Hawk and Dove

Innate Docility: President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Superman: I heard.

ID: Why do you think you, and the rest of the Justice League, have never won a peace prize?

S: Honestly? A few reasons spring to mind. The first, though probably the least, is most of us have had at least some contact with outsiders- people society at large would consider “other,” be they aliens or reclusive island nations. I think no matter how much people may look up to us, respect us, there’s a certain amount of unease with that.

Second, look at the history: Anwar Sadat, Yasser Arafat, Kissinger- even giving it to Carter during Bush’s presidency. The Nobel Committee often uses the prize as a carrot, in the hopes of shaping international policy. In essence, the message was, “Keep up the diplomacy- and try not to bomb Cambodia.”

Third, we’re vigilantes. We are, under most national and international laws, operating unsanctioned. The Nobel Committee, under the auspices of the Norwegian government, could never be seen to official accept what we do. And there's a perception that we try to punch all our problems away.

Fourth- I’m actually surprised Diana doesn’t have one- as is Greg Rucka, apparently. She’s done extensive work for and with UNICEF and the International Committee of the Red Cross & Crescent- both of which have won at least one prize. She doesn’t often get the credit she’s due, but Bruce once paid for a study, and for every punch she throws she gives three speeches about peace, and for every speech she throws or attends some kind of charity benefit. Around her there’s sprung up this mythology of an Amazonian warrior woman, and frankly, it’s a very small part of who she is.

ID: Hmm. So do you think Obama deserved one?

S: I honestly don’t think it was aimed at Obama specifically; his election, on the platform he articulated, was made possible by the American people. I think it was a high profile way of saying to America, “Welcome back.”

ID: So you think internationally we’ve been

S: Absent. Yes. Absolutely. Off the reservation, at a minimum.

ID: Okay, but even allowing for a moment that the award was for the people generally, do you think we’ve earned it?

S: I think the hope is that we will. The hope is that America is back to the country who first proposed the League of Nations to the world, who were instrumental in the creation of the United Nations, who only reluctantly entered the world wars- not the bickering, antagonistic state who refused to join the original League, who did everything politically possible to hobble the UN, whose leader- ostensibly the leader of the free world- thumbed his nose at unilateralism and who seemed to those abroad to be, if not war hungry, at least peace-aversive.

ID: I’m reminded of a pair of your fellow do-gooders who seem awfully apt to the conversation, Dawn and Hank Hall- Hawk and Dove, to the action-figure buying kiddies in the audience.

S: Don’t believe everything you read about them. For one, Dawn’s always been a woman- she was never "Don" and they were never siblings. In the fictions it was felt at the time, and maybe rightly so, that liberals, already caricatured as weak, would be ill-served having a woman, equally caricatured as weak, as their figurehead. It added all kinds of sexual politics, as did their at-the-time budding romance, that weren’t exactly appropriate for the funny pages of the day, or paramount to the issues they were discussing.

But honestly, Dawn and Hank were a little before my time. I’ve worked with them, sure, but by the time I donned my first pair of tights, they had already been married for years, and were looking to retire. I think what worked for them, and why I think I’m glad you brought them up, is they learned the beauty of combining their ideologies, their strengths, and their efforts. I remember talking to the both of them during the presidential campaign last year, and Hank was very big into “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran,” but Dawn, very coolly, said that the Iranian people would suffer disproportionately from that, that diplomacy and sanctions should be tried first, but that if the Iranians couldn’t be convinced from the brink- which they both believe the Iranians are when it comes to the inseparable issues of Iranian nuclear policy and Israeli security- then she’d help strap Hank into the bomber of his choice. I think, and I think I’ve lived, that you really need to work for peace, with almost everything you have in you- but that some problems can’t be sanctioned, talked, or legislated away- sometimes you have to use force.

ID: Hmm. I want to return to the idea that the prize was for Obama personally, and I want to read you, from Nobel’s will as according to wiki

S: Journalistic excellence at its zenith

ID: I’ll use a kryptonite gag on you; it should be awarded to the person who “during the preceding year [...] shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” That actually… sounds about right. Or maybe it was just a crappy year for peace.

S: I can’t believe you’d threaten the infirm during a conversation about “peace.”

ID: And I don’t believe you’re that naïve- or that infirm, either.

S: Bantering aside, I coughed blood yesterday; actually, I’ve been coughing blood. There were pieces of lung tissue in it this time- I guess, honestly, there’s been lung tissue in it all along, but for the first time Lois noticed, that it wasn’t just blood coming out.

ID: I’m sorry.

S: That wasn’t why I mentioned it. In fact, I don’t really know why I mentioned it- just came to mind, and tumbled out. I guess I’m, losing my filter.

ID: How does that make you feel?

S: Worried. I come from Kansas. It’s not that Kansas is oppressive, there’s just a, a certain way you’re allowed to express yourself. And I’ve spent a lot of time adhering to that, because it was polite, and human, and I stress over the fact that maybe I’m going to be too sick to remember to be human. I’m terrified that the last feeling my wife, my friends, will have with me, is that I’m alien. I mean, I am an alien, but it would break my heart for the last moment I get to be one where my loved ones feel they don’t know me.

We’ll be trying to bring you a new section of the interview every Tuesday. Some of the questions have already been prepared by the interviewer, but to ask Superman a question, leave a comment or send an email to DeathofSuperman@gmail.com.

