Sometimes Being Patriotic Means Having To Say Your Sorry

This week, at a speech in Cairo, Obama did something unheard of in a politician: He told the TRUTH! He acknowledged that the Palestinian people have suffered and were displaced by the creation of modern Israel. He was also the first president to admit that the US actively helped overthrow the democratic government of Iran during the Cold War (something so few Americans seem to know about). And finally, perhaps the one that has sent so many neo-conservative war mongers into hysterical fits, he stated the obvious fact that the attack on Iraq was a war of choice (and a bad one at that).

Conservative reaction has ranged from Sean Hannity of FOX News selectively editing the video of the speech in order to make it look like Obama was sympathizing with the attackers on 9/11, to Senator Jim Inhofe actually calling the speech "un-American" and that he couldn't tell "which side he's on." Now I expect any show on FOX News to distort the truth by any means possible, they are a political propaganda machine, not a news station. It was pretty shocking though to hear a Senator deliver such an inflammatory criticism of the president, especially when he is out of the country. I have no doubt that his comments were meant to motivate the fanatical base of the Republican party, but I thought I'd take some tome to explain to Senator Inhofe which side Obama and the rest of us patriotic Americans are on.

I'd like to make a distinction first between patriotism and nationalism. Dictionaries differ on their descriptions, but the overall consensus is that while patrotism means loving your country, nationalism means loving your country to a fanatical level. I think of Senator Inhofe as a Nationalist, someone who will staunchly
defend the country, even when it has clearly committed a major crime.
I consider myself a patriot. I love the USA and the ideals that it stands for, but when the government falls short of those ideals I look at the truth of the situation no matter how ugly it gets.

Like most Americans, I grew up with propagandized history classes that always painted America as the "good guys". The horrible things we did to Native Americans as we expanded west were not in my textbooks, nor was any mention of tidbits like the U.S. government backing a revolution against the democraticaly elected Guatemalan government at the behest of the United Fruit Company.

These events are facts, and facts need to be embraced and not ran away from (pay attention please creationsists). If we deny those portions of our history that we don't like, then we are no better than the Holocaust deniers, trying to paint a rosy picture where none exists. Our country has been involved in some atrocious behavior over the years, and only by recognizing that and accepting the uncomfortable truth of it, can we learn and grow beyond it.

Iraq was a war of choice, there is no disputing this. As the historical record begins to unfold it becomes more and more obvious that the Bush administration just wanted to invade Iraq and that there were no connections between Iraq and 9/11, Iraq or Iraq and Al Quaida, except perhaps sharing the same planet. In order to create a fictional connection, the Bush Administration used methods of torture to extract false confessions out of prisoners. These are the facts, and the ramifications of this are what President Obama inherited when he took office.

I applaud Obama for taking on these subjects in such a frank and honest way. It takes a bigger man (and country) to admit when we did something wrong, and his doing so in such a public way has helped restore our credibility with other nations around the world. Obama is a true patriot, and I am proud to have him as our president.