FIRM of MIND, SOFT on FACTS
by Michael Hammerschlag Mar
17, 2003
eve of war
Debate with Congressman Patrick Kennedy (audio) about validity of Iraq Invasion (he voted
to authorize force)- 12 min 3/30 NPR COMMENTARY2 (aud)- Coming Attractions re. Iraq Jan 31
Smrk Chp version Liberal Slant
As we plunge into the most reckless, unjustified,
and immoral war since the Philippines and
commit a blunder that may echo down through
the decades; let's say it clearly, without
shading or pretense, without genuflection
or fig leaf: our President is a liar. A serial, repetitive, egregious liar. A
man who lies not only in the service of his
single minded crass policies, but who does
so automatically- as a reflex. Mr. Bush isn’t
just the most dishonest President I’ve seen
in 4 decades of watching them, he’s the most
consistently dishonest politician I’ve ever
seen.
These
lies have been aided
and abetted by the press and the woeful ignorance of the public.
For a year, they painted squeaky clean boy
scout Al Gore as a liar, trumpeting minor
transgressions into major perfidy, manufacturing
“evidence”, while George the Second’s blatant hypocrisies,
contradictions, and stupidity were whitewashed. He was congenial; he had
nicknames; he was available. Al Gore’s reluctance to cozy up to the
press wasn’t seen in light of his exposure
to the 6 year Clinton witchhunt and the radioactive
right-wing hatreds that fueled it. No, mild-mannered
dryly witty Al was cold. Despite wall to
wall coverage of the 2000 election, the fact
that Gore won by 540,000 votes was never
presented as a moral claim to victory (never
presented at all- the number never went above
330,000) and 3 incredible outrages of Florida vote theft simply weren’t reported-
the public was tired of the story. After the flaying experience
of losing when he won, Gore tossed it in-
I don’t blame him- the game was fixed. And
now, in a stunning violation of broadcasting ethics and flex of propaganda muscle, Clear Channel,
the huge radio network that owns over 1200
stations in 50 states, is holding 20,000 person rallies to support Bush's war in many cities.
Bush pledged to bring us together- he appointed
the dregs of the right-wing barrel: Ted Olson,
John Poindexter, Elliot Abrams, Otto Reich.
He pledged to rule from the middle, but he’s
appointed a chain of unqualified extremists
to the federal bench who might well overturn
abortion rights and crush constitutional
rights. Even after the debacle of Trent Lott’s
racist pandering, Bush showed his true feelings
by trying to abolish affirmative action.
After another proposed tax giveaway to the
rich: $165 billion, 45% to the top 1 %, Ari
Fleischer suggested that hospital emergency
rooms didn’t really have to treat the poor. This
was rescinded 2 weeks later when even Repubs went ballistic. Bush claimed he would
protect the environment; he’s abolished auto mileage and smokestack emission
standards that were 32 years in the making- through 6 Presidents. Under cover
of the horrendous deficits that Bush has created, he plans to shred the social
safety net: partially privatizing Social Security, starving Medicare, and
winnowing welfare.
Again and again GB2 has tried to tie Saddam
with Osama: Saddam supports him, he gives
Al Qaida refuge, he’s about to finish a nuclear
bomb. All lies. OBL hates Saddam, he is an
unbeliever who’s annihilated Moslem leaders
along with any others who could lift a finger
in opposition. Worse, he’s done it in the
heart of the Islamic world, at the very cradle
of civilization. OBL would boil him in oil,
if given his druthers. Trumped up evidence,
repackaged long past its freshness date,
till it stinks with the corruption of this
regime. Saddam had aluminum tubes for nuclear fabrication:
not really; Iraq was buying uranium from Niger: the
papers were forged. ("Fine," said Colin.); prohibited
missiles: not if loaded with a warhead (they
destroyed the short range missiles anyway);
dangerous drones: actually ramshackle junk
(though this might be an Iraqi scam). The truth is- Bush planned to invade Iraq,
to outdo and avenge his father, to kill a
persistent irritant, to guarantee a stable
source of oil, to cow the world… before he became President (new proof 10/2004) . All rationales, all reasons,
all explanations, are window dressing on
a clumsy thuggish foreign policy, one opposed
by 98% of the world (not all their leaders,
who can be bought and bullied). If Saddam
was stripped naked and staked to the ground
in the western Iraq desert, it wouldn’t be
enough to stop Bush’s Wanton War. Two life
long state department officials, and 2 British MP's have resigned in protest over Iraq policy.
