Who's Lost Touch with Reality?

There will always be competing versions of reality. In his recent article, American Liberals Have Lost Touch with Reality, “self-syndicated columnist” Steve Darnell illustrates a version of reality that is easy to lose touch with. Even though he subscribes to an apparently widely-popular version in America, it is one that is still disconnected from most of the rest of the world. Darnell’s viewpoints on the realities of war in Iraq and on the broader War on Terrorism are fairly representative of many Americans’ attitudes, though certainly not everybody’s. And when it comes to his opinion on the treatment of Muslim prisoners, he deviates as wildly from core American values as sympathizers for Muslim terrorists do from the teachings of Islam.

Darnell quotes Gen. George S. Patton, who said, “Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.” Perhaps he should take a moment to inspect his own cynicism, which exposes a deep lack of understanding of justice and American values. It begins with the use of the term “liberal” to refer to anybody that does not see reality the way he does. This wholesale brushing off of competing points of view demonstrates his inability to process others’ arguments, leaving him only with worn out slogans, labels, and quotes to sustain his views.

Darnell’s main axe to grind with liberals is their objection to recent comments made by Lt. Gen. James Mattis, who expressed his pleasure with killing on the battlefield. A fuller rendering of Mattis’ quote, however, shows the nature of what was objected to by many, including Mattis’ own commander, Marine Corps Gen. Mike Hagee, who counseled Mattis for his comments. This is because it was not Mattis’ enjoyment of his work that others found so upsetting; it was his characterization of those he killed as “guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." Incidentally, Mattis also apologized and conceded that he should have chosen his words more carefully.

Nevertheless, Darnell goes on to build a straw-“person” argument that he then easily blows over with a load of hot air. This argument goes something like this: Liberals are out of touch because they took issue with Mattis’ depiction of Iraqi and Afghani enemy combatants described above. At issue is the underlying presumption that every Muslim enemy combatant must subscribe to the oppression of women, which automatically excuses any brutality perpetrated upon them by American soldiers. By definition, Americans are right. By definition, soldiers kill. By definition, anybody opposing America is wrong and deserves to be killed. By definition, anybody who disagrees with the above is out of touch with reality. Liberals disagree; ergo liberals are out of touch with reality. Can you smell the hay?

A second claim made by Darnell is that Muslim prisoners, whether held in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo, or elsewhere are “murderers and thugs.” He concludes that he does “not care how inhumanely we treat” them. What he fails to address is the fact that many of these prisoners have been released over the past two years, without charge. So, we can conclude that anybody who has been released must not be a murderer or a thug. He also fails to mention that almost every released prisoner bears physical, emotional, and psychological scars from being tortured by American soldiers. While, taking precautions while sorting out dangerous criminals is one thing, caging everybody like “rabid dogs” for years on end without charge is something else. It is un-American. It belies the principle of being innocent until proven guilty. It not only violates American law, it also violates international law. The United Nations has said so. The U.S. Supreme Court has arrived at this opinion also. They all must be cynical, out-of-touch liberals, too.

Darnell’s glorious knockout blow against his liberal straw-person is to equate liberal objections to killing and abusing potential terrorists with objections to putting women’s underwear on detainees’ heads. While he finds it amusing to recruit Victoria’s Secret and Frederick’s of Hollywood in the war on terror, he belittles the underlying crisis of disgraceful American practices in the execution of this war. American military and economic might do not make America right, especially when America does not practice what America preaches.

It is just a little out of touch with reality to believe it is right to promote freedom to a population by unlawfully invading and occupying their country. It is slightly out of touch with reality to try to teach the meaning of liberty by murdering or imprisoning civilians because they might be dangerous. One must certainly be out of touch with reality to justify torture as a lesson in democracy. And if all of this is acceptable in Mr. Darnell’s version of reality, then many of us choose to remain outside of it altogether.