|
CounterPunch
October
28, 2002
Bush's Lies and Simple Truths
by ROBERT JENSEN
A few weeks ago Jim McDermott, a courageous congressman
from Washington state, traveled to Baghdad in pursuit of peace
and was sharply criticized, particularly for his comment that
George Bush "might mislead" the American public to
build support for an attack on Iraq. He got only one thing wrong
-- the "might."
George Bush HAS misled the American public.
He IS misleading the American public, and we can assume he WILL
continue to mislead the public. In fact, the entire Bush administration
has been misleading the public, sometimes by misdirection, sometimes
by fudging the facts, and sometimes by straightforward, outright
lies.
 Remember when Donald Rumsfeld told a congressional
committee that Iraq kicked out U.N. weapons inspectors in 1998?
That's a lie. The head of the inspection team pulled the inspectors
out after being informed that the Clinton administration was
going to proceed with Operation Desert Fox, its illegal bombing
of Iraq.
Fudged facts? Well, remember Rumsfeld's
declaration that the U.S. had "bulletproof evidence"
of a connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda? For a bulletproof
story, there certainly are a lot of holes, including a report
from Czech President Vaclav Havel that suggests there is no evidence,
at least of the long-rumored meeting between one of the 9/11
hijackers and an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague.
Some lies are not lies, of course, but
just "alternative interpretations." Take the so-called
no-fly zones, in the north and south of Iraq, where U.S. and
U.K. planes patrol the skies and bomb Iraqi targets at will.
The U.S. claims these zones are authorized by U.N. Security Council
resolutions. That the rest of the world disagrees and sees it
as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty is of little concern to the
U.S. Power means your alternative explanation can't be challenged.
Misdirection is helpful, too. Take Bush's
assertion that if Iraq could "produce, buy, or steal an
amount of highly enriched uranium a little larger than a single
softball, it could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year."
Yes, that's likely true, but it is the equivalent of saying,
"If Iraq had a nuclear weapon, it would have a nuclear weapon."
Creating the other components of a nuclear bomb would be relatively
easy; the fissile material is the issue.
The question isn't whether Saddam Hussein
is a nice guy or not; in case anyone isn't clear on that, he's
not. The question is whether he is a real threat. Given that
none of his neighbors feel threatened and are adamently against
war, that Iraq is far weaker than in 1991, and that all the world
thinks renewed weapons inspection and diplomacy is the proper
course, it leaves the Bush administration only a few choices
for dealing with other countries (mainly threats and bribery,
what one British journalist called "diplomatic kneecapping")
and only one choice for dealing with the U.S. public -- propaganda.
They know that the only way they can get the American people
is to frighten us with nightmare scenarios, no matter how implausible.
Well, on this one point, I actually agree.
I am frightened, but not for the reasons Bush is pushing. International
terrorism is a serious problem that requires serious attention,
and there are reasons to be afraid of future attacks in the U.S.
And if the U.S. goes to war against Iraq, the likelihood of such
terrorists attack will increase dramatically. That's a real reason
to be afraid.
But beyond that, I am afraid of other
threats.
I am afraid for a country that protects
the greed of the few over the needs of the many, the United States.
I am afraid for a Middle East flooded
with weapons sold by the the #1 arms dealer in the world, the
United States.
And I am afraid -- I am terrified --
for a world dominated by an empire that has acquired such a massive
destructive capability, and a demonstrated willingness to use
it. I am afraid of the empire in which I live, the empire of
which I am a citizen. I am afraid of the men sitting in Washington
-- of Rumsfeld and Cheney and Wolfowitz, and of George W. Bush
-- who are planning the lives and the deaths of people all over
this planet.
But I hope that I am not afraid to resist
this madness. I hope I am not afraid to speak out. That is always
easier if one's voice is not the only voice. So, today I hope
we can all find our voices and come together to speak as one.
--A voice that says no to an illegal
and immoral war, and says yes to international law and diplomacy.
--A voice that says no to an economic
system that enrichs the few at the expense of the many, and says
yes to an economy that puts need above greed.
--And, most important, a voice that says
no to imperial America, and yes to a truly democratic America,
a democratic America that becomes part of the world, not a ruler
of the world.
We must not only say yes to the vision
of a truly new world order based on justice, but we must commit
to the struggle that is necessary to make that world real. We
must be willing to risk our own comforts and our own privilege,
to be impolite when necessary, to agitate, to cause trouble.
In 1857, the great Frederick Douglass
made it clear that:
"If there is no struggle there is
no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate
agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground,
they want rain without thunder and lightning, they want the ocean
without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may
be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both
moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes
nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
Let us not be unrealistic about this
struggle. We have to ask, who is on our side in this struggle?
Is the media on our side? No. Are the corporations on our side?
No. Are the politicians on our side? No.
Who is on our side? Take a minute and
look to the person at your side. That is what we have. We do
not have the power of money; we have the power of people. Many
voices into one, not denying our differences but uniting in our
strength, the strength of people of conscience who will not abandon
the struggle.