Presidential Power

Irascible Democrat: There’s something I’ve been dying to ask you, since your view of the current President has softened, while down-home vitriol at him seems to be ever-increasing. Plus, there was his Superman joke during the campaign. So what's your take on his presidency so far?

Superman: I’m a reporter, first and foremost, so I have to take umbrage a bit with your phrasing. There are people who are angry with the President, and some of them even have a point, but if you’re specifically bringing up the Tea Parties, or the people shouting at politicians who try to speak about health care or climate change- they’re in an obstructionist minority.

But again, some of them do have a point. A wide majority of people favor health care reform. When you ask them about any specific plan on any specific timeline, support drops to a little below half. I think the problem, particularly with health care, is that the public like their health circumstances today, and they're scared of things changing. But the reality is their circumstances are constantly changing, evolving. If current trends continue, without reform costs will continue to rise, and that will mean that some people will have to change to cheaper insurance, others will lose coverage entirely. So people want to freeze their insurance as it stands today- but that isn't really possible. The public is just scared, right now, which I think is largely the fault of that obstructionist minority I mentioned, but the administration hasn't effectively countered it, either.

ID: But overall, how do you rate the President?

S: I’m not going to give him a grade, or a thumbs up or down. But I’ll say one thing for the man and the administration he's built, that I think encompasses most of my feelings on the subject: he’s trying. Whatever your political feelings on what he’s attempting to do, whatever your favorite hobby horse, he’s attempting to do something about it. That was always the most damning charge against Bush, and Luthor after him, that they were terribly passive. They wanted to let the market sort things out, let someone else figure out a way to profit when things went wrong, rather than getting in with the resources at their disposal to help. And Obama, and the congressional leadership, they’re trying. They’re fighting the good fight.

Sometimes, with all the pies they have their hands in, things get necessarily back-burnered, but I think it’s unreasonable to think even a great president would be able to address every standing question in the nation at the same time.

Take Darfur. The League came out in a joint statement with President Bush's administration, declaring our belief that what was taking place in Darfur amounted to genocide. We also filed an amicus brief of our research efforts for the ICC. Now under international law, Bush was supposed to act to stop the genocide in Darfur once it was determined to be occurring. But Bush, and Luthor after him, seemed content with that, assuming someone else would deal with it effectively.

ID: Given your own non-interventionist approach, isn't that a bit of the pot calling the kettle black?

S: The difference is slight, I'll grant you, but huge. First, the League is a collection of people from different nationalities, and are not signatories nor parties to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The CPPCG actually states in part that signatory nations have a responsibility to act against a genocide. Where the League lacks the mandate and the infrastructure, the U.S. does not. The U.S. under either Bush or Luthor could have assembled another coalition. Hell, the US could have devoted no resources whatsoever, and just called in Captain Atom, one of the few Captains in our circles who actually holds the rank legitimately- in the Air Force, specifically.

ID: Okay, so what's the difference then in current policy?

S: Admittedly, part of the change is that now there's a UN force in place, there's a warrant for genocide-related crimes out for [Sudanese President Omar al] Bashir from the ICC. But despite the fact that Darfur is at least in the process of making progress, he's still talking about it. And he's dispatched specific envoys tasked with aiding the situation. I think he could do more. I think, in private at least, he should mention Captain Atom, and the fact that one single air raid through the country could destroy upwards of 80% of the military infrastructure, and probably deliver Bashir into the waiting hands of the ICC. I think maybe Obama doesn't want to push that too hard, where he's using fear and threats as a proxy for diplomacy, and I think Darfur is one of those things that has been back-burnered in favor of pressing domestic concerns- but I think it's on his to-do list, whereas with Luthor and Bush I don't think it even registered as something they should think about acting on.

ID: Okay, what about GM?

S: I think, given the lousy set of circumstances, he’s done well enough. After all, it was the previous administration that first loaned GM billions of dollars. So when it came to choosing between letting that “investment” die- and letting all those jobs disappear- or sinking more capital into the company, I don’t think there was a good choice- so I think they tried to be practical.

ID: What about people upset about the lack of movement on “Don't ask, don't tell.”

S: I think it's still on the President's radar- it's just a difficult policy to replace with other things on the table. I think, also, he's a bit gunshy because of what happened to Clinton that originally led to the compromise that is “Don't ask.” I think it's again Obama choosing some priorities over others.

ID: Are you an apologist for the President?

S: I'm not an apologist for anyone, except occasionally myself- and even then, only when I feel I've genuinely erred. Besides which, these are your questions, which means either you were wanting me to fall the way I did, the other way, or, I suppose if you're that rare kind of genuinely curious reporter, then you were just interested in which way I eventually would fall.

ID: Okay, but if the next election were tomorrow, would you vote to reelect him?

S: I don't know- that depends on my options. If all the Republicans are offering is Palin, Romney, Huckabee, then I'd take anyone else with a pulse and a synapse or two- which would definitely include the President. If Al Gore decides to challenge as the father of a new independent party, running on a platform of genuine environmental revolution- things like mandating recyclable containers for all food products- then I don't know. I always really liked the title “man of tomorrow,” so if there were an election then, I hope I'd be looking towards the future, and who was going to get us to the best one possible.

We’ll be trying to bring you a new section of the interview every Tuesday. Some of the questions have already been prepared by the interviewer, but to ask Superman a question, leave a comment or send an email to DeathofSuperman@gmail.com.