What to say when you see Iraq falling apart and America’s “brave” soldiers shooting into protester crowds? What to say about anything happening with this dirty war? I visited my father yesterday and we discussed what is happening for a while, but our hearts weren’t in it. For almost two years now we’ve been bombarded with bad news. It seems as if it will never end. In disgust, my father declared that he no longer watches news on TV or reads the newspaper. “It’s all lies and propaganda anyway. And what can we do? The American Army is going to do what it wants whatever other people might say.” The cynicism is deep.
Many people against the war are probably asking the same question: is it worth protesting? Bush ignored the millions of people around the war demanding that no war be started. Just like that. As if we didn’t exist.
This war exists because of the media. If you are recognized you have the means to divert people’s minds, even their opinions. You must be careful when reading or watching the news. There are veils behind veils behind veils that you must try to see past. For instance, read this editorial in the World Net Daily News: Hackworth
It carries a lighthearted tone, emphasizing America’s good intentions and innocent outlook. At no time, however, does it criticize itself as being essentially wrong in the first place, just blithely tossing out titbits that it had made a mistake. There is no sense of remorse or guilt at having done exactly the same things Hussein is accused of.
Here is my response to Hackworth… but please read my words with caution. I, too, have prejudices:
Dear Mr. Hackworth,
Just a moment. Are you going to just sit there and declare that Hussein was the only one responsible for the suffering of the Iraqi people in the last 12 years? That the regular bombings that destroyed the basic infrastructure needed for health and the sanctions that denied food and medicine… killing over 500,000 Iraqi children… by the US and Britain, had absolutely no bearing on the suffering of the people? Are you going to blithely deny, or hide, that these actions by the US actually occurred? If you are, then you are a hypocrite and a propagandist, exactly what so many American journalists and media organizations are guilty of in this filthy fiasco.
Hussein was a monster. But so are the Americans who ordered the bombings and the sanctions. Even worse is the headlong rush into this war, with absolutely no justification or international approval (where are the so-called “weapons of mass destruction”? simple: there are none). The propagandists and warmongers who created the frenzy to go to war in the States are all monsters. And Bush the worst of them all.
To continue to harp on demonizing Hussein, without presenting the whole picture, attempting to whisk up unending war frenzy, especially by a so-called journalist, is cheap and cowardly. A people who are unable to critically view themselves and admit their own failings and crimes, are a people who live in denial and fear. You may have a powerful army, but as they say, “might doesn’t make right”. It’s easy to threaten people and scare them into submission when you’ve got the biggest rock in the party, but much more difficult, and needless to say, more mature, to be able to restrain oneself and listen sincerely to what others have to say. Perhaps it is a failing of all aristocrats and bullies to only be able to hear their own words.
When the smoke dissipates what will be left is the kernel of reality and truth. All the stupid veils of words, including mine right here, will have come to mean nothing. Is it such a bad and impossible plea to ask you to genuinely care about the Iraqi innocents and acknowledge the whole truth for them, rather than to sit playing rhetorical games? They sit at the crux of all the game playing, paying with their lives. At least the American soldiers had the choice to join the military. The Iraqi people have just had to take it as it has been dished out.
Sincerely,
Miguel Arboleda
Perhaps my father is right. Reading the news hasn’t made an iota of difference. Knowing about the war and what is happening hasn’t helped my spirit or made even my little circle of a world a better place. It certainly hasn’t helped my health. All that is important now is that the Iraqis have a better life. How can I do that? That’s what I want to ponder for a while.
Laughing Knees 