With that voice, we can confront Cheney
and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz and George W. Bush with our demand.
We all have many demands for justice,
and over time we will press them all. But today we come together
to say, in one voice, that at this crucial time in our nation's
history, in the world's history, the best traditions of humanity
-- the political, moral and spiritual traditions that have led
us here today -- demand that we say, in one voice, loud and determined,
proud and resolute:
NO WAR.
Robert Jensen
is an associate professor of journalism at the University of
Texas at Austin, a member of the Nowar Collective, and author
of the book Writing
Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream
and the pamphlet "Citizens of the Empire."
He can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
Yesterday's
Features
Michael Wolff
A Place
of Tears
Ilija Trojanow
Bali Mon Amour
Ben Tripp
Crocodile Tears
Hope Shand and Silvia Ribeiro
The Great Containment:
GM Fallout from Mexico to Zambia
M. Junaid Alam
The Wolf Who Cried Wolf:
Charging Anti-Semitism & Extending the Iron Wall
Gavin Keeney
The Fusion Thing:
Landscape + Architecture
Adam Engel
A Good Man is Hard to Misfit
Anis Shivani
Is America Becoming Fascist?
Jason Leopold
Is Thomas White Fit to Lead the Army?
Philip Farruggio
Let Them Eat (Crumb) Cake
Josh Frank
The Grassroots of Hope
Anthony Gancarski
Concerned Citizen: episode 5
Night School
M. Shahid Alam
The Civilizing Mission
New
Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- The Shafts of Death: Bush, Coal Mines, and Death
in the Tunnels;
- Speak Memory!: Carter and the Draft;
- Daniel Pipes' World: Smearing Pro-Arab Academics;
- Ashcroft's Gays: the War on Free Speech;
- Saddam's Amnesty: Could It Happen Here?
- Criminalizing Dissent: a history and preview;
- Iraq 1987: When the Going Was Good;
- Egypt in Turmoil: an Anthropologist's Account;
- Green and Grounded: Profiled at the Gate.
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
October 14,
2002
Harry Browne
Ireland:
No to War; No to Nice
Don Atapattu
The Tragedy of Alan Dershowitz
Linda Heard
So You
Think You Live in a Democracy?
Bob Feldman
Flashback: Inspecting Nuclear Israel
Adam Engel
The Anger
of Achilles
Anthony Gancarski
The
Washington Post and the Wal-Mart Way
Philip Farruggio
Sleepers
Harold Gould
Islamic
West Asia and US Foreign Policy:
A Tale of Strategic Self-Delusion
Dan Brook
An Open Letter to Barbara Lee
October 12
/ 13, 2002
Alexander
Cockburn
Vindication
Through Violence:
Jimmy Carter and the DC Sniper
Robert Jensen
The American
Political Paradox:
More Freedom, Less Democracy
Ben Tripp
Congratulations! It's a War!
Susan Davis
Proverbial
Wisdom:
Red!
David Krieger
A Bleak Day for America
Anis Shivani
George W. in Therapy
Ken Paff
Where Do Hoffa's Tactics Belong in a Mob-Free Teamsters?
Carol Norris
The Politics of Fear
Elaine Cassel
The Lynne Stewart Case:
When Representing an Accused Terrorist Can Land a Lawyer in Jail
Musa AlShaer
Scenes
from an Occupied Wedding
Anthony Gancarski
Concerned Citizen: a serialized
novel (Episode 3)
M. Shahid
Alam
I Will Fight Your Enemies
October 11,
2002
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Montana
Fusion
Steve Kelly's Wild Ride for Congress
Ralph Nader
Whirlwind
Wheelchair Intl.
Anthony Gancarski
Stayin'
Alive: Notes on Facials and Saving Face
Romi Mahajan
What
War Means to the Iraqi People
Uri Avnery
Israel:
the Jewish Demographic State?
Francis Boyle
Bush's
Banana Republic
Lee Sustar
Taft-Hartley,
Bush and the Dock Workers
Katherine
van Wormer
Dry Drunk
Syndrome and George W. Bush
Jerre Skog
The Blessings
of Growth:
The Greatest Deception of All Time
October 10,
2002
Elson E. Boles
Iraq and
Chemical Weapons:
The US Connection
Senator Russ Feingold
"Confused Justifications and
Vague Proposals": Why I Oppose Bush's War Resolution
William A.
Cook
What Bush
Didn't Tell the UN:
The Case Against Israel
Jorge Mariscal
Chicanos
and Chicanas Say:
"No a la Guerra"
Norman Madarasz
Rio's
Holiest View:
Brazilian Elections 2002
Amir Boroomand
Just
Nod, Please
Fedwa Wazwaz
Falwell,
Graham & Friedman:
Religious Extremism in America
Kurt Nimmo
Condoleezza
Rice at the Waldorf Astoria
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|