me respondeu de forma simples e educada, e comprovou o que eu já sabia: também nós somos muito preconceituosos com os americanos. Só vivendo lá podemos entender porque eles são como são. Acho que, em linhas gerais, eu compreendi. Eles simplesmente são tão doutrinados quanto um homem-bomba, só que de uma forma bem diferente, claro, e mais sutil.
Com a palavra, Evan:

Renata,

I liked your reply. Very... impartial. We Americans seem to have trouble with impartiality when it comes to political affairs, and I must say, it seems that that for every country, when it comes to a "personal standpoint", we really do miss the point.

You're right... atrocities occur everywhere, everyday. So why does one blind himself to the atrocities of others and focus on his own? Unfortunately, it is plainly and simply because they are closer to home. And until the world is home to all (which, unfortunately, I doubt will happen ever), it will remain so.

But, you are indeed correct. The world is a hard place to live, and it takes hard people to survive. But for the good of all, we must all sacrifice something. Sometimes, life happens to be that something, and sometimes, it happens to be American life. Just as it sometimes happens to be Afgan life, or Islam life, or Jewish life it you want to go into biblical roots.

It's funny too when you think about it... when 100's of Iranian soldier's die, we [American's] think nothing other than that 100's of Iranian soldiers died...but when 1 US soldier dies... expect a press conference. And while I must say that if I were that one American soldier, I would want to be remembered... if I were simply 1 in 100 Iranian soldiers, I might still wish to be remembered.

But while individuals may be impartial... usually... to expect that whole nation will be is unreasonable.
So thank you being so.

Evan McIntosh"

Thank you, Evan.

**************

Se alguém tiver paciência ou quiser treinar o inglês, aqui está o tal “speech” que recebi. Vale a pena ler; é bom saber os argumentos absurdos para poder combatê-los...

“No matter what your views on Bush are, this, from an English journalist, is very interesting. For those of you not familiar with the UK's Daily Mirror, this is a notoriously left-wing daily that is normally not supportive of the Colonials across the Atlantic.
Tony Parsons - Daily Mirror
One year ago, the world witnessed a unique kind of broadcasting -- the mass murder of thousands, live on television. As a lesson in the pitiless cruelty of the human race, September 11 was up there, with Pol Pot's mountain of skulls in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like garbage in the Nazi concentration camps. An unspeakable act so cruel, so calculated and so utterly merciless that surely the world could agree on one thing-nobody deserves this fate. Surely there could be consensus: the victims were truly innocent, the perpetrators truly evil. But to the world's eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen as America's comeuppance. Incredibly, anti-Americanism has increased over the last year.

There has always been a simmering resentment to the USA. To this country too loud, too rich, too full of themselves and so much happier than Europeans - but it has become an epidemic. And it seems incredible to me. More than that, it turns my stomach.
America is this country's greatest friend and our staunchest ally. We are bonded to the US by culture, language and blood. A little over half a century ago, around half a million Americans died for our freedoms, as well as their own. Have we forgotten so soon? And exactly a year ago, thousands of ordinary men, women and children - not just Americans, but from dozens of countries - were butchered by a small group of religious fanatics.

Are we so quick to betray them? What touched the heart about those who died in the twin towers and on the planes was that we recognized them. Young fathers and mothers, somebody's son and somebody's daughter, husbands and wives, and children, some unborn. And these people brought it on themselves? And their nation is to blame for their meticulously planned slaughter?

These days you don't have to be some dust-encrusted nut job in Kabul or Karachi or Finsbury Park to see America as the Great Satan. The anti-American alliance is made up of self-loathing liberals who blame the Americans for every ill in the Third World, and conservatives suffering from power-envy, bitter that the world's only superpower can do what it likes without having to ask permission.
The truth is that America has behaved with enormous restraint since September 11.

Remember, remember. Remember the gut-wrenching tapes of weeping men phoning their wives to say, "I love you," before they were burned alive. Remember those people leaping to their deaths from the top of burning skyscrapers. Remember the hundreds of firemen buried alive. Remember the smiling face of that beautiful little girl who was on one of the planes with her mum. Remember, remember - and realize that America has never retaliated for 9/11 in anything like the way it could have. So a few al-Qaeda tourists got locked without a trial in Camp X-ray? Pass the Kleenex...So some Afghan wedding receptions were shot up after they merrily fired their semi-automatics in a sky full of American planes? A shame, but maybe next time they should stick to confetti.

AMERICA could have turned a large chunk of the world into a parking lot. That it didn't is a sign of strength. American voices are already being raised against attacking Iraq - that's what a democracy is for. How many in the Islamic world will have a minute's silence for the slaughtered innocents of 9/11? How many Islamic leaders will have the guts to say that the mass murder of 9/11 was an abomination? When the news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those freedom-loving Palestinians were dancing in the street. America watched all of that and didn't push the button. We should thank the stars that America is the most powerful nation in the world. I still find it incredible that 9/11 did not provoke all-out war. Not a "war on terrorism." A real war.

The fundamentalist dudes are talking about "opening the gates of hell," if America attacks Iraq. Well, America could have opened the gates of hell like you wouldn't believe. The US is the most militarily powerful nation that ever strode the face of the earth. The campaign in Afghanistan may have been less than perfect and the planned war on Iraq may be misconceived. But don't blame America for not bringing peace and light to these wretched countries. How many democracies are there in the Middle East, or in the Muslim world? You can count them on the fingers of one hand assuming you haven't had any chopped off for minor shoplifting.

I love America, yet America is hated. I guess that makes me Bush's poodle. But I would rather be a dog in New York City than a Prince in Riyadh. Above all, America is hated because it is what every country wants to be - rich, free, strong, open, and optimistic. Not ground down by the past, or religion, or some caste system. America is the best friend this country ever had and we should start remembering that.

Or do you really think the USA is the root of all evil? Tell it to the loved ones of the men and women who leaped to their death from the burning towers. Tell it to the nursing mothers whose husbands died on one of the hijacked planes, or were ripped apart in a collapsing skyscraper. And tell it to the hundreds of young widows whose husbands worked for the New York Fire Department.
To our shame, George Bush gets a worse press than Saddam Hussein. Once we were told that Saddam gassed the Kurds, tortured his own people and set up rape-camps in Kuwait. Now we are told he likes Quality Street.

Remember, remember, September 11. One of the greatest atrocities in human history was committed against America. No, do more than remember.
Never forget.”