The result of all this untruth is that 42%
of our people think Saddam was involved in
planning 9-11, 55% think he’s in league with Al Qaida,(and 55% think an Iraq invasion won't increase
terrorism-uh huh). They believe this because
the President told them so. Of course, only
13% of 18-24 year olds could identify Iraq
on a map. Of some 1000 satellite phone calls
that OBL made, not one went to Iraq, but our media has let this gem sink in the
sands of Mr. Bush’s propaganda. Is there any doubt that our troops will find
(concocted or not-we will never know) evidence of WMD's, and is there any doubt
that our fully militarized "embedded"
press corp will dutifully report what it
is fed? The truth is 30-40% of our nation
has been soaking up raw propaganda in the
right-wing exhortations of Rush, Reagan,
Ollie, O'Reilly, Fox News, and other hate
radio schlockmeisters for over a decade-
they believe anything- as long as it has a clear villain. To rally support for his policies, Mr. Bush
has twice gone to military bases: Fort Hood
and Mayport Naval Air Station. The contemptibility
of this can’t be overstated: these are kids-18,19,20
years old; these are the cream of American
youth whose job it is the
President’s to protect! This is like a pimp gleaning support and
approval from the runaway girls at the bus
station. And even on an aircraft carrier,
where troops might be expected to be more
worldly, only 30% could name the Secretary
of State, according to the captain. Their
job is to fight, and kill, and maybe die
for their country- many want to trade their
practice video games of death for the real
ones, till they see the result. Being wounded or killed isn’t the only threat;
one can be wounded by killing. The President does his best Clint Eastwood
squinty-eyed rasp and dumbass macho clichés
and gets great prime-time images. But the
act is getting tired. At a delayed Gary Hart lecture at liberal
Brown U. March 18, people were allowed to
just speak their mind for 40 minutes: surprisingly
more than half were pro-war or "be considerate
of Bush", but they had a sad plaintive
tone. They'd been fed poison for some time,
and some part of them realized it- but they
pleaded to be convinced otherwise.
To
service his Oedipal obsession, Bush has corrupted the overrated but
cinematically perfect Colin Powell, to sally forth and dispense the imperial
truths to the heathens of the Security Council. When they balked at the massive
arrogance, phantom evidence, and enormous risks of his plans, he tried again to
bribe them (don’t forget, the first vote in Oct probably cost $50 billion in aid,
loan guarantees, military booty). Then we
bugged them. This time around, Turkey alone
would get $26 billion and the right to
annihilate Kurds (though even they aren’t getting rolled)-
add it all up and it’s probably $100 bil
in bribes, + $50 bil from last Oct. + $80
bil for a new war + $150 bil for a 3-5 year
occupation and reconstruction: that’s $380
bil on top of the $320 bil deficit- now we’re
talking $700 billion deficit and a massive
military boot on the neck of the sputtering
economy. But, our peerless reformed drunk
CIC wants more tax cuts; “quiero más y más”
like the promo song says for the NBC show
(drug) Kingpin. To feed the maw of the corporate mavens who
funded, nurtured, and created this tinpot
turkey, till he was the de facto winner a
year before any primary. This is the type
of thing that Presidents should be impeached over.
But the monetary costs can be bourn; the
other costs are far more crushing- shattering
the Atlantic Pact and NATO, the most successful military-moral alliance
in history; ignoring and deriding the recalcitrant
UN (set up to prevent rash unjustified military actions); denigrating
and disparaging France and Germany- the heart of Europe to
scavenge for allies among the poor ex-Soviet
satellites. Our new bulwark of freedom is
Bulgaria? Everything Bush says he will prevent by
invasion, he will actually cause. Stop use of WMD’s? Saddam is a fan of
Hitler, who gladly sacrificed 300,000 Berliners against the furious tide of the
Red Army, which lost 1 million in the Battle of Berlin. Saddam will use everything
he has. End terrorism? An invasion will so
inflame the 1.2 billion Muslims, that 1-2
million new terrorists will be generated,
who will plague us for another decade or
two1. And they won't be the homeless losers of
Al Qaida (Richard Reed could have brought
down a $150 million plane, but he forgot
a 40 cent Bic lighter); they'll be middle
class, doctors, professionals, some $50-100
million Saudi sheik- all off the radar. Eventually
they will get their hands on a nuke and woe
is us. Idiot Osama was fueled by outrage
over the mere basing of US troops in Saudi
Arabia, what rage will a conquest and 5 year
occupation of Iraq create? Cooperation by Islamic states
against Al Qaida, against whom such strides were being taken, will evaporate.
Even snubbed, ignored, and humiliated European states may cool the hunt. Create
democracy in Iraq? Really? That’s got a long successful history in Arabia and
N. Africa- and how fawning must it be- Bush hasn’t appreciated the democratic
world’s opinion on his nation-building notions. Create peace in the Middle
East? When Israel has momma bear right next door, think they will be more
inclined to negotiate fairly with the Palestinians? Security Council in danger
of irrelevance? That’s exactly what Bush would cause by an unauthorized
invasion.
