"...slouching towards Bethlehem"...

[kentuck]

Parallels with the Pentagon Papers and DSM..
=========================================

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0619-31.htm

<snip>
On the Downing Street Memo, however, the only word available to most Americans are the President's denials, none challenged by the press.

In 1971, the public understood -- implicitly -- that they were getting a snow job, wrapped in a cover-up. They understood that it was immoral for the White House to deceive the public on matters of war and peace, and that the White House shouldn't be allowed to shrug off the controversy and return to business as usual. They enjoyed watching the President squirm.

Today, however, the DSM has never once interrupted business as usual. Today the press, the public and the loyal opposition have attained a level of cynicism that encourages deception, honors arrogance and validates the deniers of palpable fact. Today the press, the public and the opposition are the only people squirming. We feel powerless -- or, perhaps, fearful -- to stop the travesties committed in America's name, powerless to right the wrongs promulgated in secret meetings and fostered by mendacity in high office. Today the only understanding implicit in the body politic is a quiet acceptance that there is no way to make America better, fairer, more honest, more peaceful.

We have transcended the Pentagon Papers. We have gone beyond Watergate, and we are slouching towards Bethlehem.