Brian Cooney: Pride and Patriotism

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Brian Cooney

Since 2003, whenever I see the American flag on car decals or on T-shirts, I assume I'm looking at a supporter of the Iraq war. It makes me say to myself: I want my flag back. It also makes me think there's been a perverse meaning attached to "patriotism."

Most people would agree that it's a good thing, even a virtue, to be patriotic in the sense of loving one's country. Does that mean we must support a war once our government has initiated it, even if we believe it is unjust? Or that we must believe that our national history is a record of mostly good behavior and a source of pride? This question was brought home to me by an incident last February.

Just before the Wisconsin primary, Michelle Obama said at a campaign rally that "for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change."

Mrs. Obama's words incited a great deal of righteous anger among conservative pundits. Jim Geraghty of the National Review called her remark "strikingly ungracious." After all, hadn't America been very good to her? "What, opportunities to go to Princeton, Harvard Law, working for top-shelf law firms and hospitals, sitting on the board of directors for a major Wal-Mart supplier -- that's not enough?"

Was Geraghty right? Or did Obama's racial identity entitle her to feel some alienation from her country in spite of her exceptional educational and career opportunities?

After 250 years of slavery, and another 100 years of legalized racial discrimination, the United States had indeed progressed to the point where very talented blacks such as the Obamas could attend Princeton and Harvard and go on to successful careers. Was Geraghty saying that Obama should be proud and grateful that our country now offers its many excellent educational and career opportunities even to people like her, people it used to treat as sub-humans?

Now that her husband has been elected, should white Americans be proud of the fact that our nation has chosen a black president? Yes, in the sense that a recovered addict or a reformed criminal can be proud that he has turned his life around. This is a justified pride when combined with a humble acknowledgment of our past.

There has been a lot of fake patriotism peddled to the American public in the last seven years. This counterfeit love of country demands unthinking assent to war and expanding military power, and makes ignoring the bad aspects of our past a measure of our loyalty.

If we ignore or deny the negative attributes and bad conduct of someone we love, then we can't help that person be better. We don't really love that person -- we're relating instead to a fantasy.

It's the same with a community, even a national one. Love of country is impossible without honesty about who we are and what we have done. It calls for pride in real achievements and good works, and anger or shame for our failures and misdeeds. Only in that way can we help our nation live up to its ideals.

As with other great nations, our history has had both proud and shameful moments. Each of us can think of our own long list of both. Who is not moved by accounts of the bravery of American troops undergoing the horrors of the landing at Omaha Beach in 1944? I will never lose my awe at the ingenuity and bravery that landed humans on the moon with less onboard computing power than today's Blackberry. The David and Goliath victory of the U.S. hockey team over the Russians in the 1980 Olympics was a microcosm of the American spirit.

The Vietnam and Iraq wars were moral and political disasters, notwithstanding the genuine bravery and sacrifices of so many American military personnel. The shameful legacy of the "war on terror" includes torture publicly and officially sanctioned by President Bush and members of his administration.

Army Major General (ret.) Antonio Taguba headed the first official investigation into the Abu Ghraib torture scandal in 2004. For his honesty in exposing the influence of higher-level authority on the torture regime carried out by the military prison guards, he was ostracized and ordered to retire. He knew the risk he was taking, but he did his duty. He is a patriot.

General Taguba wrote the foreword to a recent report by Physicians for Human Rights on the medical effects of American torture in Iraq and Afghanistan. In it, he wrote that "there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account." That will be a test of our patriotism.

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION