De Oorlogsstaat 56

Een commentaar uit la Jicarita, een community advocacy newspaper uit Noord New Mexico. '"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. " - Hermann Goering, convicted Nazi war criminal

"The reason for fighting, I never did get,
But I learned to accept it, accept it with pride,
'Cause you don't count the dead when God's on
your side." - Bob Dylan

Those of us who lived through the Vietnam War are all too familiar with the unscrupulous tactics our government used to "manufacture consent" for that immoral war that cost the lives of over 50,000 Americans, untold Vietnamese, and ruined the lives of millions. This calculated waste of lives and resources continues today at the expense of the American public and the entire world community. Once again we're engaged in a war that only benefits the corporate elite. While Halliburton, Bechtel, and oil interests reap billions of dollars, thousands of Iraqis have been senselessly murdered, maimed, or displaced and hundreds of Americans are coming home in body bags. While George W. Bush and Congress continue to channel billions of dollars to underwrite the occupation, they cut Medicaid benefits, threaten to cut social security, and allow millions of our own people to be grossly under-served. They suppress non-violent dissent with rubber bullets, mace, and truncheons and suspend freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution with legislation they ironically call the "Patriot Act."

Why then do so many Americans passively accept the lying, deception, and lack of accountability perpetrated by a federal bureaucracy and mainstream media who are both in the employ of the corporate dictatorship?

A recent New York Times editorial stated, "If facts mattered in American politics, the Bush-Cheney ticket would not be basing its re-election campaign on the fear-mongering contention that the surest defense against future terrorist attacks lies in the badly discredited doctrine of preventive war." Media pundits acknowledge that the current debate about who is going to better protect the country from "terrorists" - the tough guy who purportedly failed to fulfill his duty in the National Guard or the flip-flopper who won all those medals in the Vietnam War - is beside the point, but their papers and broadcast stations continue to push the propaganda that whoever is perceived as being tougher will get the vote.

Michael Moore posits in Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 that Americans think they need to protect themselves from all those "predators" out there who are jealous of their so-called freedoms and consumer economy - what they worked hard for and what the media constantly tells them they don't have enough of. So they're going to vote for George Bush because they think he's going to protect their privilege. They're going to vote for George Bush because they fear that someone else might actually check consumption in order that the rest of the world might have access to life's basic necessities.' Lees verder:
http://lajicarita.org/04oct.htm#editorial