Mark Phillips: The American Question

4/4/03: Cowboys and Indians.

Dead Iraqis line the road to Baghdad.

After sketching the contributions made by Grotius, Montesquieu and Rousseau to Western legal concepts of warfare, Sven Lindqvist goes on to note in his excellent A History of Bombing:

There were horrifying exceptions to the 18th-century humanization of war. In particular, three types of opponents were excluded from the process: rebels, infidels, and savages. According to the English, the Irish belonged to all three categories. A number of scholars have pointed out the connection between the merciless methods used by the English to put down rebellion in Ireland and those used by English colonists against the natives of North America. French and English soldiers treated one another as equals when they fought over their American claims -- but Indians could be put down by any means necessary.

How ironic that Bush and Blair have chosen as the location of their meeting to plan the Iraqi occupation, of all places, Northern Ireland. Is this symbolism unintentional?, that is, the outcome of historical ignorance? Is it Freudian, that is, an unconscious need to give the game away? Or is it deliberate, and thus as savage as it seems?

Back to 2003 menu
Back to Mark's Blogspace main page

More Information

1. "All roads lead to Tehran", Phillips
2. "Complexity", Phillips
3. "weblogs: a history and perspective", blood
4. "You've got blog", Mead
5. EatonWeb Portal
6. BlogHop
7. Blogger
8. Blogroots
9. The Pepys Project