21st century propaganda
The U.S. military, in collusion with the compliant corporate media, reported that the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled by Iraqis. No, it wasn’t. The up close documentation of the statue being destroyed is broadcast around the world as proof of a massive uprising. In reality, it was a select group of Iraqis who had been flown in by the Pentagon, including Ahmed Chalabi’s militia members.
See the website www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2842.htm to see what 21st century propaganda is all about.
This falsified story is now being used as to win the “hearts and minds” of the Iraqis. Here is the caption on an AP photograph available at news.yahoo.com that shows how the corporate media is helping in this ruse: “An unidentified U.S. Marine PysOps officer attached to the British 1st Battalion The Parachute Regiment, and wearing that unit’s distinctive red beret, distributes newspapers to Iraqi people in and around al Qurna, Iraq, Monday April 14, 2003. The daily Arabic language broadsheet newspaper is being produced by coalition forces, and featured a large picture of Saddam Hussein’s Baghdad statue being toppled.”
Todd Tollefson
Seattle WA
Reclaiming freedom
We use the words “peace” and “justice.” The Bush administration uses the words “security” and “freedom.” I wonder whether the language we use puts us at a disadvantage. Given a choice between peace and security, most people would choose security. Given a choice between justice and freedom, most people would opt for freedom.
I recall having heard Vincent Harding speak at Brown University in February 2002. He didn’t speak of the civil rights movement, but rather of the American freedom movement, which he said was part of the international struggle for freedom.
We need to reclaim language from the Bush administration, describing what freedom means to us and laying out a vision and strategy for a comprehensive and genuine security – an alternative to “national security” and “homeland security.”
Carol Bragg
Via e-mail
Bush makes prayer political
I happened to run across this website and organization earlier today. It was sent to me by other members of the United Auto Workers union. If there is a better example of Christianity being twisted into the servant of imperialism, I don’t know of one. Through this one can become a member of the “Presidential Prayer Team,” receive emails about the President’s most recent prayer requests, get a free bumper sticker indicating that you are a “Praying American,” etc. This is the ideological/mythical basis of this incarnation of imperialism, and God is their number one recruiting agent.
There is a “Golf and Prayer Walk” campaign, and a newly released song by a “Christian” recording artists, which features prominently the voice of George W. Bush.
I note they don’t have the Carpenter of Nazareth appearing in this lavish production … not even a walk-on part. I guess he wouldn’t fit in … www.presidentialprayerteam.org
Tim Yeager
Via e-mail
Trust and cooperation
“The United States views the present Iranian regime’s intransigent refusal to deviate from its objective of eliminating the legitimate government of Iraq to be inconsistent with the established norms of behavior among nations … “ So said the Reagan administration about its then-hatchetman Saddam Hussein in 1984, when the world knew that Hussein was using chemical weapons against the Iranians.
But that was then, when Hussein was a pawn of the administration in its campaign against Iran, just as Osama bin Laden and his “freedom fighters” were pawns trained and funded in terrorism by the Pakistani intelligence and their CIA overlords in their war against the Afghan communist party, the revolutionary democratic government and its Soviet allies.
In 1984, Reagan’s National Security Council expressed its true feelings about the “evil dictator” when it stated in a recently declassified internal directive that the U.S. military should develop a “plan of action to avert an Iraqi collapse.”
These are points that Americans should ponder as the right-wing cheerleading for victory in Iraq and “Iraqi freedom” fills the U.S. media.
Americans should also ponder the now-you-see-them, now-you-don’t weapons of mass destruction.
The “war against terrorism,” as reasonable people through the world understand, is an international police and political problem that can best be handled through international cooperation. After what has happened in Iraq, how many nations will trust the Bush administration enough to cooperate with it?
Norman Markowitz
New Brunswick NJ
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