The USA has turned into a Monster

The USA has turned into a Monster
Current mood:  focused
Category: News and Politics

By Dave Lindorff

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23361.htm

August 24, 2009 : "Information Clearing House" -- You see, here's the thing. When you hear about the sick, twisted things that America's torturers have been doing, courtesy of President George W. Bush and Vice President Darth Cheney, you have to remember that the US military and the CIA were not really all that reliable when it came to picking up the real terrorists. In fact, their batting average was pretty lousy.

According to even the Pentagon's own reckoning, for example, probably 85% of the captives being held at Guantanamo over the past eight years were not terrorists at all, and a fair number--probably the majority--weren't even fighting anyone when they were captured. I'm sure that the averages at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, or at the secret prison in Iraq are no better. The military was offering bounties in Iraq and Afghanistan for alleged terrorists, you see, and probably still is, but in both of those lawless, tribal countries, many people have used the offer to settle old feuds, turning in people they wanted to punish or dispose of, and many others just turned in random people to get the reward money.

Remember this when you hear about torture tactics that we are learning were used by our side--things that make waterboarding sound like a walk in the park. We're now getting confirmation of things that we journalists were hearing rumors of earlier: faked executions using blanks, faked executions in neighboring rooms, followed by threats of the same to a person who had just heard the screams and a shot in the cell next to him, threats with an electric drill, and now perhaps the worst yet--the threat to kill a captive's children. And of course there is the already disclosed case of a captive who had his genitals cut with a razor, and generous use of tasers in places on the body designed to cause maximum pain. That, and of course there are a lot raped captives (including young boys), and a lot of bodies yet to be dug up of captives who were simply killed during torture.

We've got a litany of horror and abuse here that sounds like the worst kind of stories that used to come out of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, or the Argentine Junta or Idi Amin's Uganda. About the only thing missing is word that the military and CIA torturers were eating their victims, or feeding them their own genitals, but who knows? Maybe we'll get there yet. It's hard at this point to rule anything out.

What has become of the US? We started out the victims of an attack in 2001, with the whole world rallying to our side, and within a matter of weeks, our government, acting in our name, had secretly embarked on a wholly unnecessary and totally criminal descent into the barbarity of Middle Ages.

And now? The new administration has claimed to have put a stop to the atrocities, but it remains adamant that it is not going to root out the evil that was already done to hundreds, perhaps thousands of people.

President Barack Obama says he does not want to look back at any crimes that were committed. He wants to go "forward." This is not the voice of justice, though. This is the voice of political gutlessness and of big power exceptionalism. The same America that demands the prosecution of war criminals in little countries like Cambodia or Serbia or Sudan, considers itself exempt from criminal liability for its own crimes.

Attorney General Eric Holder now says he is appointing a special prosecutor, John Durham, to investigate cases where CIA or private contract torturers "overstepped" the rules set by the White House and Justice Department, but he has said he will not allow the investigation to go beyond that to pursue the people who enabled those acts of torture--people like Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld who personally instructed torturers in Afghanistan to "take the gloves off" in one case, or Assistant Attorney Generals John Yoo and Jay Baybee (now a federal judge), who ruled that anything short of the destruction of bodily organs or of a pain level equivalent to death was okay. Nor will he allow any investigation to look at acts of torture that were authorized, like waterboarding, if they had the sanction of the Bush/Cheney White House.

This position taken by the new administration should sicken us all. Worse, it should be broadly condemned, because if the descent into barbarity which occurred with the highest White House sanction is not investigated thoroughly, and punished fully, there is no way we can say it will not happen again. In fact, it's safe to say that it will happen again, the next time another charlatan gets into office and uses fear to blind the American people to all that is right and decent, and to the importance of maintaining the rule of law.

I know there are terrible things happening right now which demand our attention and action--an escalating, endless war in Afghanistan that increasingly resembles Vietnam in 1966 or 1967, a presidential cave-on on health care reform, a sell-out on real action against climate change, and on and on--but this particular crime--the crime of failing to act to punish violations of the Geneva Conventions on treatment of prisoners of war, which is being committed today by the Obama administration--is so obscene, so directly in our faces, and is such a stain on the whole nation, that it demands action.

We will probably never know how many innocent lives have been destroyed by America's eight years of officially sanctioned torture, but we can at least see to it that the people who sanctioned it, and not just those who engaged in it (and that goes right up through the chain of command to the Commander in Chief and to the real power behind the throne, Dick Cheney), are put in the dock like the criminals at Nuremberg, to face the charge of war crimes. and crimes against humanity.

