Been a while...

...but I guess I should do some sort of an update.

I'm not sure why I haven't posted in ages, but I guess I got sorta down about the whole thing. In my innocence, my belief was that once the lies and corruption surrounding the invasion and occupation of Iraq became clear, only idiots and corrupt morons could continue to support this vile undertaking. How wrong I was. The village idiot in the White House seems to be utterly shameless, and no revelation can knock the self-righteous neo-cons off the greasy pole of wealth and opportunity.

There is little argument now that many untruths were peddled as 'intelligence' before the bombers were unleashed and American kids were shipped-in to kill other kids (and be killed in droves themselves). This is nothing new - remember Colin Powell and the '2500 tanks' at the Saudi border prior to Gulf War One? Remember the girl from Kuwait who testafied of the atrocities committed by marauding Iraqi soldiers, also prior to Gulf War One? Well, there were no tanks, and the girl was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador, coached by a US public relations firm.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, as the French say.

The problem here is that in the US establishment, even the people don't change! In 1968, Colin Powell - then a young staff army Major - played a direct role in covering-up the Mai Lai Massacre in Vietnam. Is there a special 'fast-track' career path in the American defence establishment for those who will happily lie to protect the shabby ambitions of US foreign policy? Seems like it.

Perhaps the White House is protected by some sort of shame and irony proof force-field which allows the incumbant to reist the forces of truth, ridicule and incredulity. The rest of the world has been laughing at the transparent tissue of lies which overlays the grubby quest for oil in Iraq for a number of years now. And, it seems, an increasing number of Americans are now in on the joke.

So - why does nothing change?

My guess is that it has a lot to do with mainstream media - basically, American TV news. These guys couldn't find their backsides with both hands, never mind the holes in the crappy canvas of untruth held up by the administration to obscure the view of the coffins of servicemen and the convoy of American corporations, lining up to join the gravy-train.

One example -- how can a news service which has a 'Saluting Fallen Heroes' slot during the news aggressively question the morality of the occupation? I mean, if they shouldn't be there then they are not fighting for 'freedom' - they are occupiers. Therefore, by no means heroes. In fact, as the Secretary General of the UN has declared the invasion to be illegal, then they are criminals - or, at least, taking their orders from criminals. I cannot imagine that many Americans would wish to be confronted with questions of this nature, and they can rest easy. The media is so partisan now that you can select which news source you will watch and pretty much guarentee that you need not worry about troubling questions. Now, that's real freedom!

So, what can be done? It seems that few American heads have been turned by the emerging facts about Iraq, as few heads turned when Pol Pot (supportd by America) was widely revealed to be a mass murderer. As few heads turned when the atrocities committed by Saddam (while America held his jacket) were publicised, prior to Gulf War One. The fact that the lies told prior to this invasion can now be clearly seen as part of a greater web of untruths, spun by various American governments during the past fifty years seems to impact lightly upon the mass of Americans. In any european country the media would simply not tolerate such behaviour, let alone actively work to aid the fibbers!

I think the anti-war forces must go back to basics. It is time to thoroughly examine the events of 9/11. There are so many unanswered questions and suspicious events surrounding the attacks on the twin towers and the Pentagon that I cannot possibly summarise them here. But if the American people could be shown that these attacks were (at least) allowed to happen by their government, perhaps that might spark some serious questions in the mainstream media. How this can be done, I am not sure - many thoughtful and intelligent people have tried to highlight the 'holes' in the official story. Perhaps if someone with the stature of, say, Michael Moore took up this subject or made a short movie on this theme it would shake things up a bit.