How many deaths like Rachel Corrie?

Tony Smith

Published in ACMICA Enews, issue 4, 2004.

The young are paying the price for the pride and shortcomings of a few old men, writes Tony Smith*

A new chapter is supposedly opening in the history of Iraq. A new administration is attempting to rebuild an orderly society from the ruins left by years of dictatorship, destructive wars and civil unrest.

Surely everyone around the world must hope that the Iraqi people will defy the odds and achieve peace and stability. Those of us who opposed the military invasion of Iraq in 2003 will certainly be among those to hope for democratic progress, but that is unlikely to change our minds about the war itself.

In early 2003, the bombing of Baghdad by the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ began as my birthday approaches. Obviously, this made me too depressed to celebrate. Like many Australians I was doing all I could to dissociate myself from the inevitable slide into war. Once again it seemed that people of my generation, who ought to know better, were prepared to kill to achieve foreign policy objectives. Having seen the tragic fruits of war so many times before, I felt sickened that the old men leading the supposedly free, English speaking world were about to take actions that would destroy for decades, the aspirations that younger people have for a peaceful world. I wrote many articles and poems in that period, some of which were published.

The proponents of war employed many arguments. One was the utilitarian appeal to proportionality, which claimed that the killing of some innocent people could be excused on the grounds that it was an unfortunate by-product of a campaign to liberate millions of Iraqis from domestic oppression, and to remove the threat of international terror against millions elsewhere. However, since the conclusion of investigations to locate Iraq’s allegedly fearsome arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction the governments of the US, Britain and Australia have been asked to re-examine the arguments they used to appeal for support for the campaign.

It seems important to revisit not only those arguments based on mistaken information about Iraq’s weapons, but also every deliberate, hyperbolic claim the Coalition made as they demonised President Hussein, compromised the United Nations and trampled domestic criticism.

Even if the war has achieved some humanitarian objectives, the utilitarian argument about the “unintended but inevitable” deaths of innocents should be condemned as absurd so that it will never be used again. The case of one individual, a young American girl who died in Palestine in March 2003 shows the stupidity of attempting to use this equation in the cold, rational circumstances wherein the Coalition leaders took their decisions.

If media reports are accurate, Rachel Corrie was 23 when an Israeli bulldozer crushed her. She had placed her young body between that machine of destruction and a home of a Palestinian family. Perhaps her death was entirely accidental or perhaps the driver was reckless and culpable. Perhaps the bulldozer driver was a family man with daughters of his own. In any case, the driver was probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The broader point, however, is not the guilt or innocence of the driver. The bulldozer symbolised the policy of an Israeli government supported by the US government, the country where Rachel was a citizen.

Many people wondered why Rachel was in Palestine, just as they questioned the motivation of Australians offering themselves as ‘human shields’ in Iraq. In the twenty-first century, pragmatism rules to such an extent that it is sometimes difficult to understand conscientious actions. It is likely however, that Rachel was expressing the frustration felt by many young people in this ‘new world order’. The rush by western governments to globalise alienates the young who appreciate the hypocrisy behind the rhetoric. In reality, it is only economic elites who are globalising, while the poor majorities languish and are deprived of resources, despairingly awaiting the supposed trickle down effect.

The numbers of idealistic youth joining non-government organisations is an indictment of the current generation in power. Frustrated by our insincerity, they look beyond national governments to an alternative global movement in an effort to express their commitment to a future based genuinely on peace and justice. They are determined to educate themselves about international problems rather than to rely on the information that governments want them to digest.

The most famous Rachel in antiquity was a shepherd, the wife of Jacob and one of the four matriarchs of Israel. Jacob and Rachel fell for each other, as young people do, and her father agreed to the match in return for Jacob's labour for seven years. However, when the wedding night arrived, Rachel's father took the opportunity to get Rachel's elder sister Leah off his hands first, according to the custom of the day. He switched the daughters and held the ceremony in the dark. Later, he allowed Jacob to wed Rachel also. This betrayal haunted the marriage of the young couple and Rachel seems to have been understandably embittered by the experience.

The death of Rachel Corrie should make us all feel bitter. It should make us realise that any balance sheet that justifies the destruction of young lives because others might be saved is totally immoral. The trade-off is diabolical. No one was made safer by this young girl’s death and no one’s life was made better. On the contrary, we are all impoverished if we rationalise away such murders as unavoidable accidents. We should prefer to live with our fears of terror than to assuage our consciences with high-sounding appeals to security.

The same principle applied to the lives of the young girls of Iraq. As the bombardment approached, it seemed likely that Rachel’s story could be repeated hundreds if not thousands of times. This pernicious doctrine of killing people to save them from dictatorship would be repulsive enough if that was even our real motivation. But as Prime Minister Howard made clear in answer to a question following his press club address, regime change in Iraq was not Australian policy and not originally a war aim.

The biblical Rachel died bearing Jacob's son. Rachel Corrie's death should bear fruit that should never be forgotten. It should remind us that for generations, old men who have lived their lives have made the same errors. Driven by pride and convinced of their righteousness, these men have exploited the young. They have bequeathed to them futures locked in to the enmities that give retrospective justification to their own shortcomings.

Killing individuals in the name of supposedly high ideals is the cause of the problem, not the solution. Resort to violence renders ideas not just mistaken but positively evil. People of conscience are intuitively rejecting these latest admissions of failure, these latest non-solutions and deplorable rationalisations of violence. It is time that the old failures found a way to make their own sacrifices without destroying every opportunity that the young have for building something better.

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