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We don't know about you, but we are beginning to detect the stench of jingoism and "newspeak"...as in George Orwell's famous novel, 1984. Did you vote for Ralph Nader in the last election? It may surprise you to know that the Green Party, and perhaps you along with them, are now on the U.S. terrorist watch list! Armed government agents grabbed Nancy Oden, Green Party USA coordinating committee member, Thursday at Bangor International Airport in Bangor Maine, as she attempted to board an American Airlines flight to Chicago. When she inquired as to the reason, she was told that it was because of the GP's opposition to the bombing of Afghanistan. Shades of Nixon's enemy list!
Then there are the new euphemisms. Carpet bombing...so heavily opposed by the U.S. peace movement when it was used against the North Vietnamese in Hanoi...has become "long stick" bombing in Afghanistan. Cluster bombs, those insidious mine-like weapons are now "area munitions." These explosive devices have a high failure rate, tend to linger long after the fighting stops, thus providing alluring "toys" for children to "play" with. In addition, those dropped in Afghanistan are colored bright yellow, the same hue as the food packets also being dropped all over Afghanistan. But, civilian casualties, once called "collateral damage," are now simply "inevitable." Ho, hum?
Meanwhile, Seymour Hersh...whose main claim to fame is the revelation of the Mai Lai massacre in Vietnam many years ago and who now mostly serves as a shill for Israeli interests...is preparing an article for New Yorker magazine concerning a partially failed raid of U.S. Delta Force on October 20th...the very same mission which was touted, at the time, as a brilliant move by our Army Airborne Ranger forces.
Who knows? But it is certainly in contrast to the official version.
Our Secretary of Defense, when asked in a press conference if the U.S. had been stalling our support for the Northern Alliance, waiting for negotiations to form a viable post-conflict government before committing whole heartedly, responded that the military effort in Afghanistan is being conducted "completely divorced" from political and diplomatic considerations.
The Pentagon continues to stonewall the media as to what is actually going on, while reporters are being excoriated for "only" providing Taliban propaganda to their viewers. They act as though all CNN should show is repeated clips of the two WTC towers collapsing...as if we don't see those often enough. As if the clumsy and blatantly false "reports" out of Afghanistan carried any credibility. It appears to us that the Taliban is its own WORST enemy when it comes to propaganda wars. Each time Osama bin Laden issues another call for worldwide uprising of Muslims versus everyone else, he isolates himself more thoroughly from all but a handful of true believers and establishes himself and his ilk as paranoid psychotics. Stop broadcasting Taliban statements? Hell no!
So, is the war going well or badly?
Again, who knows? However, it is clear that the U.S. government has nobody but itself to blame for the "bad press" they are getting. We are endlessly reminded that this will be a long war. We are told to be patient. We are assured that the attack is "on plan." Finally, we are patronized daily by administration spokespersons who repeat the mantra that the U.S. people "understand" what is going on...implying that the reporters asking rude questions do not. For the record, WE certainly do NOT understand!
We, like most people, backed the government 100% as to their stated intentions in the current war. When we were told that this war would be "like no other" we nodded our heads and muttered "right on" along with everybody else. But now we wonder. Exactly HOW is this war different? Troops are being moved into the region. Massive air attacks are being mounted, complete with nose camera videos of "smart" bombs hitting and destroying what appear to be targets. And, just like always before, civilians are bearing the brunt of the suffering, either from death and destruction, or the longer range effects of starvation and exposure to severe weather.
Sorry, brave generals sending other people's children to their deaths, but this whole "war" is beginning to look like nothing more than another Pentagon public relations campaign to justify not only our past "investment" in high-cost high-tech equipment, but continued reliance upon those marginally useful...in this type of "new" war...weapons of massive destruction.
So today we add our voices to the growing chorus of media types demanding that the U.S. government stop treating us like children and start giving us honest information...good, bad or indifferent. Stop playing the "national security" game and start telling us exactly why we are supposed to give up our freedom and our skepticism in order to keep us from making YOU look bad!
Talk to you later...
These events actually reinforces our message. If our own government refuses to provide timely and accurate information about what is going on, EVERYONE will turn to other sources. This can not be good...
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