We cant turn a blind eye to causes of our conflict

By U.S. Marine Sgt. Ben Christensen

Nov. 7, 2004 --- IRAQ ---- Eugene Novogrodsky called me out all the way from his comfortable Brownsville living room when he wrote an astute letter to the editor last month that turned me into quite the political commentator I never meant to be.

In the letter Novogrodsky said Id hinted twice at a clash of cultures between Arabs and Westerners being the reason for my service in Iraq, and basically accused me of warmongering.

Now Im just a small-town, small-time thinker, and young at 28, and Im not being facetious in saying that I tend to shoot from the hip (not literally, I aim carefully) and speak nice and loudly. Magnavox, indeed.

But Im also an avid reader of the histories, so I must point out some things regarding Novogrodsky and millions of other Americans points of view, as seen from my narrow perspective, of course (Im being facetious now).

For anyone to turn a blind eye, as Novogrodsky did in his letter, to a few simple, quite obvious facts is to me inexcusable. The first of these might shock a few folks, but the United States very gradually and very eagerly inherited a de facto empire from the British in the aftermath of the First and Second World Wars of the past century, and that was and is the United States belonging both to Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals. Novogrodskys letter had a decidedly political slant, and I suppose my expressions of support for the current Iraqi campaign seem to carry a similar, though opposing, slant. But they do not, necessarily.

Though its no ones business, Im neither Republican nor Democrat, nor am I an imperialist. I belong to that disfranchised or extinct (or both, in that order) class of agrarian populists in the vein of the tragic idealist (we populists all are) Lyndon Johnson. But Id say that since the fall of

the Soviet Union, the United States is at the top of its game.

We only go down from here, anyway, if you look at the rise and fall of great world empires. Internal strife, bickering, finger pointing and neglect of foreign policy inevitably corrode the machine from within.

Personally, Id be content with a nation of coffee bean farmers who raise at least half of their own food through sustenance agriculture and who mind their own business. But thats not the reality Novogrodsky or I inherited when we were born or became citizens in this place. We were born to a globe-dominating empire, built and nurtured equally well by good liberals like Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy and good conservatives like Ronald Reagan and the newest Bush.

If isolationism and pacifism are cure-alls, why didnt they work for Lord Chamberlain in the face of Hitlers menace? The British parliament harangued Winston Churchill for nearly a decade while he railed against the rising fascist threat in Germany. He was seen as a warmonger, a

loud-mouthed troublemaker who was ignoring domestic policy and wanting to drag his nation down potentially deadly rabbit trails. But turning ones back on a very real threat, through isolationism or national pacifism, does not necessarily make that threat go away.

And since when was the clash of cultures between radical Muslims and the Christian West radical and otherwise a political construct? The idea that growling at Iran or Syria will suddenly foment a self-fulfilled prophecy of my clash of cultures that Novogrodsky waved in my face is one that denies that clash already exists. Its incorrect to say were not already in a deadly struggle with the radical Islamic world. Weve been at it for nearly 1,400 years now.

Id love to ignore Southwest Asia entirely, too, trust me. Id be on the first plane home to my wife and three sons if we could suddenly shut out these very real, pre-existing realities. The harshest reality of all, which Novogrodsky dodges altogether, is that the Middle East is as

necessary to the Western world as heroin is to a junkie. Lets all just jump on bicycles and we can ignore the Arabs, cease prospering them altogether, and theyd be entirely unable to wage a collective, shady, non-state war against us.

Lets just deny reality and blame everything on one political party or on one president and the storm will cease. Just like it did for Lord Chamberlain.

So sue me if I felt a rush of horrified indignation on that hellish morning that too many Americans seem to have already forgotten or forgiven. Maybe its just not real for them and it never really registered. The best defense is the offense. Or is it diplomatic niceties with leaders who have no semblance of control over their own fanatical populations? Does the answer to Sept. 11 and the continuing terror threat lie in school reform or tax cuts or raising taxes or dredging up intact the military records of two beautifully spoiled elitists one an emperor

and one a jealous would-be emperor?

I dont know. I hate politics and politicians. Novogrodsky seems to pretend that I am a political commentator instead of a grunt writing for the folks back home. Meanwhile, I render unto Caesar what is Caesars and Caesar currently owns my boots and my rifle and my indignation.

Periodically, on Sundays, The Brownsville Herald will publish dispatches from Iraq columns written by U.S. Marine Sgt. Ben Christensen from the front lines of the War on Terror. Many of the reservists serving with Christensen are from the Rio Grande Valley or have ties here. These weekly dispatches are meant to be like letters home to all that are waiting for news from Iraq.