The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> Abe Lincoln and the Assyrians

Abe Lincoln and the Assyrians

Posted by pancho (Guest) - Saturday, May 3 2008, 19:58:45 (CEST)
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By any measure Abe Lincoln has to be the most outstanding figure in American history. I’d read that politics is the art of compromise because, without resorting to murdering your opponent, the only way for two or more parties to reach a peaceful settlement is for each to back down from absolutes.

In an excellent biography of Lincoln by Benjamin Thomas I read the following regarding Lincoln…”He never forgot that democratic politics is the art of the possible, that to insist on the unattainable would merely bring his downfall.” And, needles to say, the downfall of his party, country and the people’s aspirations.

This is the major flaw in so-called Assyrian politics. There not only is no notion of what is possible, but the more wildly improbable something is the more fervently is it embraced….not, I think, because anyone thinks there’s a chance of attaining it, but because it SOUNDS so good to say it! I think Assyrian politicians, if that’s the right word even, long ago gave up any idea of achieving something meaningful and tangible…the appeal of their “position” is in it’s appearance…in its grand-sounding name. In place of compromise and the possible they hunger after the impossible-based-on-faith as a mark of their “true” devotion etc. It confirms my notion that the Assyrian identity is wrapped up entirely with the bible and biblical prophecy…and therefore needs nothing “possible” about it at all…neither can it consider compromise for who can compromise over his religion…who can barter away God’s judgments for mere earthly peace and good will?

It was also refreshing to read that the crimes of this war against Iraq are nothing new in American history…in fact during the four months between Lincoln’s election victory and his assuming office he was cautioned by his advisors to say nothing which might anger the Southern slave states, who’d already begun to secede on news of his victory…they assured him that the nation could be brought together in patriotic reconciliation by a trumped up war against Mexico..or some other foreign power. It seems a handy war is always a temptation to pull a divided nation together…especially one that still insists of civil liberties and could be gotten to pass a Patriot Act in no other way BUT through fear and threats…even manufactured ones.

Those who had supported the first war against Mexico which ended with the acquisition by the United States of vast portions of Mexico, had sold the war as a just response to the attack and murder of innocent Americans by the Mexican army. The fact that these innocent Americans decided to settle on Mexican land illegally and fire upon officers of the government who came to toss them out was discounted by the press.

The younger Lincoln had refrained from commenting on the justification for war with Mexico while he was in Congress….but he heard a speech given by Henry Clay, a political favorite of his who criticized Polk for starting the war….”This is no war of defense but one of unnecessary and of offensive aggression. It is Mexico that is defending her firesides, her castles and her altars, not we. He found himself in agreement and later joined a group of Congressmen who forced a petition on President Polk admitting that, “Mexico and not the United States had jurisdiction over the ‘spot’”. The spot being that patch of land taken over by the Americans illegally whose rout by the Mexicans then became the pretext for a war of “self-defense”.

This is an old trick the United States would use again and again…the difference is we had politicians of more guts and integrity back then. Lincoln added his support to an amendment to a resolution of thanks to General Taylor for his victory which read: “in a war unconstitutionally and unnecessarily begun by the President.” But whenever bills for supplying the army came to a vote Lincoln voted in favor, since there was no use in punishing the soldiers…and when a resolution was put forth which would effectively bar the United States from annexing to itself any part of Mexico, he abstained…because he was also a realist. Nations expand through warfare..it’s the oldest rule of politics. You can no more blame Americans for doing it than you can Ashurbanipal….or Muhammad…or Constantine.

But, for whatever it was worth, Lincoln and others weren’t going to allow their own government to muddy the facts behind what was plain and clear; that the United States used an illegal pretext to start that particular war…and it wasn’t the last.

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