Saddam
is a monster, and I have no problem with his assassination. I do have a problem
with killing 100,000 already devastated people and trashing the Iraqi
infrastructure yet again. I have a problem with blithe assurance of the
armchair warriors of the Bush administration that we can subdue and colonize a
harsh Moslem country and sit astride its oil throat without consequence. I have a problem with the world’s most powerful
military crushing a country whose people
now make $3 a month (before the Gulf War
it was $400) and who haven't killed a single
American for a decade. I have a problem with
the amazing lie that we have to do this now, while looney-tune Kim Jong Il punches out
nukes like doughnuts, nukes he has to sell
to feed his starving country. Gee, I wonder
who'll pay the most? I’ve supported almost
every overt intervention my country has done
(except Grenada)- I think we have a historic
opportunity to overthrow the murderous mullahs
of Iran who sent hundreds of thousands of
children into machine guns, executed hundreds
of thousands more, and killed 400-800 Americans-
by applying slow military pressure and inviting
the long-oppressed Iranian populace to rise
up. I used to think Rumsfeld and Cheney were
military geniuses: now I think they’re vicious
pit-bulls. Great to maul a mugger, but they
must be kept on a short strong chain and
yanked back constantly. Bush has set them
loose to ravage the neighborhood. And soon
they might kill a child.
But the yahoo nation in America is rising up
it’s beer-soaked Rush-addled yell. Alterman and another liberal columnist have
had to write I oppose the war and all it stands for, but when the troops
land, I will support them “because I am a patriot.” This comes from hate mail and death threats,
not conviction. And MSNBC canceling its most popular program: Donahue, and replacing him with conservative clowns
because ‘we all must speak with one voice’.
I love the French, who are doing the job
that our craven Congress failed to- they
may be squirrelly and self-serving (and they
financially benefit from Iraqi oil), but
they’re the most freedom-loving people in
the world. They eat well, sleep well, and
___ well. Every year or so they get furious
about something and come to Paris to riot
for a day- they burn some cars and go home…
and the government lets them. C’est vie. Contrast this to America, where
the largest protest rallies in human history
must be kept out of view of the White
House or the UN, participants must negotiate Christo-length barricades, and NYC
cops beat and bully peaceful protesters, as if the right of assembly was a
joke. Contrary to popular opinion, Americans are mostly liked or loved around
the world- not just because of our wealth and cultural dominance, but because
of our moral principles, an asset that Mr. Bush is about to squander. From
Russian mobsters to Bedouin tribesmen, people would usually rather hang out
with us, than prey on us. The loss of our moral capital, the
righteousness of our beliefs, in the eyes of the world, could be the most
costly and long-lasting result of our President’s wanton war.
But let’s run this out- an invasion will
create so much hatred that American tourists,
the softest targets, will be attacked and
killed around the world. We won’t leave home
much any more. Sooner or later the pool of
new (or old) terrorists, forming new cells
independent of Al Qaida (whom we were beating!)
will succeed with a nuke or bioweapon and
kill 30 or 50 or 200 thousand Americans.
Then what???? I’ll tell you, with this President: Martial law. Suspension of the Bill of
Rights. Round-ups of Muslims + enemies of
the state. Detention camps. Silencing of
administration critics. Oh, we won’t stand
for that, you say? No, we will demand it. Such totalitarian steps worry Stephen Flynn, the
author of the Hart-Rudman Report on America’s continuing
vulnerability, and perhaps America’s foremost
expert on homeland security. (After a major
attack,) “If you think John Ashcroft’s going
to sit down with the American Civil Liberties
Association, you’re living in La La land.”
To somewhat quote FDR, The only thing we have to (really)
fear.... is ourselves. And crazy Kim, will, as the war starts, commit
provocative acts- by the time it ends, he
will be frantic with paranoia that he is
next on the Bush hit parade. This freak is not somebody we want to make frantic
with fear.
The Communists' favorite tactic was to provoke
a massive overreaction in their foe and use
the resulting popular outrage and uprising
for their own twisted purposes. Somewhere
in a cave or dingy basement, a gaunt yellow
tall sickly man is softly chuckling to himself:
“I don’t have to do anything… they will do
it to themselves.”
Qannas added: "I used to think these radical Taliban-style Muslims were absurd. Now I am coming to understand the mentality of Osama [bin Laden]. You Americans talking about a `quick war' against Saddam. But don't you understand you are really starting a war that could stretch for decades - even centuries?''
''No matter how bad [Hussein] may be, America's attacks are worse, the level of viciousness matches anything of his cruel regime,'' said Reem Yusuf, 22, a lawyer in Amman.
''I want a gun. If Jordan would only open its border, there would be a huge outrush of people to Iraq to join the jihad against our common enemy.''
Yusuf added: ''I would rather die a martyr than see another Islamic country forced to become an American state. It's the new age of colonialism. First Kuwait, then Afghanistan, now Iraq is about to become... a place for Bush to plant the hated flag.''
NOTE: In an incredible story, the NY Times claims America
helped set up the Baath Party by orchestrating a 1963 coup.
Michael Hammerschlag has
written commentaries + articles for Seattle Times, Providence Journal,
Honolulu Advertiser, Columbia Journalism Review, Media Channel, & Moscow
News, Tribune, and Guardian; and
spent 2 years in Russia. He’s not an enemy of the state because: L’état n’est pas Bush. He was scheduled to fly over Manhattan on 9-11, and just
covered the RI nightclub fire. His website is http://hammernews.com
e-mail: hammerschlag@bigfoot.com