It Takes A Nation Of Gomers To Be Sold Iraq

http://www.msnbc.com/news/969219.asp

Pride and Prejudices

How Americans have fooled themselves about the war in Iraq, and why they've had to

NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE

Sept. 19

A sturdy-looking American matron in the audience at the American University of Paris grew redder by the second. She was listening to a panel talking about the Iraq war and its effect on U.S.-French relations, and she kept nodding her head like a pump building emotional pressure. Finally, she exploded: "Surely these can't be the only reasons we invaded Iraq!" the woman thundered, half scolding, but also half pleading. "Surely not!"

What first upset her was my suggestion that, looking back, the French were right. They tried to stop the United States and Britain from rushing headlong into this mess. Don't we wish they'd succeeded?

Then she listened as another panelist and I went through the now-familiar recitation of Washington's claims before the war, and the too-familiar realities since: the failure to find weapons of mass destruction and the inevitable conclusion that Saddam Hussein was not the threat he was cracked up to be, the fantasy that this war could be waged on the cheap rather than the $1 billion per week American taxpayers are now spending, the claim that occupation -- called "liberation" -- would be short and sweet, when in fact American men and women continue to be shot and blown up every day with no end in sight.

As we went down the list, I could see the Nodding Woman's problem was not that she didn't believe us, it was that she did. She just desperately wanted other reasons, better reasons, some she could consider valid reasons for the price that Americans are paying in blood and treasure.

that this would be the result, and now well, we will
have to pull out of Iraq, sooner or later and it is not
pretty.

Because the bitterest contradiction of all may be that this war was waged—first and foremost—to save face after the humiliation and suffering of September 11. It was meant to inspire awe in the Arab and Muslim world, as former CIA operative Marc Reuel Gerecht and others insisted it should be. And in that it truly has failed. Every day we look weaker. And the worst news of all it that it’s not because of what was done to us by our enemies but because of what we’ve done to ourselves.

There's really something to this. The most horrible thing the neocons have ever done to me, I think, isn't tampering with the economy, but with my soul. I thought it was bad enough when, in the wake of 9/11, the Ann Coulter crowd was shrilling away the question "Why do liberals hate America?', but the deeper horror was yet to come: that they would give me a logical answer. I don't hate America, but Bob help me, it's getting harder and harder to love -- I know my country is sick, and there I days I have to fight the urge to say "F*** it, pull the plug, the patient is dead."

And why is that? Because of the silence. Because in all the media buzz about Iraq, whether it's pro or con, nobody (nobody in a position to make a difference, at least) ever seems to mention the obvious (to me) point that we've become the bad guys, by our own rules. There seems to be this basic lack of a grasp that ostensibly, "our position is that no grievances or policies will justify resort to an aggressive war" (Robert Jackson, American prosecutor at Nuremburg). Wesley Clark, for instance, gets to wear an "anti-war" cap because he groused about Bush's choice of chess gambits -- and it's considered a cheap shot to point out that he simply doesn't seem to believe it to have been morally wrong, just conducted badly. Ranking Democrats have decided it's more important to question whether Bush is cooking the books on the war's expenses than whether he forged the evidence of a threat in the first place -- and in terms of building their electability or destroying his, they might be right. Americans don't seem to care how many foreigners their country kills, as long as we get a bargain on it.

In short, the Iraq war has hammered home, more than any amount of history books and papers ever will, the reality that the United States of America isn't the nation that saved the world from the Nazis (Russia would have likely managed that eventually), but the one that saved the Nazis from the world (Odessa, Project: Paperclip). I've had to confront the truth that the America we celebrate on Independence Day is no more real than other holiday icons like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. I have come to doubt that a majority of Americans actually agree with the principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, or the United Nations Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights (which I have always considered as much American accomplishments as beating Hitler). I fear that the beauty of America, historically speaking, is only skin deep, while its ugliness goes all the way to the core.

And it hurts. It hurts.

I think you are right. The main reason I protested back in the winter was to stop the monster, not to get to say, "I told you so" in the fall.

It hurts because it's true.

thank you.

