The United States has a long history of war, both literally against other countries, and between themselves with their respective classes. These are points that Howard Zinn brings up in his book, “A People’s History of the United States”. Zinn devotes his book to showing examples of people fighting for what they believe in, whether it be improving the lives of those who are oppressed, or defending that oppression, both economically and socially. But when Zinn comes to his 25th chapter, dealing with the decade of the 2000s, it’s as if he is saying that America has become apathetic and only looks for simplistic solutions. The apathy comes from not caring about those less fortunate, and the simplistic solutions are the result of that uncaring attitude.
Zinn starts off pointing out the apathy by illustrating the 2000 election, in which he said that neither the Republicans, nor the Democrats posed any threat to the superrich (Zinn). He specifically points out that $220 million was raised by the George W. Bush campaign, while $170 million was raised by Al Gore as examples of how the presidency can be bought (Zinn). He gave anecdotal examples of a cashier at a gas station and a McDonald’s manager, both of whom said that there wasn’t any real difference between the candidates.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Zinn And The War On Terror".
Then, when a cataclysmic event happened, the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and another plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. That created a different type of apathy. This apathy arouse when the country rallied around President Bush, who declared a “War on Terror” and Congress passed easily giving him the power to use military action, even without a declaration of war (Zinn). It occurred when the majority of Americans wouldn’t question the government’s actions, including bombing Afghanistan. While there were some reports of Afghan civilian casualties, such as the Boston Globe, which said that at least 17 and perhaps as many as 89 died in bombings, more journalists were determined to just wave the flag (Zinn). CNN president Walter Issacson wanted his reporters to say that civilian who died were harboring terrorists, and Dan Rather said that wherever President Bush told him to line up, “just tell me where.” (Zinn) Ordinary Americans were even willing to accept the wartime jingoism, putting flags up in their homes and on cars (Zinn). The few who did try to criticize the government often found themselves targets themselves by the government (Zinn)
By having Congress and journalists be willing to accept the rationale for war, and not even be willing to question the president, shows apathy on their behalf. Instead of working to find out if the solution to the attacks was to do more attacks or come up with a better alternative, Zinn points out, they just decided to go to war and to cheer on the troops. And the American people either went along, or, for those who had the courage to criticize, often found themselves marginalized.
Zinn’s solution to this is a fundamental change in the military-industrial complex, but, as he points out, there is apathy even in that, as neither party shows any inclination to cutting down spending (Zinn). Rather, he feels that money should go for humanitarian causes, such as treating tuberculosis in the world (Zinn). This, he shows, would be a good way for the country to break away from apathy and show the world that it can care about others instead of just trying to force them into submission (Zinn). Doing something like this is trying to solve a complex problem. But it would show the world that America can do something beside bombing people, that it can be a true world leader in humanity.