As the citizens of what we call a democracy, we can demand nothing less.

Dave Lindorff is a Philadelphia-area journalist. His latest book is "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2006). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net.

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The Decadence and Deceit of the Kuffar

The Decadence and Deceit of the Kuffar

Abdul-Aziz ibn Myatt

The kuffar often proudly speak and write about the societies of the West in glowing terms, and contrast their own societies with the lands of the Muslims, claiming all sorts of benefits for these kaffir societies, and claiming how "advanced" and "better" and "civilized" the West is compared to the lands of the Muslims. Thus, they argue, Muslims should "modernize" Islam - get rid of "the extremists" within their ranks - accept democracy, give up Jihad, and then they will enjoy the many benefits of Western society.

What these kuffar fail to tell us is the utter decadence, hypocrisy, dishonour, arrogance, and inequality, which lies at the heart of every single Western nation. That is, Muslims - and others - are being presented with a propagandistic image of the West, by Western politicians, by the Media Thus, we have Amerika, in a secret report, saying:

"The Pentagon's doctrine for psychological operations specifically contemplates actions to convey and (or) deny selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning. ... In various ways, perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover, and deception, and psyops." (Taken from U.S. Defense Department's Information Operations Roadmap, a document approved by Donald Rumsfeld.)

The kuffar shamelessly seek to manipulate us, and seek to hide the reality of their own societies - which includes violent crime, increasing and sordid domestic violence and abuse, more and more people in prison; more and more people suffering from mental and psychological problems; and increasing addiction of ordinary people to drugs and alcohol.

They seek to hide the truth that there is a real and ever-increasing division, in the countries of the West, between the wealthy and those who are only just managing to survive, only just managing to feed and clothe themselves and their families.


The Problems of the West:


Let us consider some statistics that highlight some of the major problems of the West. First, Amerika has the highest number of people in Prison - over two million. That is over a million more than China, which has nearly four and a half times as many people as Amerika, and this number of prisoners in Amerika is quite startling if it compared to the number of people in Prison in Pakistan: some 90,000 out of a population of nearly 160 million. That is, in Amerika, there are over twelve times the number of prisoners incarcerated in jails compared to Pakistan, for Amerika has 738 prisoners per 100,000 people, while in Pakistan there are only 57 prisoners per 100,000 people.

In addition, in Amerika, every year nearly twenty million people use an illicit drug and nearly thirty million people receive treatment or counselling for mental health problems. How many people abuse alcohol is not known for sure, but some estimates go as high as fifty million people. This is a great number of unhappy or suffering people.

Furthermore, nearly 100,000 women per year seek treatment in the British city of London alone for violent injuries received in their own homes, and, on average, in Britain, two women per week are killed by a male partner or former partner - that is over 100 women a year. Also, in England and Wales alone, in one year, there are over 600,000 recorded incidents of domestic violence, and every minute of every day the British Police are called by a woman who has been subject to violent domestic abuse. In Russia, in one year, it was recorded that 14,000 women were killed by their partners or relatives.


What do such statistics show us? That something is seriously wrong with the West. That despite the material prosperity of such countries, there are millions upon millions of people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol, and that such material prosperity has not made people happy or solved fundamental social and personal problems, or led men to treat women with respect. Also, let us consider the utter hypocrisy of politicians in the West - like those in Italy where a recent test showed that 16 out of 50 elected representatives had taken cocaine or some other drug.


The simple fact is that the ways of the West do not work except in the minds - in the fantasies - of the kuffar.

How dare the West, in its utter hypocrisy, seek to export, by force of arms, by economic, political and financial blackmail, the ways and values of the West to other lands when it cannot even solve basic social and human problems in its own lands! How dare the politicians and Media lackeys and their supporters hold up the West as some shining example to be followed by Muslims when the societies of the West are full of drug addicts, alcoholics, anti-social behaviour, poverty, injustice, inequality? How dare the Western critics of Islam falsely claim that "Islam oppresses women" when in Britain nearly one hundred women a year are killed by their violent husbands or partners, and where every minute of every day a woman calls the Police because of violence against them by their husband or partner?

