Saturday, March 22, 2003
Gulf War II
The propaganda machine is in high gear, at war against the
truth. The bombardments are constant and calculated. This has been planned
carefully over time.
The propaganda box sits in every home showing footage that
it claims is of a distant war. We citizens, of course, have no way to
independently verify that, but then most citizens are quite happy to accept it
at face value.
We see peaceful streets by day in a lovely, prosperous and
modern city. The night shots show explosions happening at a safe distance. What
is the magical spot from which all of this is being observed?
Later we see pictures of damaged buildings, but they are all
empty, as are the streets. There are no people involved, and no blood. It is
the USA vs. architecture, as if the city of Bagdad itself is our enemy.
The numbers of casualties, all of them ours, all of them
military, are so small that each one has an individual name. We see photos of
them in dress uniform. The families state that they are proud. For each one of
these there is the story from home: the heavily made-up wife who just gave
birth to twins and is trying to smile for the camera, the child who has
graduated from school, the community that has rallied to help re-paint a home
or repair a fence.
More people are dying on the highways across the USA each
day than in this war, according to our news. Of course, even more are dying
around the world of AIDS or lung cancer, and we aren't seeing their pictures or
helping their families. At least not according to the television news.
The programming is designed like a curriculum with problems
and solutions. As we begin bombing the networks show a segment in which experts
explain the difference between the previous Gulf War's bombs and those used
today. Although we were assured during the previous war that our bombs were all
accurately hitting their targets, word
got out afterward that in fact the accuracy had been dismally low. Today's
experts explain that the bombs being used today are far superior to those used
previously, and that when we are told this time that they are hitting their
targets it is true, because today's bombs really are accurate.
As we enter and capture the first impoverished, primitive
village, a famous reporter is shown interviewing Iraqi women living in the USA
who enthusiastically assure us that the Iraqi people will welcome the American liberators
with open arms. The newspapers report Iraqis running into the streets shouting
"Peace to all." No one suggests that the phrase might be a plea for
mercy by an unarmed peasant facing a soldier wearing enough weaponry to raze
the entire village in an eye blink.
Reporters riding with US troops are able to phone home over
satellite connections and show us grainy pictures of heavily laden convoys in
the Iraqi desert. Like the proverbial beasts of burden, the trucks are barely
visible under their packages of goods, food and shelter. What they are bringing
to the trade table is different from the silks and spices that once traveled these
roads, but they are carrying luxury goods beyond the ken of many of Iraq's
people: high tech sensor devices, protective clothing against all kinds of
dangers, vital medical supplies and, perhaps even more important, enough food
and water to feed an army. In a country that feeds itself only because of
international aid -- aid that has been withdrawn as the US troops arrive -- the
trucks are like self-contained units of American wealth motoring past.
I feel sullied watching any of this, or reading newspapers.
It's an insult to be treated like a mindless human unit being prepared for the
post-war political fall-out. I can't even think about the fact that many people
in this country are believing every word of it. I can't let myself think that
the propaganda war machine will win.
Pray for peace.
