III. Thanks for Letting the Terrorists Win, Asshole
We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear — fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts, or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer.
-Hunter S. Thompson
In post 9/11 world you’re either with us, or you’re a terrorist. The ‘us’ represents America as a whole around the world, but here in the US, it embodies the administration, the radical right, and the glut of corporate elite slithering in and out of Bush’s revolving cabinet door. Bush claims to be fighting in the name of freedom and democracy, but his actions expose the inherent hypocrisy oozing from every gaping crack in his failed administration. This is an administration that has no problem distorting and manipulating the news by leaking false information and/or blatantly lying—outing CIA agents to send a very loud message to political opponents—or using wire taps and FBI agents to identify and then harass the opposition within this country. When these types of things happen again and again, it becomes clear that they have something to hide. Their agenda is so full of holes that they know an informed American public would be outraged if they were to find out the truth. And EVERYTHING comes back to their loosely defined “War on Terror.” They may have been wrong once or fifty times, but they will leave no stone unturned whether that stone be in Baghdad or Baltimore. There are terrorists amongst us after all.
Meanwhile, as the administration works on the political front to silence any resistance, they leave the right-wing media machine to say what they know they can’t say. Just as Rove Inc. learned about the damage the media can wreak on executive power during Vietnam, they also learned from the mistakes made by McCarthy in the fifties. They learned not to conduct a media-driven witch-hunt yourself, allow your puppets…I mean pundits to do it for you. While those in Washington are very careful not to fall into the McCarthy trap, the Limbaughs and O’Reillys of the country have free reign to point fingers and create labels and let their listening/viewing audience know that there is no reason to pay attention to what all those “crazy libs” are saying. It’s all black and white—us and them. They love the terrorists and hate America. We are spreading freedom and protecting the country from the forces of evil. They want the terrorists to win—hell, classified sources inside the White House say that many of them are actually on Bin Laden’s payroll. We’re securing the borders and bringing terrorists to justice. They have tailor-made responses for every issue. If a liberal starts attacking you with questions that would require you to (gasp) think, just click here and we’ll tell you exactly what to say to make the bad people go away.
So, dissenters are accused of not supporting the troops and antiwar politicians are accused of being weak on national defense. Scientists are labeled as kooks and the critics within the military are labeled as cowards and traitors. This ‘us or them’ rhetoric is extremely dangerous. What kind of America does the right want? An America without dissent? One with only one right way to do things? An America where the citizens never question anything the government does? An America in which people live in fear of expressing their opinions? An America in which there is no need to justify any war or any decision made by the government? Now that, my friends, sounds just as much like Fascism than anything the terrorists are doing or have done. The right might respond that this does not apply because we are not killing innocent people like the terrorists. Last time I checked the civilian death toll in Iraq was at the lowest estimate 61,000 and at the highest estimate 67,000.
Next time Bush starts to throw out ultimatums, or his pundits make claims about who is with ‘us’ or against ‘us’, think about the ‘us’ he is referring to. Are there really only two sides? Us or them? Cannot ‘us’ have more than one opinion? Is there any danger in debate? Dissent? I constantly teach my students to question authority, not so they become terrorists, but so they become concerned and empowered citizens. But I guess that is exactly what people like President Bush fear the most. Because with a concerned and empowered citizenry, people like him would never get elected.
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LINKS
Bush is at it again, accusing Democrats of “undercut[ting] the troops” and “giving our enemies the victory they desperately want.” What he doesn’t mention in his radio address is that he left the Iraq War funding out of his budget so he wouldn’t freak out the American public. He knows that everyone is concerned about the unthinkable deficit in the national budget (see the graph here and an article about the deficit here). He knows that if his budget truly stated how much money he is pouring into this disaster of a war, he would be dealing with an even more outraged public. Now, he wants Congress to pass his “emergency war spending bill” as if this war is some disaster that hit us out of nowhere. We’ve been in there for four years buddy; don’t act like you couldn’t put this into the budget. America voted to get out of Iraq Mr. Bush, not just to “change the course” (although that would have been an excellent idea in 2004, but you were too stubborn to listen). You ignored the critics who told you to change your failing strategy three years ago, you ignored the voters in November, you ignored the Iraq Study Group Report, you ignored the Congressional resolution against the troop buildup plan, and now you claim that Democrats are hurting the troops. You forced the Democrats into this situation because of your constant refusal to listen to anyone who doesn’t say what you want to hear. They are trying to do what you do not have the backbone to do. You can pour all the money you want into this war, and give the troops all of the equipment they need, but the only way that they are going to stop getting killed, is if we bring them home.