How dare the kuffar do this? Easy - for they are utter hypocrites who in their arrogance and ignorance refuse to accept the truth that the ways of the West do not work while Deen Al-Islam does indeed work. A women, for instance, is more safe on the streets of Cairo than she is on the streets of New York or London, even though Egypt is not any longer a land of Islam but only a land where there are many Muslims many of whom do strive to uphold Deen Al-Islam in their own lives.

What the hypocritical, what the arrogant, kuffar fear most of all is the establishment of Dar al-Islam: a land where Deen Al-Islam is implemented. For this land would put an end, once and for all, to the lies of the kuffar and reveal the kuffar to all the world for what they really are: arrogant hypocritical lying cowardly bullies.

These are the cowardly bullies who try to enforce their failed decadent way of life on others by invading and occupying other lands and by imprisoning and torturing their enemies - and who, despite their vastly superior military and financial resources, cannot defeat tens of thousands of poorly equipped and under-nourished Mujahideen. These are the cowardly bullies who, in their failure, cry out for more military hardware, for more troops, for more resources, for more help, to defeat the Mujahideen who they kill in their hundreds by their sophisticated bombs and missiles and tanks, but who refuse to give up - the Mujahideen that the cowardly, dishonourable, kaffir bullies imprison, and humiliate and torture when they are captured.


The Solution of Islam:


The simple truth which the kuffar try to conceal is that Islam, as a way of life, works: it produces an ordered, genuinely, civilized, and genuinely fair way of life.

"Do they seek honour from the kuffar? In truth, honour is with, and from, Allah alone." 3: 139 Interpretation of Meaning


This truth is shown by two recent examples. First, by the establishment of Islamic communities in Somalia. In that land, the Sharia Courts movement has brought fairness, and order, after decades of strife and injustice. They have begun to establish just communities led by fair, honourable men whom people trust and respect. They have done this with little or no outside help - inspired and motivated simply by Deen Al-Islam. Left alone by the kuffar, this land would - InshaAllah - become an example of the truth of Islam and thus expose the lies of the kuffar.


But already the kuffar are beginning their war of lies and propaganda against the Muslims of Somalia, as already the kuffar are mobilizing their forces in preparation for an invasion. Across the border in neighbouring Djibouti there is an Amerikan Task Force of some 2,000 troops, and Amerika is arming and giving aid to neighbouring Ethiopia. Soon, we shall hear Amerika and its kaffir and apostate allies call for the intervention of the kaffir United Nations, and soon there will be calls for sanctions against a people who have dared to defy the kuffar and begun to establish an Islamic Way of Life.

Soon, the Media of the West will be full of stories about how bad life has become in Somalia; about how women are oppressed; about how the implementation of Shariah is taking people back "toward barbarism" - as the politicians of the West, and their flunkeys, will give speeches about the need for Somalia to embrace democracy and "respect human rights."

We have seen all this before - with the Taliban. For the Taliban also began to establish, in Afghanistan, an Islamic Way of Life, and brought order and justice to a land where lawlessness and injustice had prevailed. Just like Somalia, Afghanistan was a poor country, a very poor country - but that did not stop the arrogant kuffar from imposing economic sanctions by means of the kaffir United Nations, sanctions which made one of the poorest countries in the world even poorer and which killed thousands upon thousands of Muslims.

What the kuffar did in respect of the Taliban was to conduct a massive, well-funded and years-long propaganda campaign - a campaign of hypocrisy, disinformation and lies. The Taliban were demonized, and tame journalists wrote story after story as tame politicians gave speech after speech condemning the Taliban and their "human rights record" and demanding the implementation of Western values, and the implementation of Western law and of "democracy": that idol, that taghut, of the West.

In the end, this campaign by the kuffar was successful in convincing most of the population of the West to support an invasion of Afghanistan by Amerika and its allies - as their similar campaign against Iraq was successful, for did not Iraq have "weapons of mass destruction" which could be launched against the West? Of course they did not, but that did not bother the dishonourable arrogant kuffar, who used every trick, every deceit, any lie, to get their own way.


For the West does not want to face the facts of their own failure - the fact about the decadence, the rottenness, of the West itself. It does not want people to know or discover the truth about Deen Al-Islam, a truth so evident in the beginning that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan was - a gift from Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, as Pakistan might have become such an example of Deen Al-Islam had not Amerika in its fear invaded Afghanistan and forced Pakistan into an alliance by threatening to bomb it "back into the stone age" and by bribing and flattering and giving money to its leader, the apostate Musharraf.


