Tracheal
intubation is when a plastic tube is stuck down your “trachea
(windpipe) to maintain an open airway or to serve as a conduit through
which to administer certain drugs. It is frequently performed in
critically injured, ill or anesthetized patients to facilitate
ventilation of the lungs… to prevent the possibility of asphyxiation or
airway obstruction.” (Wikipedia) One of the consequences of this
emergency procedure is that the patient finds it almost impossible to
talk.
Although this medical procedure has been done for centuries, it was
only until recently that the survival rates rose above a distinct
minority of those upon which the procedure was applied. It is no longer
necessary that the throat be cut to insert the tube; yet the procedure
is still dangerous. “Alternative strategies for securing the airway
must always be readily available.” It has been on too many occasions
the treatment has caused rather than prevented death! Tracheal
intubation is the primary reason that the suspected Boston bomber who
is still living, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (age 19), has not been able to speak.
A number of critical questions are being raised for which it appears as
if young Dzhokhar would have the most immediate answers. Some cause for
this silencing treatment is undoubtedly due to his throat wound,
presumably from a gunshot. Although he will likely be able to
communicate in other ways, presuming he is conscious, his wound may
prevent him from talking ever again. I know that two of the most
important questions for some are whether there are others who wish to
also strike “America” in a lethal way and why. Our airwaves and TV
screens are over-saturated with these questions. Once the prospect of
membership in Al Qaeda or an off-shoot are discarded, security experts,
police investigators, and military hawks will either give you an
off-the-cuff answer about mysterious pockets of alienation, mental
illness, or the irrational, internet-mediated, self-generated disease
of radical Islamic fundamentalism. The best of such promoters of
militaristic solutions will declare that they are assiduously
investigating the answers. Well… I have not been physically intubated
yet and I think that I can answer both questions.
I have the same answer that Malcolm X had for the
assassination of John F. Kennedy; his answer was the reason that the
Nation of Islam silenced him for ninety days - after this period of
silence Malcolm left The Nation. Malcolm’s answer was also voiced by
Libertarian Ron Paul’s former chief of staff (Llewellyn Harrison
Rockwell, Jr.) about prospects for further attacks on “America” and
why. It is an answer that very few want to hear or talk about. If most
“Americans” can, they will intubate, silence, or otherwise keep these
words from passing lips or entering ears.
“The chickens come home to roost” Malcolm X said. His meaning is clear
no matter how it may have been twisted. His full words can be found in Black Commentator’s archives.
His ancient wisdom, simply put, is “what goes around comes around.”
Malcolm talked about a climate of hate and violence that the U.S. has
perpetrated throughout its history. He talked about Kennedy’s
reluctance to fully support the aspirations of the civil rights
struggle until he had little political choice and until too many people
had been hurt and killed. Lew Rockwell talks about the military
industrial complex and U.S. adventurism around the world. There is no
question; the greatest perpetrator of terrorism in the history of the
world is the U.S. government. There are so many examples it is hard to
choose among them. If you know history, what indeed is the dropping of
the A Bomb on Japan but national terrorism? What about drones that kill
so many innocent people and cause “blowback?” Or even a police policy
like stop and frisk that is designed to strike FEAR in a community.
When the sun goes down, the chickens return home to roost.
Unlike 1963, when Malcolm stood alone defending his analysis, today on
the margins one can find brief discussions of the
Chickens-coming-home-to-roost. I heard it on a left-leaning talk show
in addition to the libertarian blog where Rockwell made his statement.
Times have only changed incrementally and they have not reached a place
to bring about any serious reassessment of U.S. foreign or domestic
policy. The military industrial complex and the incarceration
industrial complex uses considerable hold on public resources to
intubate any significant vocalization of treatments aimed at curbing
attacks that do not themselves generate future attacks. As long as too
few of us know that there are alternative approaches, these capitalist
security complexes will hold sway over the minds and fears of the
public. Margaret Thatcher’s famous dispiriting phrase about rapacious
global capitalism - “there is no alternative” (TINA) - also is
vigorously active for the capitalist security complexes. Thatcher is
dead and global capitalism is being challenged in many places in many
ways in this world. Is it time for more break-through challenges to the
capitalism-of-false-security?
I have severe disagreements with Libertarian Lew Rockwell’s
Anarcho-capitalism, in which he advocates total elimination of all
elements of the state in favor of individual sovereignty in a totally
free market. I also have severe disagreements with Malcolm X’s - at the
time - belief in the divinity of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and that
the prophet’s words equate with ultimate truth. However, I find common
ground with them on the answer to the questions of more attackers and
why they attack. Malcolm went on in an interview to sketch one
alternative approach. When he was asked if we are making progress in
this country, Malcolm said NO. He said that it was like putting a knife
in one’s back to a depth of nine inches and then pulling it out to a
depth of six inches. That is not progress. The knife is still in the
back doing its damage. Even if the knife is taken out altogether, that
is not good enough. Progress would be when the work is done to heal the
wound!
The many, many wounded nations, communities, and individuals
around the globe and in this country are desperate for justice. And
their descendents, compatriots, and sympathizers are also seeking
justice. It is deaf and blind idiocy to believe that “America” is being
attacked out of envy for our “freedoms and prosperity.” Al Qaeda grew
out of U.S. military bases plunked down on “sacred” Saudi Arabian land.
Iran is still suffering from the U.S. overthrow of its democratically
elected President, Mohamed Mosaddeq in 1953 at the behest of British
Petroleum. Timothy McVeigh cited the Federal attack on David Koresh’s
Branch Dravidian sect at Waco, Texas, in 1993 as one reason for his
bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma. On top of many of these
heinous U.S. actions must often be added attacks and counterattacks
which themselves produce further blowback. This is little different
from the gun fights between friendship groups and families on Oakland
streets which mimic the feud (1863-1891) between the Hatfields and the
McCoys of West Virginia and Kentucky area. If no effort is made to
break the cycle and heal the wounds, “the chickens will come home to
roost.”
The first step is to pull the intubation tube out of the throats of
folks who have something critical to say. The U.S. must drop its false
sense of superiority and exceptionalism born of racism and imperialism.
The U.S. must clearly hear the charges and not mask them with
counter-charges; there will be time enough for that. Any fair
assessment would brand us the greatest perpetrator of terrorism and
violence in the world and as the initiator of significant blowback.
Lastly - to really make progress - we must begin to heal the wounds
that we caused and to do this as a priority way above the needs of the
security industrial complex. That would be proper treatment that is
imminently survivable.
BlackCommentator.com Columnist, Wilson Riles, is a former
