War propaganda

[camero]

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=1766

Charley Reese – May 1, 2004

If you step back a moment and think about it, you will realize that you are constantly being propagandized to approve of war – not just the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but war generically.

We should resist. War is killing, maiming and disfiguring human beings. It is so disgusting and horrible in reality that even the most "realistic" Hollywood movie sanitizes it. The news media sanitize it. The government sanitizes war because it doesn't want you to see the coffins. Most of all, it doesn't want you to see the bodies before they are put in the coffins. The Bush administration's real beef with the Arab television station Al-Jazeera is really nothing more than the fact that Al-Jazeera shows the bodies.

The government line is that if you don't approve of the war, you are disloyal. If you don't agree to give the Pentagon whatever it says it wants, you are disloyal. If you don't agree to surrender your civil liberties to the Patriot Act, you are disloyal. If you disagree with the Bush administration, you are disloyal. If you disagree with the chicken-hawk demagogues on radio and television, blathering about the war from the safety of their studios, you are disloyal.

This entire glorification of war – as if the whole and only purpose of the government and the country were to fight wars – smells of fascism. The news media glorify the war and militarism; we get the same dose on television, in the movies and in video games. If the American people aren't careful, they will wake up one day to find out they've become a nation of mindless heel-clickers.

War is nothing more than mass murder. Noone comes clean ever out of war. I highly suggest this article to everyone. I will continue to speak out against this war and the brutality that we are showing the world.

[laruemtt]

1. war represents the greatest failure

mankind is capable of. i've tried to teach my sd that violence is a way of showing your weakness. people who can't resolve conflict with their brains resort to violence and thereby announce to the whole world their ignorance. i think she's thinking about it....

[camero]

2. agreed

and notice that it is always the first choice of those who don't have the facts on their side. It should be the last always.

[Null Pointer]

3. Indeed

I agree fully. War is the total failure of dipolmacy and human intellignence - and should be abohorred. Except in certain cases, where an opponent is not intelligent enought or coherent enough to understand the consequences of continued aggression.

Are the Muslims? Yes. They are. They want us out of thier lands. And we should leave. Many PNACs would argue that this shows weakness. I could argue nothing but the flipside.

This shows compassion. It shows understanding. It shows a willingness to work with non-Christians. It shows Enlightnenment. Which is the core of progressive man.

No being who wallows in the past is destined for a positive future. It is a rule of nature.

If we follow the Fundie line of reasoning, we, as a species are facing certain destruction. A future of hatred and war. We must learn to accept and (in time) love one another. Learn to understand and accept another nation's religious beliefs and lifestyle habits. Only then can mankind truely progress as a species.

[camero]

4. We should also learn to use what we have

and not exploit what are other people's resources. Which is what this war is also about. We should only be guarding our own borders from invasion. We never learn.

[rdfi-defi]

12. good article, good topic for discussion

i agree with most of what has been said in this thread, however i must disagree that "war is the total failure of diplomacy," as it pertains to the united states.
the state's (u.s.) most dominating feature is not economic, or 'moral' strength, it is military strength. if a state does not have the ability to defend its self, we immediately brandish war as an ultimatum. if there is not immediate compliance, violence is used without regard. (nicaragua in the mid 80's)
we only use diplomacy when the opposing state has an ability to mount an organized and legitimate defense to military aggression. (when china shot down our spy plane.)
i think this is true of most states, it just so happens that the u.s. is the most powerful military force on the planet at this time. if micronesia has the world's most powerful military, or a near monopoly on international violence, their state's power brokers would act in the same manner, i suspect. (empires are not built by handing candy to babies.)
this is why an open society is so important. the citizens of a state must have regular access to information about what is being done with the power the people relegate to the state. with this information the people can regulate the use of violence against other people. when this information is kept from the citizenry, it makes them easy to manipulate.

[LibertyorDeath]

5. Thanks great article.

Kick for the Truth

[DieboldMustDie]

6. It's ironic that since the "Department of Defense" was created...

we have never fought a defensive war. :eyes:

[camero]

7. It is very ironic

almost Orwellian.

[camero]

8. kick

no more offensive wars

[camero]

24. kick

[camero]

9. kick

[camero]

10. last kick

It's a good article

[the_real_38]

11. I totally agree...

... this shit is getting Roman, the way they're militarizing society, holding Pat Tillman up like some kind of GI joe doll. War is immoral. And I think the fact that we have spent and wasted so much of our country's resources for so many years on 'defense' (war preparation), we've got a "use it or lose it" mentality out there among the NeoCons, to the point where we go to war to prove that we can. It's f***ed up, and we need to get these defense contractor scum out of the political process and reset out priorities (on universal health care, e.g.).

[camero]

14. wasn't it Eisenhower who said

That all wars took food out of somebody's mouth or something like that warning us about the military industrial complex.

The PNACers want never ending war so they can profit from it.

[berry]

13. Excellent article!

These questions are almost never asked in the public square. I hope this gets posted widely.

At the same website, there is a notice about ex-diplomats giving a press conference May 4 at the Nat'l Press Club about a "Letter to the President(sic)" deploring the * stance on Israel/Palestine. They are calling for more signatures (they have about a dozen now) from other ex-diplomats, but also from anyone interested for a supplementary signature page. Go to http://www.wrmea.com/letter_to_bush.html if you're interested in adding your name.

[camero]

16. Thanks for that

It almost seems like they want the ME to explode in violence.

Thanks for the link. Will do.