The West cannot afford people to see the real truth about Islam - for the whole existence of the West depends upon lies and hypocrisy; upon the arrogance and bigotry of believing that the failed values of the West are "universal" and must be adopted by Muslims and others.

We Muslims who refuse to imitate the kuffar - who refuse to bow down to them - have Alhamdulillah seen through the lies, the deceit, the propaganda of the kuffar: knowing the kuffar for the hypocritical arrogant liars that they are; knowing the West for the failure it is, and knowing Deen Al-Islam for the perfect Way of Life it is, a gift from Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala says:

"In every hardship, there is gain; in truth, with every hardship there is gain." (94: 5-6 Interpretation of Meaning)


We do not covet the materialistic way of life of the decadent West - knowing that if we rely on Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala and Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala alone, then Deen Al-Islam, correctly implemented through Sharia and by bayah to an Ameer, can and will solve all our problems, and provide us with that balanced, noble and civilized way of living which we have begun to see in Somalia, which we but briefly witnessed in Afghanistan, which existed in Al-Andalus, and which our beloved Prophet (salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) established in Madina. For it is Deen Al-Islam which alone can provide us with a civilized way of living - for civilization, despite the lies of the kuffar, is about Adab, about fairness, honour, and not about material prosperity or consumer goods or about "enjoying yourself" while people elsewhere starve, are oppressed, are exploited, or are killed by hypocritical cowardly bullies. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala says:

"Therefore be honourable: let (this) Deen be your aim, the fitrah given by Allah. What Allah creates, nothing, and no-one, can change. And this is the correct, the perfect, Deen, although many remain in ignorance of this." 30:30 Interpretation of Meaning


"You who believe, be firm in being fair - as a witness for Allah - even though it is not to your own advantage, nor to the advantage of your kin, and whether the matter concerns the rich, or the poor. For Allah is the best protector (of all). Do not just follow your own desires, for you may deviate, and turn away, and Allah is always knowing of all that you do." 4:135 Interpretation of Meaning


The simple truth we must remember is that Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala is sufficient for us - we do not need the rampant materialism of the West which has caused so much suffering for millions upon millions of peoples in the West, and which has brought so much suffering to others, through the exploitation, the imperialism, the wars, which the West has for well over a hundred years inflicted upon the peoples of this world. The West became rich, wealthy, only because of this - only because of the suffering they have brought to others; only because of their exploitation of others and of the natural resources of this planet; only because of their arrogant interventionism, their wars; their lies; their economic and political blackmail.

In their arrogance and ignorance they have set themselves up to compete with Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala - and, like, Far'uan, they will assuredly be humbled by Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.

"The help of Allah is near." 2:214 Interpretation of Meaning)

"Undertake combat in the Way of Allah, for you will be held responsible only for what you do. And inspire the believers. It may be that Allah will restrain the dishonourable deeds of the unbelievers. For Allah is the most powerful, in both strength and punishment." 4:84 Interpretation of Meaning


"The life of this world is nothing - only play and amusement. What is best is the dwelling in the Life-to-Come - for those who possess Taqwa." 6:32 Interpretation of Meaning


May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala protect us from all forms of Al-asabiyyah Al-Jahiliyyah, forgive us for our mistakes, and guide us to and keep us on the Right Path.

Abdul-Aziz ibn Myatt

"The Word is the Word of the Sword"

"The Word is the Word of the Sword"

As-Sahab Media Foundation Presentation with English subtitles

The video has been divided into 5 parts for the convenience of viewing

05-09-08

THE RIGHT TO JUDGE
 

by Sayyid Qutb

It is not the function of Islam to compromise with the concepts of Jahiliyya which are current in the world or to co-exist in the same land together with a jahili system. This was not the case when it first appeared in the world, nor will it be today or in the future. Jahiliyyah, to whatever period it belongs, is Jahiliyyah; that is, deviation from the worship of One Allah and the way of life prescribed by Allah.

It derives its system and laws and regulations and habits and standards and values from a source other than Allah. On the other hand, Islam is submission to Allah, and its function is to bring people away from Jahiliyyah towards Islam. Jahiliyyah is the worship of some people by others; that is to say, some people become dominant and make laws for others, regardless of whether these laws are against Allah's injunctions and without caring for the use or misuse of their authority.

Islam, on the other hand, is people's worshipping Allah alone, and deriving concepts and beliefs, laws and regulations from the authority of Allah, and freeing themselves from the servitude to Allah's servants. This is the very nature of Islam and the nature of its role on earth.

