A Fable for Unilateralists
By SEAN HANNON

June 20, 2003

 “There were two hunters in far parts of the jungle stalking the same tiger. During their pursuit of the fell beast, they were both hit by a mysterious virus, and awoke one morning to find that they were completely blind.  The first hunter, traumatized and fearful that the tiger might be near, stumbled frantically to his stockpile of shotguns and began to fire in all directions. Birds and monkeys fell from their trees for hours, and every new crunch and crackling sound elicited a volley of gunfire from the terrified hunter. The second hunter, far enough away from the first to not be deafened by the fusillade, sat very still with his finger on the trigger. Realizing that his sight was gone, he leaned more heavily upon his other senses. The cry of the birds, the squalor of the monkeys had new value to him. Turning his head, he smelled and tasted the air.  It had a faint odor of fresh kill upon it.  The silence of the crickets caused him to lift his head and hold his breath. The sudden snapping of a small branch, followed by a swift rush of wind, magnetized the end of the hunter’s gun barrel to swing over and let loose with its one sure shot. The tiger was slain. Meanwhile, at the other end of the jungle, a hundred angry and painfully wounded creatures encircled and slowly approached the petrified hunter with his empty barrels.”

 I offered this tale to an acquaintance during the run-up to war, as a metaphor for why we needed to react to the trauma of 9/11 with great care. I now offer it at a time of public torpor that defies explanation. I thought perhaps a return to Aesop’s method of reaching people through simple equations of cause and effect might be the way to rouse the indolent. Yet I have strong doubts now that any message, in any form, will penetrate.

 In recent weeks, irrefutable reports have surfaced offering strong evidence that our nation and the world was willfully lied to by the President of the United States in order to bolster his case for war, and that the fabricated linkage of 9/11 to Saddam’s regime began as early as the day of the attack while the towers were still burning.

 And the public’s response to these revelations? A big yawn. The U.S. Congress’ response? A tepid closed door inquiry. The mainstream newsmedia’s response? A quick look to the polls showing most Americans are unconcerned so why should they be?  My response to all of these responses? Unprintable.

 Britain is currently in grave political turmoil as its very engaged public and parliament demand a stern accounting of the facts from Tony Blair. But then, they have such quaint notions about the truth being somehow relevant to matters of preemptive war. We, on the other hand, are more sophisticated about the ways of the world and are, after all, the supreme nation on the planet, so it is simply enough that our leaders believed we had good reason to invade, mutilate and incinerate thousands of people who did us no harm.  Our President and his men may be forgiven their little sidesteps around, or criminal misuse of, any evidence from our intelligence community that collided with their “truth”, simply because they believed something else. Why opt for a democracy with all that complicated crap about checks and balances, judicial oversight, and inquiry into executive branch abuses, when a theocracy is so much easier to maintain?