by Don Hynes
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| Vantage Point | Culture and Politics by Don Hynes |
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"No man is prejudiced in favor of a thing, knowing it to be wrong.
He is attached to it on the belief of its being right; and when he sees it is not so,
the prejudice will be gone." - Tom Paine
October 13, 2003 Intent to Deceive Columnist for the New York Times and Professor of Economics at Princeton University, Paul Krugman, spoke in my home town Saturday evening, pointing out the elaborate webs of disinformation the Bush Administration uses to disguise its policies and agenda. Krugman joked, if you are in a bar and Bill Gates walks in, every person in the bar becomes instantly wealthier “on the average.” Although I like to watch ESPN as much as the average guy, I understand a total divided by a unit equals an average. So although I might feel a lot better “on the average” when Bill G. strolls into the bar, when he leaves its back to tacos and miller lite and nothing’s really changed, except the President and his talking heads said the last tax cut gave each American $1,000, “on the average.” Well, if you average the tax cut Dick Cheney and I got in 2001, my share of the loot “on average” was $7 mil. Except me and my wife got a check for around $400 and used it to fix some leaky plumbing and buy a few videos for the grandkids. Cheney meanwhile pocketed $14,000,000, his share “of the average.” This same deception makes its way into every Presidential speech, every supposed “new” policy, and every agenda item that gets trumpeted over the air waves in the Orwellian up-is-down corporate speak of the current Administration. The Healthy Forest Initiative cuts down the forests to save the trees. Environmental protection is stripped for endangered species that will purportedly save the little critters, a new logic that should be termed the road kill amendment. The Clear Skies Act guts EPA protections against corporate pollution, particularly the extractive industries of the Bush Pioneers that still funnel money directly into Vice President Cheney’s pocket via his Halliburton shares. Operation Iraqi Freedom led to the shock and awe bombing of the country, followed up by a military occupation where U.S. soldiers are killed every day and ten times that number of Iraqis at a cost of $4B a month or $1,000,000,000 a week. I might spend a $1,000 in the week I pay my mortgage and light bill so the President and I are “averaging” $500M but he’s doing the spending and given the tax cut he gave himself and his eight and ten figure friends I’ll be paying more of the bill, along with the rest of us “average” Americans and our great, great grandchildren. The press and Congress are dancing around the Administration rhetoric prior to the war in Iraq, as if parsing out the sentences and words will in an old Chicago phrase make chicken salad out of chicken s**t. The problem isn’t with sixteen words, or whatever new spin Condi Rice or Karl Rove dream up, the problem is the whole intent to deceive. Language has been a crucible for culture from our earliest histories and the shredding of logos to a lingo where people blown apart by a cluster bomb are “collateral damage,” or the Kay report, by a man who was an Administration spokesman for the invasion and whose corporate connections will profit hugely by the occupation, couldn’t find a shred of WMD evidence but becomes in the President’s recent speech a vindication for his policies . Going Nowhere The U.N. wasn’t fooled by the pony-up-for-our-mistakes invitation of the President and not a dollar or soldier have come forward except troops from Turkey that were rejected by the Iraqi Council and decried by the collective Muslim world. The lack of international funding is a more serious issue than the U.S. has been made aware of, as our government attempts to debt finance a war and a still slumping U.S. economy. This week a Russian plan to convert their oil export price from dollars to euros shocked the international markets, with U.S. concern for oil central to the ongoing occupation. Although having painted a rosy pre-war picture of oil income paying for reconstruction, the Administration had a substantial pre-war report that painted a bleak picture they chose to ignore at our peril. The British Guardian outlines a fair summary of what has been accomplished in Iraq and the importance of reconstruction efforts, but a day in the life for the average citizen of Baghdad doesn’t afford much peace. Some of the details get absurdly funny, like this search for the planning minister but the people of Iraq don’t find the subject of their national autonomy humorous, and will doubtfully subject themselves to another generation of colonialism. U.S. troops were forced from the town of Huwaijah after repeated attacks in a city where over 1,000 local inhabitants are being held in detention by the U.S. military. Shiite anger in Sadr City is gaining momentum and threatening the safety of U.S. forces and civilians alike, while on the home front some military families are calling for the return of all U.S. forces now. Meanwhile the emergence of unexplainable Gulf War II diseases are debilitating or killing active troops and recent veterans. Like Attracts Like Ariel Sharon doesn’t hide his violence and although our President sees him as a man of peace the same Sharon who orchestrated the Phalangist massacre of Palestinians in 1982 this week launched military attacks against Gaza that left seven dead including three boys. President Bush greenlighted Sharon by supporting Israel’s air attack on Syria, a policy not one Democrat had the guts to challenge, while Kofi Annan courageously condemned the recent Gaza raid as a violation of international law. The disproportion of the Palestinian struggle is grotesque by any standard with U.S. financing and support terribly one sided, and endorsing a Sharon militarism that is now aiming nuclear strike capability toward Iran. This week Vladimir Putin, President Bush’s other soul mate, put dozens of SS-19 inter-continental ballistic missiles back on active duty. "I am speaking here about the most menacing missiles, of which we have dozens, with hundreds of warheads," Putin told a gathering of top commanders and Kremlin officials at Russian Defense Ministry headquarters. Feet to the Fire Wesley Clark urged a criminal investigation of the Administration for the lead up to the invasion of Iraq, a move that puts him ahead of the “I might have done it differently” candidates. Representative Conyers called for a special prosecutor and for Karl Rove’s resignation because of Rove’s comments and possible connection with CIA agent Valerie Plame’s outing by as yet undisclosed sources in the Administration. The President’s standards for accountability seem to become soluble when the issue gets close to home, yet this possible treason may even reach the Vice-President’s office while four senior Democratic Senators publicly criticize the President’s handling of the investigation. The good news is that the scandal may be serious enough, along with plummeting American public opinion over the war and Red Cross condemnation of the Guantanamo Prison, for the start of Administration covert ops against the Secretary of Father-knows-best. Ways to Help Demand an investigation into White House outing of Valerie Plame, and help President Bush write an affidavit for his staff. Support the military families who are speaking out against the war in Iraq. Spread the word on global warming and keep snowmobiles out of Yellowstone. Proverbial Ballade by Wendy Cope from Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis (Faber & Faber). Fine words won't turn the icing pink; A wild rose has no employees; Who boils his socks will make them shrink; Who catches cold is sure to sneeze. Who has two legs must wash two knees; Who breaks the egg will find the yolk; Who locks his door will need his keys- So say I and so say the folk. You can't shave with a tiddlywink, Nor make red wine from garden peas, Nor show a blindworm how to blink, Nor teach an old racoon Chinese. The juiciest orange feels the squeeze; Who spends his portion will be broke; Who has no milk can make no cheese- So say I and so say the folk. He makes no blot who has no ink, Nor gathers honey who keeps no bees. The ship that does not float will sink; Who'd travel far must cross the seas. Lone wolves are seldom seen in threes; A conker ne'er becomes an oak; Rome wasn't built by chimpanzees- So say I and so say the folk. Envoi Dear friends! If adages like these Should seem banal, or just a joke, Remember fish don't grow on trees- So say I and so say the folk. Peace. *** |
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