[CLUE-Talk] The military takes a cue from Microsoft

[Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier]

On Sun, 2003-10-12 at 10:11, Jed S. Baer wrote:

> Now, I agree that the coincidence here looks a little suspicious, until
> you look at for how long favorable reports from Iraqis and U.S. troops
> alike have been coming out of Iraq. If such have been ongoing, then it's
> no surprise anymore that one of them comes along right after the
> administration announces their PR campaign. In fact, I wouldn't be
> surprised if their PR campaing was influenced by those, instead of the
> other way around.
> 
>   http://www.aim.org/publications/weekly_column/2003/09/29.html

Okay, when is good news EVER reported? 

I don't really care how many feel-good reports are coming out or Iraq,
the fact is that American soldiers are still being killed and injured
almost daily. The fact is we're pissing away good money after bad in
Iraq when we could really use the money here. 

> I'm actually getting tired of hearing all the Bush-Bashing over Iraq. When
> you can explain why it's OK to sit back while dissidents (and in Iraq,
> that was a pretty easy label to come by) are routinely tortured, let me
> know.

When you can explain why it's okay to lie to the public to justify the
war, let us know. When you can explain why Iraq as opposed to all the
other brutal regimes that kill and torture their citizens, let us know.
When someone can explain why Iraq when N. Korea is practically screaming
that it has WMD, let us know. 

You know as well as everyone else on this list that people are being
tortured and killed in dozens of countries on a regular basis -- some of
those countries we're quite buddy-buddy with and the Bush administration
is quite willing to do business with them and even try to quash lawsuits
against companies that have participated in having dissidents tortured
and raped -- perhaps not put through plastic shredders, but I think we
can agree that the end result is the same, they're just as dead. Are you
willing to commit to sending American troops into every country where
this is going on? Are you willing to pay for world-wide adventurism? Got
any younger siblings or relatives that would be in the line of fire when
it happens? 

Here's one story about the Bush administration trying to stifle action
against ExxonMobil for allegedly paying, feeding and housing troops that
killed and raped dissidents in Indonesia:

http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6231

This post-justification of lying to the American public doesn't fly.
Remember when Bush got up and said we're going to invade Iraq because
Saddam is bad, bad man that doesn't present a threat to the U.S., but
does kill his own people? NEITHER DO I, BECAUSE IT NEVER HAPPENED. Bush
got his war because he and his administration put on a little charade
for the world claiming that Saddam was a clear and present danger to the
U.S. and because they kept implying (and the American people bought it)
that Iraq was connected to 9/11. If the justification given pre-war had
been to save Iraqis threatened by Saddam, public support would have been
almost nil. Any mention of Saddam's brutality was a footnote to
pronouncements that Bush was doing this to safeguard the American people
-- which was an amazing load of bullshit. 

What's done is done -- we can't take back the Iraq war, but we can do
the right thing and turn Iraq over to the U.N. and Bush can admit that
he lied repeatedly to push for this action. Until that happens, I will
continue to bash Bush because the son-of-a-bitch lied through his teeth
and hundreds of American soldiers and thousands of Iraqis have died
because of it. 

Zonker
-- 
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier
jzb at dissociatedpress.net
http://www.dissociatedpress.net
http://www.corante.com/openmind