Savage: Iraq war is "white man's burden"
During the March 20 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage declared that Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden" applied to the situation in Iraq. Kipling's poem, written in 1899, is widely believed to have been written as an endorsement of the U.S. invasion of the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. The poem describes the indigenous, colonized peoples of the world as "half-devil and half-child" and goes on to describe imperialism as a noble, if doomed, venture.
From Kipling's poem:
Take up the White Man's burden --
The savage wars of peace --
Fill full the mouth of Famine,
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
(The end for others sought)
Watch sloth and heathen folly
Bring all your hope to nought.
Savage cited Kipling's poem to justify the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, claiming that Americans must "choose between American imperialism and Muslim imperialism." He warned that if Muslim imperialism is not defeated, "a thousand years of darkness" would ensue under Muslim rule, adding, "So, if I have to make a choice between American imperialism and Muslim imperialism, I'll tell you which side I'm on."
From the March 20 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's Savage Nation:
SAVAGE: Tell me if this doesn't apply to the United States in Iraq:
Take up the White Man's burden --
Send forth the best ye breed --
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild --
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.Take up the White Man's burden --
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;[...]
The alternative to imperialism or colonialism of these fanatics is a thousand years of darkness. The reverse is also true; in other words, it's either our colonialism or Muslim imperialism. I mean, you've got to make a choice here. You know, when you say that "America is a colonialist or imperialist nation," as the idiots in college are saying -- if you say that in a vacuum, it sounds like we're a bad nation and bad people, but you have to counter it with the fact that you have Muslim expansionism and Islamic imperialism -- in other words, a religious imperialism that is fighting us right now, so you have to decide which side you're on. Do you want to live in a thousand years of Islamic rule? Do you want to live with a sword hanging over your head? Do you want your wife or your girlfriend or your daughter to walk around in a black costume with her face covered? Is that what you want? Do you clitorectomies performed in hospitals because they don't want a woman to have any pleasure? Do you want every other religion outlawed? Do you want the churches and the synagogues closed or blown up? Because that's what you're arguing for if you are saying we are an imperialist nation. So, if I have to make a choice between American imperialism and Muslim imperialism, I'll tell you which side I'm on.
The only thing missing from Savage's audio was The Battle Hymn of The Republic playing softly in the background.
Since the Iraq War is the White Man's Burden, (1) Black people should be relieved of the part of their tax burden that pays for it; (2) all Black soldiers should be exempt from combat duty in Iraq.
Those are the opening lines, in Afrikaans, of "Die Stem von Suid-Afrika" (The Voice of South Africa), the apartheid-era National Hymn thereof.
Which, IMHO--and especially considering Mr. Savage's repute for racist articles of faith being promoted in the name of "winning of hearts and minds"--should have been a more apropos background musical selection to "The White Man's Burden" being thus read.
Especially considering that "Die Stem" was, during the 46 years which saw state-sactioned racism and prejudice hold high carnival across South Africa, a rather blatant, even overt, display of racist arrogance in general--and, in particular, Afrikaner racist arrogance. (And still is among old-school, unreconstructed specimens of Afrikanerdom, especially such so unable to come to grips with Reality that they resort to promoting the likes of Die Volkstaat Orania in vain attempts to "save the Afrikaner from himself."
(And their like-minded sympathisers and apologists among white-supremacist types in Europe and America, from what I understand.)
(In case anyone asks, "Afrikaner" is any South African of Dutch/German/French Huguenot descent, especially such as arrived during the early years of colonisation in and around present-day Cape Town from 1654. Afrikaans, a close relative of Middle Dutch, is their traditional lingua franca, although many also speak English as a matter of course.)
is the sane side.
More irrational calls to hate thy neighbor, what a load. Are we ready for our 5 minutes of HATE?
1000 years of darkness is more likely to result from nuclear devastation than religious tyranny.
What a load!! Savage goes WAY over the top to be provocative, guess he figures his listeners find such crap to be comforting and/or entertaining. The history of the last 200 years has taught us that imperialism doesn't work. It breeds anger and resentment among the majority of the colonized people. Even the British Colonies in North America found it oppressive in the 1770's, and there was much less cultural difference between the mother country and the colonials in that situation. What ever happened to them, anyway?
When you've carried a burden on those narrow shoulders of yours. Let Savage put his ass on the line for once in his life, instead of calling for others to carry his burden.
Michael Weiner (his real name) seems to be against everything and everyone, exept himself and his family. I think that his fantasy is to dominate everyone and everything to order all to his will. I don't know what he has, but he seems to be full of anger and frustration.
[link to en.wikipedia.org]
Boy. So, this guy reduces the entire discussion to whose side of 'imperialism' one should be on? Got to keep it black and white.
"Do you want to live in a thousand years of Neo-Conservative rule? Do you want to live with a gun pointed at your head? Do you want your wife or your girlfriend or your daughter to walk around barefoot and pregnant with her face lowered in disgust? Is that what you want? Do you want clitorectomies performed in hospitals because they don't want a woman to have any pleasure? Do you want every other religion outlawed except Christianity? Do you want the churches and the synagogues closed or blown up?"
The above is an exerpt of what Savage says above...... I changed a few words to reflect the Neo-Conservative movements actions!!
I wonder how Savage reconciles having Condi Rice as Secretary of State. AHA! Maybe this explains our problems convincing the rest of the world how right we are!!
Damn, I've got to release the sarcasm lock on my keyboard.
Let's see... a war against a country that hadn't attacked the U.S., but was successfully tarred as an attacker with the help of sleazy right-wing media: that was the Spanish-American war. The term "yellow journalism" was coined to refer to the outrageously slanted drum-beating of Hearst media.
Shortly after Kipling published The White Man's Burden, a Parisian newspaper published a retort: The Brown Man's Burden. It also applies to Iraq, but we shouldn't expect to hear about it from Savage.
Questions for Mike 1. WHat do you think the blacks that are fighting in iraq for your freedom think of you callig this war, a white man's burden? 2. How do you think the rest of us feel, who do not proscribe to the religious rights viewpoints feel? do you think we worry about having our religious views and rights taken away? or abortion? or any other viewpoint that the religious right is pushing on our society that maybe the rest of us don't want? It kind of feels like an imperialist nation to me!
Savage is demonizing the enemy? Wow, that's a new tactic that hasn't been done before. Why didn't anyone else think of this. How about instead of having actual dialog as to what action we take. We hate whatever the other side says and demonize the messenger.
Aren't we an enlightened country or what?
An' I'll get a swig in hell from Gunga Din! Yes, Din! Din! Din! You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din! Though I've belted you and flayed you, By the livin' Gawd that made you, You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!
White man's burden, a brown man's back. Pretend that the world is something it is not and that somehow you make it better by making it more like you by force. It won't work, never has never will. The "barbarians" are always at the gate and usually on the inside too. Savage is a perfect name for this nutcase, he is ignorant and therefore just that a savage of no use to any thinking person.
Outrage is the only description I can use for the approach of the neocons:
Because we put your fellow citizens under the gun, you must do as we say or they shall die.
Everything else pales in comparison.
we have to look at the Silly Savage's ugly mug on billboards - illegal billboards, by the way. It is against the law to use the American flag for an advertisement. But that doesn't stop this idiot.
The photos is airbrushed - Savage has a gap between his front teeth.
When he was on Hate Talk 560 am, Savage wore this ridiculous leather hat...one day at work a co-worker peed in it.