[van-discuss] War & the media

[Jill M]

...John Stockwell, a former CIA station chief and author of the book "In 
Search of Enemies," estimates that the United States is responsible for the 
deaths of more than 6 million people in various operations in Third World 
nations around the world...


''The lies we are told''
Printed on Tuesday, August 27, 2002 @ 01:25:50 EDT
http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=628

By Doreen Miller
YellowTimes.org Columnist (United States)

(YellowTimes.org) - There is an age-old adage that is well-understood
and manipulated to the fullest by the media, advertising agencies, the
military, politicians, indeed, anyone in a position of influence and
power. It has been used time and again over the millennia to justify
the invasions of other countries, to initiate or enter into wars, and
to gain ultimate control over groups of people and countries. Hitler
skillfully wielded it to sway a whole nation to persecute and attempt
to exterminate the Jewish faith whom he blamed exclusively for
Germany's problems. Contrary to what one might expect, this all-
powerful axiom consists of three simple words: "Perception is
everything."

How a person perceives something leads in turn to the creation of a
set of beliefs which forms the basis of one's behavioral decisions.
The control of information coupled with the knowledge that fear is a
great motivator sets the stage for power-hungry leaders to begin
practicing the ultimate in manipulation - getting others to do their
bidding.

Those in positions of power knowingly concoct fabrications, half-
truths, and outright lies, repeated ad nauseam through carefully
controlled media, to create the fear-filled reality needed to further
their own personal, often repulsive, agenda. The leaders of the United
States are by no means exempt from this tactic, but are truly the
masters of deceit.

U.S. leaders patriotically wave the mighty U.S. Constitution before
the hypnotized eyes of the American populace, parade its noble and
high moral obligations of equality, self-determination and liberty as
the very fundament of the American spirit, and tout U.S. foreign
policies as the embodiment of these lofty ideals. The American people
are taught from a very young age that the intentions of their
government and military are good, just, and honorable. After all, in
the words of George W. Bush, we are a generous, "freedom- and peace-
loving" nation.

Constant platitudes about our wonderfully sublime, brave, patriotic,
and compassionate character are intended to shield us from the
unspeakable truth of the very dark and evil side of our nation's
history and foreign policies.

A long, hard look in the mirror will reveal that we are by far the
most violent nation on earth. From the moment of our birth, we are
immersed in a culture of violence and the glorification thereof as
evident in the amount of violence that is found on TV, in movies, song
lyrics, books, video games, etc. We have the highest numbers of rape
and murder in the world and incarcerate the greatest percentage of our
citizens. We are the largest producer and exporter of weapons of mass
destruction and have the world's biggest military budget comprising 36
percent of the total world military spending and gobbling up more than
50 percent of our own national budget, according to the Center for
Defense Information. (1)

Our history is desecrated by one long line of participation - both
directly and indirectly - in genocides, wars, military invasions, CIA-
backed overthrows of democratically elected governments, and the
creation of militant insurgents, blood-thirsty dictators and terrorist
death squads trained and armed at U.S. taxpayers' expense right here
at Fort Benning, Georgia, at the infamous School of the Americas. (2)

Yet, the average U.S. American hears very little of what is actually
being carried out in his or her name. Compliant media owned by the
same global, profit-driven corporations that run our government see to
it that the U.S. public is kept in the dark about the nature and truth
of U.S. aggression around the world. After all, we need to maintain
our pure and wholesome image. Perception is everything.

In the name of "national security," the U.S. invaded Panama more than
twelve years ago in a military attack dubbed "Operation Just Cause."
This unforgivable, internationally condemned act of aggression
targeted and systematically destroyed poor, heavily populated,
residential neighborhoods. Eyewitnesses report that US soldiers "shot
at anything that moved." Twenty thousand homes were decimated, and it
is estimated by the Human Rights Commission of Panama that more than
4,000 people were killed. To date, fifteen mass graves filled with
hundreds of infants, women, children and elderly, some of whom were
executed Nazi-style - each with a single bullet wound through the back
of the head - have been discovered throughout the countryside. (3)

