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Posted December 11, 2001
Freedom Fighter
While reading the news story on this site about the video footage of CIA agents threatening prisoners with death, I had to wonder if the plan was to kill them all along. Agent "Dave" delivers the ultimatum of either dying or living as if to indicate that the prisoners fates were already determined. I suppose this coercive method of interrogation is perhaps expedient and effective at extracting information from prisoners, but in view of what transpired, I have my doubts that those unwilling to cooperate would be left alive.
Genocidal Mindset
I was impressed with Mr. McConnell's article of December 4 ["Genocidal Thought in the Land"]. I like many ordinary Americans are sickened by mindset described in the article. We know it exist. I can only encourage this fine writer to continue speaking out. I am dismayed by our leadership's illogic in the war against terrorism, their disregard for life, their arrogance and lack of humanity. I also know they (the Dick Cheneys, the John Ashcrofts, etc., the real architects of hatred and war) have contempt for ordinary Americans, else why would they lie to us at every turn? Why do they feel the need to take away our rights? Why do they trample the Constitution? They believe we are not capable of governing ourselves and so are using the September 11 horror to justify a police state. Mr. McConnell is right to speak out. Before we can destroy the beast, we must know how he thinks.
The Amazing Truth
Tonight I learned something that has changed the way I look at the world forever. I am 34 and regard myself as fairly well read and "up" on international affairs. The amazing truth I discovered was that the US has a naval base in Cuba. Twenty years of BBC news bulletins and not one single mention of what must surely be the most glaring anomaly in world affairs. This either proves I am incredibly ignorant or I have been appallingly served by the "free press" in my country. That the US can maintain a naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and still claim that Cuba is a threat to US national security has to be the longest running joke in international politics -- if only people knew about it.
The Draft
Only the draft can save us now! As a member of that unfortunate generation which marched off to Vietnam and as a terrified parent whose son served in the military during the Gulf War, it may sound a bit peculiar that I would be in favor of possibly reinstating the military draft. However, the draft does have its uses, to wit: It should immediately put the the brakes on our runaway War Party. It is so effortless to show your patriotism and solidarity with the goals set forth by the President and his coterie of warmongers when you are standing on the sidelines shouting patriotic slogans and waving your flag for all it is worth. But there is a definite introspective side to the same equation when you discover that your spouse, your child or your grandchild is not going to be standing with you on the sidelines shouting and waving that flag. Instead, he or she is going to be involuntarily on the frontlines, life destroyed, bleeding into foreign dirt for a disputable cause which suddenly doesn't seem to be all that patriotic anymore. I think we can almost guarantee the polls will reflect a whole different mindset when it is no longer someone else's son or daughter doing the dying, but rather your own. Mention the draft loud enough so that all hear it, and watch this "war" on terrorism stopped dead in its tracks where it belongs. There are other ways to guard our nation, such as correcting some of our reckless foreign policies -- especially the almost unbelievable example we are setting now! So mention the draft loudly, but please don't let it happen.
Justin Raimondo replies:
Be careful what you ask for, my friend, because you just might get it. If ever a time existed where it was possible to pull off public acceptance of conscription, it is now: in one move, the administration would solve the growing problem of unemployment, steal John McCain's self-righteous thunder, and mobilize for a much wider war. Antiwar.com opposes the draft, or any form of "public service" conscription, for the simple reason that it is slavery. What our rulers are telling us, in even proposing such a measure, is: we own you. The answer of a free people to such presumptuousness must be clear and uncompromising: catch us if you can.
Reasonable Doubt
After certainty, questions arise: NPR reports Vice President Dick Cheney has seen a video tape which makes it "pretty clear" Osama bin Laden was "involved" in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. This quoted statement raises questions about standards of evidence and leads one to ask if this is the best "proof" the US Government has which justifies killing quite a large number of innocent Afghan civilians in its War of Terrorism. Further, are "pretty clear" and "involved" the level of proof according to which terrorism suspects are to be judged in trials before Bush's secret military tribunals? This standard is far less stringent than "probable cause," not to mention "beyond reasonable doubt," which has been all but dropped from the media lexicon when discussing terrorism.
Lightbulb
Having witnessed every conflict since World War II, I watch in awe the fear Big Brother has conjured up. Even among my friends (?) for me to speak out against what is happening, draws their wrath. One, an ex-MP cannot wait to get a security job where he again can "kick ass." I put an item in the San Antonio papers Letters to the Editor column. It was so drastically edited it made no sense. All I hope is that a lightbulb will soon light up in peoples head and stop this madness.
Hoaxes
Since we're compiling lists of Emsesque-style hoaxes, let's not forget to add Aldo Moro. As much as I hate the Red Brigades, the Moro affair was probably a GLADIO operation. Given our present circumstances, I suggest Antiwar.com walk its readers through some of the classic examples of agit-prop: Polk and the Mexican-American War, Bismarck and the Ems Telegram, the Naujacks Caper (Alfred Helmut Naujacks), Markale, Racak, etc. Remember that moron Jamie Shea? He wrote his dissertation on British use of propaganda during World War I.
Why let Chomsky and his camp followers (I see one of them chimed in on Backtalk last week) get all the credit for discussing these issues?
~ Petar M.