Somehow, Team Bush has managed to convince persuade brainwash Americans into thinking that Our Sainted President has done a bang-up job in the War Against Terrorism. Clearly, most Americans will happily and willingly swallow whatever pablum is fed to them. It must be easier than actually THINKING about this issue, because they certainly don’t seem to be paying to the reality of what is happening outside our borders.
Such scenes, which enlarge the ranks of our enemies by making America look both weak and brutal, are inevitable in the guerrilla war President Bush got us into. Osama bin Laden must be smiling.
U.S. news organizations are under constant pressure to report good news from Iraq. In fact, as a Newsweek headline puts it, “It’s worse than you think.” Attacks on coalition forces are intensifying and getting more effective; no-go zones, which the military prefers to call “insurgent enclaves,” are spreading - even in Baghdad. We’re losing ground.
And the losses aren’t only in Iraq. Al Qaeda has regrouped. The invasion of Iraq, intended to demonstrate American power, has done just the opposite: nasty regimes around the world feel empowered now that our forces are bogged down. When a Times reporter asked Mr. Bush about North Korea’s ongoing nuclear program, “he opened his palms and shrugged.”
Yet many voters still believe that Mr. Bush is doing a good job protecting America.
More than one thousand dead American soldiers later, and we are no closer to bringing democracy (or whatever it is we’re trying to bring) to Iraq. Never mind the fact that this war was sold to us as a necessary adjunct to the war against terror. Of course, the fact that there is no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to 9.11, and the fact that no WMDs have ever been found would seem to confirm the reality that we’ve been lied to. If one thousand dead Americans in a cause that was sold to us with lies and deception don’t make you mad as hell, you might just be beyond hope- or a Republican.
It seems that Americans love being lied to. We enjoy being told what we want to hear, especially if it fits our own preconceived notions and prejudices. Ignorance is only a burden if you’re aware that your ignorant. The beautiful thing about Dubya’s approach to politics is that, since he so clearly believes the lies he is peddling, he can sell his prevarications with a sincerity that makes Americans want to believe him. (But he’s so sincere and so earnest….)
The honest truth is that most Americans don’t give a damn about anything that extends beyond their own narrow self-interest. It’s too bad, really, because if people knew what was being done in their name…ah, hell, they’d still probably vote for Bush. It’s easier than thinking. WAKE UP AND SMELL THE KITTY LITTER….
I supported the war in it’s early days, because I took Our Sainted President at his word. You can bet that I won’t be making that mistake again. I’m angry as hell, not only because the impostor in the White House lied to the American people to get a war that he and his neo-con cohorts desperately wanted, but because more than a thousand Americans are dead in a war that was sold to us under false pretenses. What makes me even angrier is that the majority of Americans seems to be willing to happily swallow Bush’s lies and deceptions. Josef Goebbels was right- lie often enough, and eventually those lies become the truth.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