None of this has ever been adequately been brought to the full
attention of the U.S. public. Michael Parenti, author and professor,
claims that during our invasion of Panama the media offered no
critique, but rather "just about total collaboration with the
administration." Why? It is because perception is everything, and we
certainly do not wish to tarnish our false image of being a peaceful
and freedom-loving people. Instead, TV news gave us coverage of George
Bush Sr. standing before Congress, declaring the operation a "success"
by openly lying, "Today democracy is restored. Panama is free," upon
which he received a standing ovation. The truth is, there was no
democracy to "restore" as Panama never was a democracy to begin with!
According to Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll, Center for Defense
Information, "Panama has never been a democracy since we created
Panama for our own purposes in 1903." The only thing restored was U.S.
hegemonic rule over Panama secured with a permanent U.S. military
presence.

John Stockwell, a former CIA station chief and author of the book "In
Search of Enemies," estimates that the United States is responsible
for the deaths of more than 6 million people in various operations in
Third World nations around the world. Our leaders blithely justify all
of this under the rubric of "national security," a concept invented in
1947 with the inception of the CIA.

A congressional investigation conducted by Senator Church in 1975
found that during the 14 years prior, the CIA had been involved in 900
major and 3,000 minor operations throughout the world. Extrapolated
over the CIA's 50+ year history, that amounts to more than 3,000 major
and 10,000 minor covert operations carried out in full contempt of
U.S. and international law.

Just recently, Washington has vowed to continue its murderous feeding
frenzy by promising us a perpetual "War on Terrorism." Like the War on
Drugs, the War on AIDS, the War on Poverty, or the War on Cancer, this
new War on Terrorism attacks only the symptoms and ignores any in-
depth investigation and elimination of the underlying causes and
grievances that give rise to terrorism in the first place. Hence, it
shall ultimately fail, serving to bring us less peace and security,
not more. Responding to acts of terrorism with government-sanctioned
terrorism (modern warfare) only leads to a vicious spiral of
increasing violence and retribution, as can be seen so clearly in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Our "war" in Afghanistan (if you can call it that as Congress never
did officially declare war), in spite of military reports
of "success," has in actuality achieved none of its goals. All the
United States has done is bomb a defenseless country. By analyzing
media reports, Marc Herold of the University of New Hampshire
estimates that close to 4,000 Afghan civilians have been killed in the
U.S. attempt to capture "dead or alive" one "evil" man (formerly on
the CIA payroll). We have not apprehended Osama bin Laden or Mullah
Omar, nor have we dismantled the al Qaeda network. We have not brought
stability to Afghanistan which continues to be troubled by infighting
and rivalries between warlords. We are barely maintaining any kind of
control within the city of Kabul, outside of which there continue to
be clashes with al Qaeda fighters.

Now, following on the heels of this "model success story," U.S.
leaders plan to attack Iraq to hunt down and oust another
inherently "evil" man, Saddam Hussein, who until his invasion of
Kuwait was our "good" ally against Iran. Over the past several months,
the present administration has been stepping up the intensity and
exaggeration of claims of the alleged threat that Saddam poses toward
the U.S. The war hawks in Washington are deliberately equating
unsubstantiated suspicions and hypothetical actions to hard evidence
in order to instill terror in the hearts and minds of U.S. citizens in
an attempt to gain public support for its invasion.

What the American people are not told is how utterly devastated the
infrastructure of Iraq is after the Gulf War, twelve years of
genocidal economic sanctions, and routine bombing runs. According to
former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who has visited Iraq every
year since the sanctions were put into place, "a major part of these
aerial sorties has been directed at civilians and civilian
facilities." In a July 29, 2002 letter to members of the UN Security
Council, Clark outlines how the U.S. has destroyed Iraqi water
systems, electric power transmission, communications, residential and
business areas, transportation, food storage and manufacturing
facilities, schools, hospitals, mosques... in short, every aspect of
their society.

