Democracy is the big loser in this war
AUSTIN, Texas -- See if this doesn't make you wince. The
Washington Post reported last Saturday on how the Bush administration's
attempts to bully Turkey had backfired. Courtesy of John Marshall's website,
TalkingPointsMemo.com, I found this paragraph: "But one senior U.S. official
acknowledged that U.S. pressure in recent months has backfired, saying that
at one point Pentagon officials insinuated to Turkish politicians that they
could get the Turkish military to back the request for U.S. troop
deployments in Turkey. 'It was stupid stuff. These are proud people,' he
said. 'Speaking loudly and carrying a big stick wins you tactical victories
from time to time, but not a strategic victory.'"
Marshall explains, "The backdrop here is that the military pushed out an Islamist government only a few years back. Going over the civilians' heads to the Turkish General Staff would inevitably raise the specter of a repeat of those events."
Think about it. We're supposedly fighting a war to bring democracy to Iraq, and we threaten one of our strongest democratic allies with a potential military coup? Is this nuts, or what?
Marshall explains, "The backdrop here is that the military pushed out an Islamist government only a few years back. Going over the civilians' heads to the Turkish General Staff would inevitably raise the specter of a repeat of those events."
Think about it. We're supposedly fighting a war to bring democracy to Iraq, and we threaten one of our strongest democratic allies with a potential military coup? Is this nuts, or what?
Media war: obsessed with tactics and technology
Two months ago, when I wandered through a large market near the
center of Baghdad, the day seemed like any other and no other. A vibrant
pulse of humanity throbbed in the shops and on the streets. Meanwhile, a
fuse was burning; lit in Washington, it would explode here.
Now, with American troops near Baghdad, the media fixations are largely tactical. "A week of airstrikes, including the most concentrated precision hits in U.S. military history, has left tons of rubble and deep craters at hundreds of government buildings and military facilities around Iraq but has yielded little sign of a weakening in the regime's will to resist," the Washington Post reported on March 26.
Shrewd tactics and superlative technology were supposed to do the grisly trick. But military difficulties have set off warning bells inside the U.S. media echo chamber. In contrast, humanitarian calamities are often rendered as PR problems, whether the subject is the cutoff of water in Basra or the missiles that kill noncombatants in Baghdad: The main concern is apt to be that extensive suffering and death among civilians would make the "coalition of the willing" look bad.
Now, with American troops near Baghdad, the media fixations are largely tactical. "A week of airstrikes, including the most concentrated precision hits in U.S. military history, has left tons of rubble and deep craters at hundreds of government buildings and military facilities around Iraq but has yielded little sign of a weakening in the regime's will to resist," the Washington Post reported on March 26.
Shrewd tactics and superlative technology were supposed to do the grisly trick. But military difficulties have set off warning bells inside the U.S. media echo chamber. In contrast, humanitarian calamities are often rendered as PR problems, whether the subject is the cutoff of water in Basra or the missiles that kill noncombatants in Baghdad: The main concern is apt to be that extensive suffering and death among civilians would make the "coalition of the willing" look bad.
Who's in the money now?
AUSTIN, Texas -- There was Donald Rumsfeld on Sunday morning
repeatedly warning the Iraqis that prisoners of war are protected by the
Geneva Convention and showing pictures of POWs is wrong. That would be the
same Donald Rumsfeld who refused to classify the POWs at Gitmo in Cuba as
POWs, instead calling them "detainees" and "military combatants."
The administration initially prepared to claim Al Qaeda fighters were not covered by the Geneva Convention, until the military pointed out that what goes around, comes around. We displayed pictures of our prisoners wearing black hoods, in chains and housed in outdoor, chain-link kennels.
If the Republican Guard surrenders, will right-wing radio talk jocks who have never been near a war refer to them as "hummus-eating surrender monkeys"?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch ... You need to keep an eye on the back pages of the newspapers and the brief recaps that follow, "And in other news today ..." There is stuff flying under the radar you would not believe.
The administration initially prepared to claim Al Qaeda fighters were not covered by the Geneva Convention, until the military pointed out that what goes around, comes around. We displayed pictures of our prisoners wearing black hoods, in chains and housed in outdoor, chain-link kennels.
If the Republican Guard surrenders, will right-wing radio talk jocks who have never been near a war refer to them as "hummus-eating surrender monkeys"?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch ... You need to keep an eye on the back pages of the newspapers and the brief recaps that follow, "And in other news today ..." There is stuff flying under the radar you would not believe.
War in springtime
AUSTIN, Texas -- Don't you hate when war starts in springtime? We are now united in desperately hoping that the war will be both easy and short.
The most depressing thing about this war is that we are going into it with the support of the majority of public opinion in exactly two countries, the United States and Israel -- and that is indeed a miserable failure of diplomacy, as Sen. Daschle put it.
In the current issue of Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria has a long and thoughtful piece on what went wrong. He reports, "I've been all over the world in the last year, and almost every country I've visited has felt humiliated by this administration." He quotes Jorge Casteneda, the recently resigned foreign minister of Mexcio: "Most officials in Latin American countries today are not anti-American types. We have studied in the United States or worked there. We like and understand America. But we find it extremely irritating to be treated with utter contempt."
The most depressing thing about this war is that we are going into it with the support of the majority of public opinion in exactly two countries, the United States and Israel -- and that is indeed a miserable failure of diplomacy, as Sen. Daschle put it.
In the current issue of Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria has a long and thoughtful piece on what went wrong. He reports, "I've been all over the world in the last year, and almost every country I've visited has felt humiliated by this administration." He quotes Jorge Casteneda, the recently resigned foreign minister of Mexcio: "Most officials in Latin American countries today are not anti-American types. We have studied in the United States or worked there. We like and understand America. But we find it extremely irritating to be treated with utter contempt."
