Political analysts tuned into Bush’s orchestrated media event last week in order to critique its content, implications and presentation. I can hardly stomach Bush’s smirky face or his lying lips these days. I did review his propaganda piece – just the words, without the emotional hype or the human wallpaper of soldiers plastered behind the podium for maximum psychological effect. It appears that Bush is still advancing his mythological positions despite the fact that most of them have been exposed for their lack of credibility. U.S. citizens, always a little behind the truth curve compared to the rest of the world, are coming to grips with the lies and deceptions. Bush’s ratings, already at an all-time low, went down another notch after his June 28 speech televised at Fort Bragg’s Army base
The discussion about the U.S. occupation of Iraq must now include the Downing Street Memo. This is a leaked document from a British reporter that details a meeting of Prime Minister Tony Blair and his advisors relative to an impending U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. According to the memo, there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction or a Saddam Hussein threat, yet the intelligence was deliberately misconstrued to support the need to attack. Blair and his cronies were left trying to figure out how they could support their long-time ally without getting dirty.
A website and blog are now devoted to the memo (www.downingstreetmemo.com). A call has been made to the U.S. Senate Committee on Intelligence to cease stalling on its investigation into the Downing Street Memo. It’s shameful that we have to rely on leaks and bloggers to give us the real truth as to why our loved ones are dying on foreign soil.
It also seems shameful that it takes the televised maiming and deaths of U.S. soldiers, the economic and emotional toll on military families and the burgeoning costs of war to gradually focus our attention on what’s really happening.
The so-called war on terrorism has only increased the violence and bloodshed in Iraq because spawning insurgency groups are responding to an illegal force occupying their country. There is nothing sinister about such a reaction. Just think about what would happen if another country’s army decided it wanted to take Downtown St. Louis.
The pressure must be intensified to force the big war wart to come to a head. There is dissension among military rank and file about the war. There is growing condemnation of the U.S. by world leaders. We all have our jobs to do.
We must totally reject the connection between Iraq and the attack on the World Trade Center. There is NO connection, yet Bush continues to use the event as a reference point to play upon our fears. I suggest a simple act of heckling or booing whenever Bush utters this lie. Clearly, we can’t force the Bush administration to come clean, but we can make it difficult for them to keep spooning us lies.
As we observe anniversaries, such as the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the September 11 tragedy and other events, U.S. citizens must embrace justice as a road to peace. Between now and September 24, when massive demonstrations will take place in the nation’s capital, everyday people must raise their voices in unity against a war for the sake of empire-building.