After the September 11 terrorist attacks the reaction of our government was one of arrogance, ignorance and fear. Everyone, myself included, was subjected to intense domestic terror and manipulated by our government in their reaction to the crisis.
An enlightened administration would have never referred to the war on terror as either "a crusade" nor as "a war on terror". One person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter.
An enlightened administration would not have stifled any criticism by the media or by individuals, or to characterize such criticism as unpatriotic. Quite the contrary, our country depends on a free press and free expression of thought, and both of these American constructs were heavily suppressed. You can add to that the suppression of our civil rights (FISA, domestic eavesdropping) and the rule of law (Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, torture). We have become less American due to the administration's attempt to protect it.
We are still reeling from the aftermath of such suppression, evident every day here in the blogosphere where one is often demonized for expressing one's views, labeled "liberal", meaning "unpatriotic", for criticizing the administration.
An enlightened administration would not have literally capitalized on that fear, lying and deceiving us in order to conduct an impossible war that was in no way related to the terrorist attacks, but was instead a greedy grab for oil and profits for Halliburton and the military-industrial complex.
Time and time again a connection was made by the administration between Bin Laden and Iraq, between weapons of mass destruction and Iraq, between terrorism and Iraq, until it became part of our national psyche and we bought in to the travesty.
And when we did invade Iraq it was with total ignorance of the culture and situation, an ignorance fomented by certainty and arrogance, a desired and valued ignorance and a concerted effort was made not listen to those who knew better, military experts, civilian experts, historians and think tanks. The administration was so hell-bent on ignorance and suppression that they exposed a covert CIA agent in retaliation for her husband speaking out against the administration!
And still we remain quiet. Why we are not out in the streets demanding impeachment and imprisonment for those responsible is beyond me. It must be ignorance that is keeping us at home.
The recent report coming out of the Army is shedding some more light on this incompetence. Bush didn't listen, Rumsfeld didn't listen, Wolfowitz didn't listen, Cheney didn't listen. Suppression of expression was so severe that the Chiefs of Staff said nothing, the generals in the field said nothing, Collin Powell said nothing, the press said nothing.
Mission accomplished? Outrageous! The military commanders now in Iraq are STILL trying to get it through the administration's very thick head that the war in Iraq is not over, surge or no surge. This has been a lesson, a textbook example, of how not to conduct a war.
Yes, the enemy has finally been sighted: Ignorance.
rate
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 20
Ignorance was our enemy from day one.
Good stuff.
The list goes on. Why are they so silent? Is that why their approval rating is lower than the President's? Why not an uproar over these folks? Why not look inward?
If it is truly that bad you have no one to blame but your own Democratic elected officials.
Why not look inward? You mean blame the Democrats instead of the administration?
It's because not speaking out is not against the law. The conduct of this administration was corrupt and illegal. You do not see a difference here?
So many are reality-challenged. Hence my article imploring a change from image-based politics to reality-based politics. I think we should give it a try.
How astute and so elegently expressed. The depth of thought is astounding, to say the least.
I am now going to change my ways immediately because of your reasoned and irrefutable logic, and join the ranks of un-informed, un-American un-patriots.
You only give liberals a good name by such comments and do yourself and your country a great disservice.
I will say this, Lex, for such a mental midget you sure came up with an appropriate handle.
Don't tell me, you are the anti-Clark Kent?
I agree. So were the generals, which is a bit strange for military men.
I hope they all learned a lesson. They really let us down.
Okay, everybody is guilty, including you and me and the Congress and the administration. Now we can move on to this:
Having assigned the blame to everyone, what are we going to do about the situation we are in and how do we prevent this sort of thing from happening again, assuming we all don't want this sort of thing happening again?
Whoa, wait a minute. What do we mean exactly by "this sort of thing"? We need to get on the same page and answer that question first, then we can decide if we indeed want "this sort of thing" to happen again or not, and then we can move on to discuss how or how not to prevent "this sort of thing" from happening.
So Winston, what does "this sort of thing" mean to you, the "sort of thing" for which we have concluded we are all to blame?
Or perhaps I'm making an assumption and you are unconvinced that we are all to blame?
Weigh in my friend, and tell me if we are all to blame or not, and if not, who is not to blame? We'll pick it up from there, what d'you say?
Thanks for the comment. Tell me, how are you able to predict the future?
The Founding Fathers were fairly aristocratic (Washington, Jefferson, Adams, etc), but they lived during the time of the Enlightment, so the thinking of the aristocrats then were unlike the thinking of the aristocrats at this time.
Who would you say was the last good choice? How can you ever really know?
Are you planning to vote? A lesser of two evils approach?
If so, who would you vote for this election cycle?
Do you think independents offer an attractive alternative?
Who have you voted for in the past?
What issues are of the most importance to you in deciding which candidate to vote for?
Any suggestions on how to fix the system?
I hope you will share your thoughts on these questions. I'll be glad to respond in kind.
Thanks for participating in the discussion!
Thank you for a wonderful response! I hold you as an exemplar for how commenting should be done. So many good ideas based in knowledge and history, a true exchange of information and not simply opinion. Great job.
Now, for my two cents:
· I think Clinton was the last good choice, before him Kennedy.
· I feel it is my duty to vote, and a choice is always the "lesser of two evils", but I tend to invert that and say the better of two choices. I am an optimist.
· I'm voting for Obama (see my article " The Political Paradigm - Image versus Reality")
· I'm not settled on the issue, but I tend to think that third party politics is not the way to go. We have an adversarial system which is best represented by two political parties. The existence of independent parties is a warning sign that something is wrong with the two major parties. I propose focusing on fixing the two, not adding the third.
· I vote Democrat consistently. The only time I switched parties was to vote for Jesse Ventura for Minnesota Governor (he was an Independent Party candidate), and I've regretted that choice.
· I asked about what issues are important, but perhaps I should of stated the question differently and asked what reasons are behind the choice. As for issues, I am concerned about health care, the economy and campaign finance reform (many more - those are my big three). Some of the reasons I will vote for Obama are there in my article "The Political Paradigm - Image versus Reality", so I won't repeat it here.
· Suggestions on how to fix the system: Campaign finance reform is first on the list; I have a lot of respect for John McCain in his attempts to address these issues. Follow the money. The second most important thing I would do is to differentiate hate speech from free speech; this is tricky and I don't know if it can be done, but there is so much misinformation and propaganda expounded by people who profit by it and contrary to the image they present for themselves they are unconcerned about America, what it stands for, the issues or anything but their insatiable greed. They whip up their flock into a hateful frenzy based on bullshit and nothing else – win at any cost including personal integrity. See my article "The Karl Rove Con and How to Fight It" for more on this topic. I'll throw in a third suggestion: tax reform, perhaps a flat rate tax based on consumption done in such a way as not to disadvantage those who are already economically disadvantaged by the system. I would increase the contributions of the wealthiest as it has been proven to me that trickle-down economics don't trickle-down. We will require some mechanism to redistribute the wealth in this country and in the larger context of the world-wide economy. Okay, a fourth suggestion (there are so many but I will stop after this one): alternative energy development - wind, solar, fuel cell technology, bio-fuels (but not by using human-consumable foods such as grain; this is insane and must stop immediately; we need to get creative instead of remaining greedy and stupid; find a way to use the garbage)
Okay, I'm done. For now.
The Enemy
Pogo was a favorite of mine, and it is this line by Walt Kelly that I had in mind when writing the article!
I like your work. Hope to read more in the near future.