[THS] We`re Nuanced Here in the States

[The Harder Stuff in news and commentary]

We’re Nuanced Here in the States

by John Cole

Well, it took about an hour and a half, but one of the back benchers in the WH Press
Corpse finally asked Gibbs if it mattered to the WH that an American was among one
of the flotilla dead. The previous hour and a half was dedicated to questions from the
beltway pretty boys dealing with perceptions of whether the President is engaged
enough in the oil spill and tough enough on BP, whether or not Gibbs had watched
Jon Stewart last night, and the usual important stuff. The response from Gibbs when
finally asked was so evasive and noncommittal that I can’t remember anything other
than his mentioning that Obama had a good talk with Erdogan two days ago.

It must be really odd to be a foreigner watching the reaction of the American
government. You look at Turkey, and they seem to be just furious that Israeli soldiers
stormed onto a non-Military vessel on the high seas and shot up some of their
citizens, but the United States seems to be wholly indifferent. What people don’t
realize is just how nuanced America has become about citizenship.

When we decide if someone is a real American, worthy of all aspects of citizenship
and defense by the government, we look at the totality of the situation. We look at
what kind of citizen you are, what you believed in, what you were doing at the time
you were shot four times in the head at close range by a foreign army as they
stormed a ship in international waters, and a variety of other factors. For example, as
the Powerline points out, this guy wasn’t a “real American” anyway:

The facts are not entirely clear, but it appears that Dogan was born in the United
States to Turkish parents who returned to Turkey not long thereafter. (The ABC story
says he was two years old.) Apparently Dogan had lived in Turkey with his family
since that time. He apparently was, in other words, a “birthright citizen,” solely by
virtue of the fact that his parents were residing in the U.S. when he was born.

If that is the case—and, again, the facts are not yet entirely clear—it is silly to call him
an “American of Turkish descent.” He, like the other members of his family, was a
Turk. The idea that his presence among the dead raises a special diplomatic problem
is absurd; if it does, it shouldn’t.

Not only was he not an American, but we should tinker with the Constitution so this
never happens again. Now had his parents emigrated to a more American country
when he was two, like, for example, Israel, then this story would be a lot different.
But as it was, it is clear that he was not sufficiently American for our government to
get upset about his death.

Second, you have to look at what Dogan believed in to establish his American
credentials. He was against the Israeli blockade, and as we all know, there is nothing
more un-American that opposing Israeli policy. Had he been doing something more
real American, like delivering bibles to Iran or proselytizing in Yemen, then we could
be outraged over his death. As it was, he had it coming.

I hope this clears things up for our foreign friends, and it makes complete sense that
no one in our government would care enough to even mention his death publicly. It
really is a question of nuance.