- While much has been made of the recent
poll showing that a majority of U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq think
we should get out heartening news for all those who oppose Bush's bloodsoaked
war crime the poll contained another revelation that should disturb anyone
anti-war or pro-war who still believes in American democracy: the fact
that some 85 percent of US forces in Iraq believe they are fighting to
avenge Saddam Hussein's role in the September 11 attacks. (Alex Sabbeth
at Consortiumnews.com has more on this, and on Bush's broader propaganda
war, in America Anesthetized.)
-
- Saddam Hussein played no role in the
September 11 attacks, of course; even the Warmonger-in-Chief has been forced
to admit this indisputable fact, in public. It has also been confirmed
by multiple investigations by the intelligence services, and even by the
whitewashing, Bush-run, see-no-evil-unless-it-speaks-Arabic 9/11 Commission.
Yet American troops have been thoroughly inculcated with this false notion
no doubt deliberately.
-
- The dangers of infecting the armed forces
with such partisan propaganda are immense. First, think of how this notion
has skewed the reaction of American soldiers to the Iraqi people, especially
anyone accused or suspected for whatever reason, or none at all of being
an insurgent, or a "Baathist diehard," etc. To an American soldier
blinded by the deliberate Bush lies, such people would appear to be nothing
but evil terrorists complicit in the murder of thousands of innocent Americans.
And in fact, all Iraqis would be tarred by this brush: for how could a
soldier out on patrol distinguish which of the seething mass of foreigners
surrounding him had been a supporter of the man who (supposedly) attacked
America?
-
- Putting deluded soldiers in such a position,
fed with such lies, is a formula certain to produce atrocities and abuse.
No wonder we have seen so many cases of American soldiers being quick on
the trigger, quick with the boot and the fist, belligerent and brutal in
tumultuous house searches, eager to "soften up" prisoners for
CIA interrogators, and so on. Most of them believe they are there to avenge
murdered Americans, and that anyone who opposes their presence or even
looks at them wrong must be part of the system that (supposedly) produced
9/11.
-
- The evil of this deliberate policy is
great in itself; but the broader implications are perhaps even worse. For
consider this: if American troops can be propagandized to believe such
a transparent lie about Iraq's non-existent connection to 9/11 what can't
they be manipulated into believing?
-
- And remember, this mass military delusion
has been manufactured in an age when soldiers have far more access to outside
information than ever before (despite the Pentagon's strenuous efforts
to clamp down on anything Don Rumsfeld doesn't want them to hear). Can
they be made to believe that, say, the government of Hugo Chavez is directly
tied to al Qaeda and must be overthrown? Can they be made to believe that
Saddam's non-existent weapons of mass destruction are actually parked in
Damascus and must be seized by force? Can they be made to believe that
Iran is sending agents across the Iraqi border to kill them and is about
to nuke their loved ones in the Homeland as well? (The latter is in fact
the latest propaganda campaign from the Bushists: Rumsfeld rolled out the
Iranian infiltration line just yesterday, despite its utter and transparent
foolishness: why would the Iranians seek to destabilize an Iraqi regime
that, thanks to Bush, is now dominated by Shiite factions that were nurtured,
armed, trained and financed by Tehran itself? And of course, this week
both Dick Cheney and John "I'm Not Foaming at the Mouth, It's a Moustache"
Bolton were pounding the war drums over the Iranian nuclear "threat"
at about the same time their boss was rewarding India for its own secret
nuclear arms program, with a deal that guarantees the dangerous proliferation
of nuclear weapons in one of the world's most volatile regions.)
-
- But why stop with new foreign aggression?
If American soldiers can be manipulated into believing the non-existent
connection between Saddam and al Qaeda why not a non-existent connection
between some domestic faction and terrorism? What if you convinced the
troops that, say, some Democratic leader was a traitor in league with terrorists?
Or the anti-war movement in general? Or environmentalists? Or Muslims?
Or Mexicans? Or Jews? Or any other group that some president down the line
armed with the dictatorial powers seized by Bush under the rule of the
"unitary executive" decides to eliminate?
-
- We have, once again, crossed a dangerous
Rubicon. If American soldiers can now be deliberately manipulated into
fighting a war based on a transparent and publicly proven lie, in the service
of the political ambitions and personal fortunes of a partisan faction,
then we are well and truly through the looking-glass. We have reached the
same pitch of civic degradation as the late Roman Republic, where the legions
became the tools of ruthless warlords, jockeying for dominance, despoiling
whole peoples and slaughtering thousands in the process. Once unlimbered,
this weapon will be used again and again. With each passing day, the Bush
Factionists and all their many sycophants and enablers, in both parties,
throughout the Establishment are sowing a monstrous future for America,
and the world.
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- http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com
_content&task=view&id=527&Itemid=1
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