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CounterPunch
October
16, 2002
Consider the
Odds:
Selling War
by JOHN JONIK
Consider the Odds.
Nearly all of the ubiquitous U.S. commercial
media ("Public" Broadcasting included) are pushing
for an invasion of Iraq....either outright, or with this or
that pre-condition. These are the media that can hype and sell
anything...media that allow virtually no alternative views...
media that have on hand the best psychological-manipulating
experts from Madison Avenue to the D.C. Think Tanks. Yet, it
cannot "sell" this invasion to its usual large and
receptive audience...even to those who might elsewhere be persuaded
that McDonald's sells actual food...or that this or that movie
is a Must See. The bucket of lies here is just too big and too
obvious. It could be that the obviousness is intentional as
a terrorizing ploy to control the population by creating fear
of irrational, lawless, violent authorities... but that's conjecture
for now.
What are the odds? In SPITE of overwhelming
media saturation with stuff about the "evil" of Iraq,
Al Qaeda, "terrorism", and the rest, and with barely
a word of opposition allowed to get too far...it is resisted
significantly. An odds-maker might bet that EVERYONE would jump
on the war ships and shout for the US of A and against "evil"...but
it didn't happen. About a third of the Senate and third of the
House rejected the "war resolution", sometimes, maybe,
out of a sense of morality, law and justice...sometimes due
to avalanches of calls, faxes and e-mails...not to mention
public demonstrations.
Members of the public and of government
who opposed this resolution have all been threatened repeatedly
by accusations of being "un-American" or "supporters
of terrorism" or by threats of travel restrictions, monitoring
of communications, and even arrests, beatings and denial of
rights...yet STILL they opposed! How many hundreds of thousands,
if not millions, oppose as well...but, for their own reasons,
have so far kept their heads low and uncounted?
Based on this wide opposition reaction...and
lack of reaction to the hype...it may be said that each person
who openly opposes this oily, imperialist, lawless viciousness
represents MANY others who do not come forward. How many? A
hundred? A thousand? More? Imagine if there was any semblance
of an Open Media in the <U.S....where> people could SEE
the stunning scope of U.S. and global opposition. The reason
this news is not made available to the public is precisely that
it would inspire others to come forward due, at least, to the
feeling of safety in numbers. Censoring this information, or
Self-Censoring (as many editors do), tells us that this corporate/military
establishment KNOWS that it is an undemocratic and illegitimate
entity that it cannot possibly make its case to convert the
public. A Level Playing Field here would show a smattering of
fat, wealthy, well-dressed, well-armed goons at one end of the
arena, and millions of people of all ages, races, religions
and walks of life at the other. No contest. Therefore, no level
field allowed. Why play if winning is impossible even for these,
the swaggering, smirking "toughest of the tough"?
There are only two options for this establishment: The people
of the U.S. and in foreign lands must be forced at gunpoint
to shut-up, sit-down, and comply; or, the corporate/military
statists must give up. Question is: do they have enough compliant
cops and troops to put us all at gunpoint?... and, if so, for
how long? And, what if cops and troops start feeling funny about
beating up on so many innocent non-combatant, non-violent people?
What if they wise up about the threats this system presents
to themselves and their own families? A mutiny isn't that different
from a revolution.
John Jonik
lives in Philadelphia. He can be reached at:
jejonik@juno.com
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