 
I posted these photos on May 2, 2003, a day after the "flight stunt," with the caption: "The photo above and left is from Agence France-Presse. As documented here, an AP story changed the wording of the banner to make the protestors sound more violent, or desperate, from 'Sooner or later US killers we'll kick you out' to 'Sooner or later US killers we'll kill you.' Hardly any US media ran the above photo, only AP's altered description." The photo on the left was taken in Fallujah, which the US subsequently flattened. Bush had his little jollies, but it does appear that sooner or later we're going to get kicked out. A chilling video of the aircraft carrier legions deafeningly but mechanically applauding Bush's propagandistic "Mission Accomplished" speech, with Bush's speech edited out, can be seen on YouTube (thx mark).
Four years ago, it seemed like it was only bloggers who thought the US war was wrong. The news media were 100% behind it, so millions of TV-dazzled people across the US were behind it, too. I had an argument with one of my cousins in Dallas when I told him I'd marched against the war. He said, "I've just gotta believe that the government has access to information we don't have and that they made the right decision." Steam was coming out from my collar but what could I say to convince him? "Well, I read a lot of blogs and you are one naive MoFo." Months after the Kay Report concluded that Iraq had no WMDs I was talking to a woman in NY who insisted Saddam was crafty and we just hadn't found where he had buried the weapons yet. It's taken Americans four years to conclude maybe the war wasn't a good idea but still Congress is afraid to end it and Bush and Cheney still haven't been impeached for lying us into it. It is Vietnam all over again.
The failure of the polity - institutions and individuals to seriously question the motives and casus belli put forth by the White House and others early-on (and the executive's subversion of their efforts) is a most tragic revealing of what we all know is massive rot at the center of American political culture and yes, society. Clear justification for going to war is not something one cedes to the elite as war inevitably impacts everyone - in this country and others. It doesn't matter how "complex," intelligence intensive, or emotional something is made to be for us. As soon as elites realize they own the agenda and will be making the decisions - the worst they are capable of becomes something to factor in. One did not have to be especially well-informed to realize that the reasons given for this war did not measure up even fractionally to what the usual standards for a nation going to war are (or were). Setting aside almost everything else available informing us as to why the war might be a bad idea - in the better reporting, history, policy concerning the region etc. - and there's a lot, one I think could have simply tuned into Colin Powell's "Adlai Stevenson moment" at the U.N. and realized that something was seriously missing (regardless of propaganda dismissive of the U.N. as an institution). So many people were asleep or bought into the lie that even accountability may take a generation or two as all the costs come home. But by then we'll probably be well into the middle of some other nightmare.
you can organize the general strikes because nothing short of that will make much of a dent in the body politic once the lessons of this mess have been unlearned.
I'd like to start small with (a) wiping boogers on the Jaguar that Bandar Bush bought Colin Powell (oh--forgot, he already "traded it") and (b) sticking a boot up Wolf Blitzer's ass (saw him on cable at the deli tonight trying to embarrass Kerry for his "who wants to be the last soldier to die for a mistake" quote--what a righteous little fuck).
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I posted these photos on May 2, 2003, a day after the "flight stunt," with the caption: "The photo above and left is from Agence France-Presse. As documented here, an AP story changed the wording of the banner to make the protestors sound more violent, or desperate, from 'Sooner or later US killers we'll kick you out' to 'Sooner or later US killers we'll kill you.' Hardly any US media ran the above photo, only AP's altered description." The photo on the left was taken in Fallujah, which the US subsequently flattened. Bush had his little jollies, but it does appear that sooner or later we're going to get kicked out. A chilling video of the aircraft carrier legions deafeningly but mechanically applauding Bush's propagandistic "Mission Accomplished" speech, with Bush's speech edited out, can be seen on YouTube (thx mark).
Four years ago, it seemed like it was only bloggers who thought the US war was wrong. The news media were 100% behind it, so millions of TV-dazzled people across the US were behind it, too. I had an argument with one of my cousins in Dallas when I told him I'd marched against the war. He said, "I've just gotta believe that the government has access to information we don't have and that they made the right decision." Steam was coming out from my collar but what could I say to convince him? "Well, I read a lot of blogs and you are one naive MoFo." Months after the Kay Report concluded that Iraq had no WMDs I was talking to a woman in NY who insisted Saddam was crafty and we just hadn't found where he had buried the weapons yet. It's taken Americans four years to conclude maybe the war wasn't a good idea but still Congress is afraid to end it and Bush and Cheney still haven't been impeached for lying us into it. It is Vietnam all over again.
- tom moody 5-01-2007 7:51 pm
The failure of the polity - institutions and individuals to seriously question the motives and casus belli put forth by the White House and others early-on (and the executive's subversion of their efforts) is a most tragic revealing of what we all know is massive rot at the center of American political culture and yes, society. Clear justification for going to war is not something one cedes to the elite as war inevitably impacts everyone - in this country and others. It doesn't matter how "complex," intelligence intensive, or emotional something is made to be for us. As soon as elites realize they own the agenda and will be making the decisions - the worst they are capable of becomes something to factor in. One did not have to be especially well-informed to realize that the reasons given for this war did not measure up even fractionally to what the usual standards for a nation going to war are (or were). Setting aside almost everything else available informing us as to why the war might be a bad idea - in the better reporting, history, policy concerning the region etc. - and there's a lot, one I think could have simply tuned into Colin Powell's "Adlai Stevenson moment" at the U.N. and realized that something was seriously missing (regardless of propaganda dismissive of the U.N. as an institution). So many people were asleep or bought into the lie that even accountability may take a generation or two as all the costs come home. But by then we'll probably be well into the middle of some other nightmare.
- SHM (guest) 5-02-2007 4:47 am
you can organize the general strikes because nothing short of that will make much of a dent in the body politic once the lessons of this mess have been unlearned.
- dave 5-02-2007 5:12 am
I'd like to start small with (a) wiping boogers on the Jaguar that Bandar Bush bought Colin Powell (oh--forgot, he already "traded it") and (b) sticking a boot up Wolf Blitzer's ass (saw him on cable at the deli tonight trying to embarrass Kerry for his "who wants to be the last soldier to die for a mistake" quote--what a righteous little fuck).
- tom moody 5-02-2007 5:50 am