Casualties of war -- first truth, then conscience
The national media echo chamber is not receptive to conscience. On
television, the voices are usually loud and facile. People often seem to
be shouting. In contrast, the human conscience is close to a whisper.
Easily unheard.
Now, the biggest media outlets are in a frenzy. The networks are at war. Every cable news channel has enlisted. At the bottom of FM radio dials, NPR has been morphing into National Pentagon Radio.
With American tax dollars financing the war on Iraq, the urgent need for us to get in touch with our consciences has never been more acute. The rationales for this war have been thoroughly shredded. (To see how the sordid deceptions and outright lies from the Bush team have been demolished by my colleagues at the Institute for Public Accuracy, take a look at the www.accuracy.org website.) The propaganda edifice of the war rests on a foundation no more substantial than voluminous hot air.
Now, the biggest media outlets are in a frenzy. The networks are at war. Every cable news channel has enlisted. At the bottom of FM radio dials, NPR has been morphing into National Pentagon Radio.
With American tax dollars financing the war on Iraq, the urgent need for us to get in touch with our consciences has never been more acute. The rationales for this war have been thoroughly shredded. (To see how the sordid deceptions and outright lies from the Bush team have been demolished by my colleagues at the Institute for Public Accuracy, take a look at the www.accuracy.org website.) The propaganda edifice of the war rests on a foundation no more substantial than voluminous hot air.
A plea to Laura Bush to assume the Presidency
For the third time in US history, the wife of the president must step forward and assume the powers of the office. We therefore plead with Laura Bush to take over the reins of the White House at this most crucial and dangerous moment.
Such a radical step is warranted when the president himself is mentally incapable of handling the job. It happened when Edith Wilson took over for her husband Woodrow, who suffered a stroke. It happened again when Nancy Reagan took over from her husband Ronald, who may have been in the preliminary stages of Alzheimer's disease.
It has now happened again, as Laura Bush must take over from her husband George, who is clearly delusional and may be in a manic state involving alcohol, Xanax or other drugs.
Bidding on societal change
AUSTIN, Texas -- Q: What is the country most likely to supply weapons of mass destruction to terrorists?
A: Russia.
Sick Caesar: Remove Bush from office
It’s time for U.S. citizens to demand that President George W. Bush’s cabinet invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment and remove him from office. By a majority vote of the cabinet and the Vice President, transmitted in writing to both the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the President may be declared “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” Increasingly, journalists are willing to admit that the cognitively-impaired President may indeed be mentally ill.
What would drive a President who lost an election by over half a million votes to attack the arch-enemy of Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, rather than to pursue the 9-11 terrorists in the Al Qaeda network? What would cause a President to ignore his generals, his own intelligence agencies, the major religious leaders of the world and the vast majority of the world’s people in pursuing an unnecessary and destabilizing war that is likely to plunge the world into chaos for the next hundred years?
What would drive a President who lost an election by over half a million votes to attack the arch-enemy of Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, rather than to pursue the 9-11 terrorists in the Al Qaeda network? What would cause a President to ignore his generals, his own intelligence agencies, the major religious leaders of the world and the vast majority of the world’s people in pursuing an unnecessary and destabilizing war that is likely to plunge the world into chaos for the next hundred years?
Freep Heroes
Freep Heroes: Germany and France
The Freep chooses to honor the governments of Germany and France who refused to sanction the Bush administration's war-mongering imperialist dreams in the Middle East. Drunken frat-boy foreign policy, fermented by what psychologists call "dry-drunk" syndrome, was slowed down and possibly halted by the heroic resistance of the French and German people. It's one thing for traditional enemies like China and Russia to resist the United States. It's a new and positive development when our closest European allies refuse to accept the folly and lies of the Washington warmongers.
The Free Press Salutes:
The folks at Victorian's Midnight Cafe
The Freep chooses to honor the governments of Germany and France who refused to sanction the Bush administration's war-mongering imperialist dreams in the Middle East. Drunken frat-boy foreign policy, fermented by what psychologists call "dry-drunk" syndrome, was slowed down and possibly halted by the heroic resistance of the French and German people. It's one thing for traditional enemies like China and Russia to resist the United States. It's a new and positive development when our closest European allies refuse to accept the folly and lies of the Washington warmongers.
The Free Press Salutes:
The folks at Victorian's Midnight Cafe
The conventional media wisdom of obedience
As the possibility of a U.S. invasion turns into the reality of
massive carnage, the war on Iraq cannot avoid confronting Americans with
a tacit expectation that rarely gets media scrutiny. In a word:
obedience.
When a country -- particularly "a democracy" -- goes to war, the passive consent of the governed lubricates the machinery of slaughter. Silence is a key form of cooperation, but the war-making system does not insist on quietude or agreement. Mere passivity or self-restraint will suffice to keep the missiles flying, the bombs exploding and the faraway people dying.
On the home front, beliefs are of scant importance. Antiwar sentiment is necessary but insufficient to halt a war. Much more is needed than expressions of dissent that stay within the customary bounds.
Daily media speculation about the starting date for all-out war on Iraq has contributed to widespread passivity -- a kind of spectator relationship to military actions being implemented in our names.
When a country -- particularly "a democracy" -- goes to war, the passive consent of the governed lubricates the machinery of slaughter. Silence is a key form of cooperation, but the war-making system does not insist on quietude or agreement. Mere passivity or self-restraint will suffice to keep the missiles flying, the bombs exploding and the faraway people dying.
On the home front, beliefs are of scant importance. Antiwar sentiment is necessary but insufficient to halt a war. Much more is needed than expressions of dissent that stay within the customary bounds.
Daily media speculation about the starting date for all-out war on Iraq has contributed to widespread passivity -- a kind of spectator relationship to military actions being implemented in our names.