The economic sanctions insisted upon by the U.S. ban such crucial
items as chlorine needed to purify drinking water and medical supplies
and equipment needed to tend to the sick. The majority of deaths are
among infants, children, the elderly, the sick and frail. Clark
correctly identifies the sanctions against Iraq as "the greatest crime
against humanity," and "a weapon of mass destruction" which has
been "the direct cause of the very cruel deaths of more than one
million people." (4)

I, too, have been told first-hand accounts by an Iraqi woman of the
horrendous living conditions and suffering of her people. It is a
country that has been brutalized, terrorized, and brought to its knees
at the hands of the U.S. , yet Bush proclaims it a serious threat to
our national security!

According to Bush's line of reasoning, the U.S. should have attacked
and invaded the USSR a long time ago as it, with its intercontinental
nuclear missiles, was a definite threat to our security. However, the
USSR had the full capacity to successfully defend itself, whereas
Iraq, a much weaker, severely compromised "enemy," is easy prey. Is
that how the U.S. asserts its world dominance, by kicking a nation
that is already down and by killing thousands more of its innocent
civilians?

I am convinced that the only reason many Americans are so gung ho for
war (for what it's worth, at least that is what the polls tell us) is
that we have never experienced the utter and indescribable horror of
modern warfare on the soil of our own mainland. We have not suffered
mega-ton, uranium depleted bombs raining down on us from on high, army
tanks in our streets, artillery fire shattering our lives, cities
being laid to rubble and waste with nowhere for us to run or hide, or
the bloodied and mangled bodies of our children and loved ones dying
in our arms.

For most Americans, war has always been a sort of Hollywood-esque
abstraction, something "out there" that takes place in other
countries. Media war coverage serves to maintain this false image of
war as a precise, high-tech, and non-bloody affair by referring to
bombings as "surgical strikes" and dehumanizing the killing of
innocent civilians - somebody's loved ones, sons, daughters, sisters,
brothers, aunts, uncles, husbands, wives, parents and grandparents -
as "collateral damage." The way war is depicted and glorified in this
country is a direct insult to our deeper moral and spiritual
intelligence.

Ramsey Clark courageously speaks the truth when he says, "This planet
is deeply troubled, and the greatest cause of that trouble is our own
government."

S. Brian Wilson, a Vietnam veteran and peace activist, was
deliberately run over by a weapons train carrying a shipment bound for
South America while he was lying on the tracks in protest in an
attempt to stop yet another delivery of murderous madness. He believed
that if the U.S. was willing to spare just one life, his own, then
maybe there was hope after all.

I leave you with a call to activism in waging peace and with some of
Brian Wilson's compelling insight and timeless, soul-searching
questions to ponder: "We're on a course leading to inevitable
annihilation. . Do we want to be part of this course of ultimate
destruction, or do we want to be part of hope and affirmation and
justice for all people of the earth.? How can we continue as a
civilization of 'We the People' if we have to do it at the expense of
maiming and murder of people all over the world? . Are we going to
watch this happen again? Do we just go about our business as usual and
know that another 5,000 people will be killed in our name . [people]
whose lives are being threatened by our guns and our money because we
have to protect our 'national security'?"

[Doreen Miller lived, studied, worked and traveled abroad for several
years, and is currently a Senior Lecturer and educator of
international students. She dedicates part of her time to serving the
elderly and Alzheimer patients. Mother, musician and poet, she pursues
an avid interest in Buddhist and Eastern philosophy. She advocates
human rights, social justice, fair trade, and environmental
protection. Doreen lives in the United States.]

Doreen Miller encourages your comments: dmiller at YellowTimes.org


Sources:

(1) See Center for Defense Information: http://www.cdi.org

(2) See "School of the Americas, School of Assassins," documentary
film narrated by Susan Sarandon


(3) "The Panama Deception," a documentary film narrated by Elizabeth
Montgomery. Found at the following link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6302779545/yellowtimes-20

(4) "Genocide by Sanctions," a documentary film created in 1998. Also
see Ramsey Clark's book "Challenge to Genocide: Let Iraq Live." It can
be found at the following link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0965691640/yellowtimes-20

YellowTimes.org encourages its material to be reproduced, reprinted,
or broadcast provided that any such reproduction must identify the
original source, http://www.YellowTimes.org. Internet web links to
http://www.YellowTimes.org are appreciated.

http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=628




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