[berry]

17. Thanks for the reply--I was worried about seeming to try to hijack

the thread. (I wouldn't have found the letter if I hadn't read this thread.)

Anyway, your reply makes me realize this is worth another thread--in GD. Also, we should look at c-span tomorrow to see if they cover the press conference.

Oh, and I signed it too.

[camero]

19. I don't consider it a hijack

I'm glad you did. It's a part of the current war. Quite on topic. It does deserve it's own thread also. More people would see it.

[rdfi-defi]

15. i saw an animated movie from japan called memories.....

it had three short stories, one of which depicted one day in a town based entirely on militarism. the town was surrounded by a wall and had cannons on every roof top. the whole town worked to load and fire guns, at the end of the day the "news" was all about which cannon team fired the most shots.
the largest cannon was loaded by hand using crews who worked at gun point. when the main cannon is loaded, the leader of the town comes out in his golden armor and marches up to the gun. he then proceeds to fire the gun and returns, with much ceremony, to where ever he came from.
in the street a few people leaflet their fellows, they advocate making the authorities stop using harmful materials in the munitions and better working conditions. they are ignored and passed by.
the schools teach advanced math, as it pertains to trajectory and munitions flight, as well as extreme nationalism.
the main character is a child who wants to "shoot the gun," when he gets older, not just load it like his father.
the "news" reports that the target of the guns is a moving city, the target is never shown, and there is never a counter attack. the son asks the dejected father why things are the way they are, the father replies "you will understand when you get older."

some may think this message is over the top, i do not. the short story was a piece of excellent character/city design, as well as commentary worth examining.

[zappaman]

18. my first post

Hey there-this here is my first post, but I've been lurking for awhile. Anyway, I want to thank everyone here for keeping me up to date on things. I'm in Los Angeles and don't really know anyone for Bush. However, this essay is perfect and I will send it around to all my friends who are as concerned as I am as to where this country is at and where it is heading. I can't make a new topic yet, so I was wondering if you could help me with an email. My friend got this from his dad. If it were true, it sounds like paradise. Any help I can get debunking this garbage point by point would be much appreciated.
Thanks!

We need to see more of these letters telling how it really is in Iraq.
>
>
>
> This is a letter from Ray Reynolds, a medic in the Iowa Army National
> Guard, serving in Iraq:
>
> As I head off to Baghdad for the final weeks of my stay in Iraq, I
> wanted to say thanks to all of you who did not believe the media. They
> have done a very poor job of covering everything that has happened. I
> am sorry that I have not been able to visit all of you during my
> two-week leave back home. And just so you can rest at night knowing
> something is happening in Iraq that is noteworthy, I thought I would
> pass this on to you. This is the list of things that has happened in
> Iraq recently: (Please share it with your friends and compare it to the
> version that your paper is producing.)
>
> * Over 400,000 kids have up-to-date immunizations.
> * School attendance is up 80% from levels before the war.
> * Over 1,500 schools have been renovated and rid of the weapons stored
> there so education can occur.
> * The port of Uhm Qasar was renovated so grain can be off-loaded from
> ships faster.
> * The country had its first 2 billion barrel export of oil in August.
> * Over 4.5 million people have clean drinking water for the first time
> ever in Iraq.
> * The country now receives 2 times the electrical power it did before
> the war.
> * 100% of the hospitals are open and fully staffed, compared to 35%
> before the war.
> * Elections are taking place in every major city, and city councils are
> in place.
> * Sewer and water lines are installed in every major city.
> * Over 60,000 police are patrolling the streets.
> * Over 100,000 Iraqi civil defense police are securing the country.
> * Over 80,000 Iraqi soldiers are patrolling the streets side by side
> with US soldiers.
> * Over 400,000 people have telephones for the first time ever.
> * Students are taught field sanitation and hand washing techniques to
> prevent the spread of germs.
> * An interim constitution has been signed.
> * Girls are allowed to attend school.
> * Textbooks that don't mention Saddam are in the schools for the first
> time in 30 years.
>
> Don't believe for one second that these people do not want us
> there. I have met many, many people from Iraq that want us there, and in
> a bad way. They say they will never see the freedoms we talk about but
> they hope their children will. We are doing a good job in Iraq and I
> challenge anyone, anywhere to dispute me on these facts. So if you
> happen to run into John Kerry, be sure to give him my email address and
> send him to Denison, Iowa. This soldier will set him straight. If you
> are like me and very disgusted with how this period of rebuilding has
> been portrayed, email this to a friend and let them know there are good
> things happening.
>
> Ray Reynolds, SFC
> Iowa Army National Guard
> 234th Signal Battalion
:toast:

[camero]

21. sorry, they don't want us there

This is just more right wing propaganda. What this very thread was started to explain that we should avoid

[Kanary]

22. Hi zappaman!

Welcome to DU!

:hi: :hi: :hi:

:toast:

I believe that letter you posted is one of the "astroturf" letters that were circulated to media.

I have a feeling that if you were to look it up at snopes.com, you'd find it there.

Astroturf really sux.

Kanary

[randr]

20. War goes against the core tenets of every religion

and we have a moral imperative to object. The only purpose to maintain a standing army is to react to an imminent threat.
I astounds me that so many who claim to be Christians are the biggest supporters of this military madness.
When you look at the amount of wealth we have squandered in the last century it is more than immoral-- I can not find an emotion that expresses my disdain.

[camero]

23. We have squandered entirely too much wealth on it

We spend more on our military that most of the world combined.