This administration has done more for Americans than any other...as far as removing the blinders if you care to see what's going on around you.

With them, the dirty secrets of American actions have now become public policy.

It is horrific to see how many Americans agree with them.

As Jimmy Breslin said in a recent editorial- those who do not oppose Bush are fans of fascism.

Every so often this sentiment is expressed here at DU. It's a periodic thing. What's beautiful about it is the ways it is expressed. You did a great job in a short space.

You are not alone. Most of us have made your statement and feel what you feel.

But what can you expect in a country whose failure of an education system seems more geared toward turning out semiliterate automatons than individuals capable of independent thought? A country where the average household watches thirty plus hours of television a week, while less than 20% regularly read a newspaper? A country in which Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Neal Boortz have audiences numbered in the millions, where the major broadcast outlets are owned by huge corporate conglomerates who control most of the discourse and frame it within very narrow terms, in ways which are more favourable to THEIR interests than to those of the people they're propagandising (excuse me, "informing")?

A sizable percentage of Americans are stupid, complacent, and compliant, but it's largely because public education, patriotic indoctrination and mass media make them that way. Not their fault, really. More pitiable than loathesome, but either way disgusting.

The complacency and indoctrination of the American people are rooted in intellectual laziness, and is something that was clear to outside observers long before our generation.

"In America, there are many readers, but very few thinkers." (Alexis de Tocqueville, Vol. II, Democracy in America, 1837).


Even though I am not a great fan of Tocqueville, this statement certainly seems to have some merit. This, by the way, was his commentary on the fact that even in his time, Americans were more likely to read the 'comic books' of the era- wild west stuff mostly, rather than real literature. If you examine the various types of bs television programs that attract us the most these days, you may find that we are drifting more and more toward the mindlessness of 'gladiatorial' television. Seems to have started with Springer.

:hippie:

I don't agree with everything he said, but I do agree with that one.

Yes, I agree with what he is saying NOW, except for this bit:

A few claim the press is not reporting “the good things in Iraq,” although it’s very hard to see what’s good for Americans there. Many more say, “Why didn’t the press warn us?”

We did, of course. Many of us who cover the region—along with the CIA and the State Department and the uniformed military—have been warning for at least a year that occupying Iraq would be a dirty, costly, long and dangerous job.

The problem is not really that the public was misinformed by the press before the war, or somehow denied the truth afterward. The problem is that Americans just can’t believe their eyes. They cannot fathom the combination of cynicism, naiveté, arrogance and ignorance that dragged us into this quagmire, and they’re in a deep state of denial about it.

Is that right Mr Christopher "Fuckin Liar" Dickey? You warned us did you? It was "cynicism, naiveté, arrogance and ignorance that dragged us into this quagmire" was it?

How about this little fact:

Within the January 13 edition of Newsweek, arguably the most popular political magazine of today, lies an article with the express purpose of persuading a wide audience for war with Iraq. Writer Christopher Dickey uses his article entitled “…No, Saddam Is Worse” in response to an article featured on the previous page entitled “Kim Is The Key Danger.” He uses numerous rhetorical devices to persuade of the necessity for war against Iraq and Saddam to a country that grows seemingly unsure of war.

<SNIP>

Lastly, Dickey appeals to the emotions of shame by indirectly insulting anyone refusing to enter war. He says, “{Saddam’s} record is so clear on all these points that only those who refuse to see could be blind to the danger he presents to Americans and their vital interests.” He assumes Saddam is obviously a danger and to miss these facts is blindness. Thus, immobility reveals weakness in the American people.
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~jmccrack/104/Conversations/section11/ra1/furrowrhetanal1section11.htm

It's too bad that Newsweek now charges to see this article, other wise I would have quoted his own words at him.

That's right Mr Cristopher "Fucking Liar" Dickey - YOU'RE BUSTED!

The guy is completely dishonest isn't he?

<Or the “real” reason was to secure America’s long-term supply of oil, but the destabilization of the region, again, may make that more tenuous, not less.>

This another mischaracterization. We are not there to secure America's long term supply of energy, we are there to steal it.