Islam cannot accept any mixing with Jahiliyyah. Either Islam will remain, or Jahiliyyah; no half-half situation is possible. Command belongs to Allah, or otherwise to Jahiliyyah; Allah's Shari'ah will prevail, or else people's desires: "And if they do not respond to you, then know that they only follow their own lusts. And who is more astray than one who follows his own lusts, without guidance from Allah? Verily! Allah guides not the people who are disobedient." [28:50];

"Do they then seek the judgement of (the Days of) Ignorance? And who is better in judgement than Allah for a people who have firm faith" [5:50].

The foremost duty of Islam is to depose Jahiliyyah from the leadership of man, with the intention of raising human beings to that high position which Allah has chosen for him. This purpose is explained by Raba'i Bin 'Amer, when he replied to the Commander in Chief of the Persian army, Rustum. Rustum asked, "For what purpose have you come?" Raba'i answered," Allah has sent us to bring anyone who wishes from servitude to men into the service of Allah alone, from the narrowness of this world into the vastness of this world and the Hereafter, from the tyranny of religions into the justice of Islam."

Revealed: Ashcroft, Tenet, Rumsfeld warned 9/11 Commission about ‘line’ it ’should not cross’

Revealed: Ashcroft, Tenet, Rumsfeld warned 9/11 Commission about ‘line’ it ’should not cross’ By Sahil Kapur March 17, 2010 "Raw Story" -- Senior Bush administration officials sternly cautioned the 9/11 Commission against probing too deeply into the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, according to a document recently obtained by the ACLU.The notification came in a letter dated January 6, 2004, addressed by Attorney General John Ashcroft, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and CIA Director George J. Tenet. The ACLU described it as a fax sent by David Addington, then-counsel to former vice president Dick Cheney. In the message, the officials denied the bipartisan commission's request to question terrorist detainees, informing its two senior-most members that doing so would "cross" a "line" and obstruct the administration's ability to protect the nation. "In response to the Commission's expansive requests for access to secrets, the executive branch has provided such access in full cooperation," the letter read. "There is, however, a line that the Commission should not cross -- the line separating the Commission's proper inquiry into the September 11, 2001 attacks from interference with the Government's ability to safeguard the national security, including protection of Americans from future terrorist attacks." The 9/11 Commission, officially called the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, was formed by President Bush in November of 2002 "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks" and to offer recommendations for preventing future attacks. "The Commission staff's proposed participation in questioning of detainees would cross that line," the letter continued. "As the officers of the United States responsible for the law enforcement, defense and intelligence functions of the Government, we urge your Commission not to further pursue the proposed request to participate in the questioning of detainees." FireDogLake's Marcy Wheeler speculates that this was an attempt by the Bush administration to ensure that its torture of certain detainees, which has since been widely documented, remained secret. "[W]hoever made these annotations appears to have been most worried that Commission staff members could make independent judgments about the detainees and the interrogations," Wheeler wrote on her blog. The official "didn't want anyone to independently evaluate the interrogations conducted in the torture program." Eventually, the commission's co-chairs harshly criticized the administration for having purportedly "destroyed" tapes of its interrogations with terror suspects, as Raw Story reported last year. 9/11 Commission members Thomas Kean and Lee H. Hamilton wrote that although US President George W. Bush had ordered all executive branch agencies to cooperate with the probe, "recent revelations that the CIA destroyed videotaped interrogations of Qaeda operatives leads us to conclude that the agency failed to respond to our lawful requests for information about the 9/11 plot." "Those who knew about those videotapes — and did not tell us about them — obstructed our investigation." They continued: “There could have been absolutely no doubt in the mind of anyone at the CIA — or the White House — of the commission’s interest in any and all information related to Qaeda detainees involved in the 9/11 plot. "Yet no one in the administration ever told the commission of the existence of videotapes of detainee interrogations," Kean and Hamilton wrote. The letter can be found on page 26 of the ACLU's set of unveiled documents.

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Manufacturing Terror William Bowles (05/06/03)

The vast and overwhelming propaganda onslaught that we’ve been subjected to since 911, is indicative of the lengths to which the ruling elites are prepared to go to in order to gain our consent for their actions. Indeed, the nature and scope of the propaganda war indicates just how insecure they feel. Appeals to patriotism and scaremongering tactics (eg the Anthrax attacks) have only short-term effects on the population. Sooner or later, the population is going to demand results, if indeed ‘results’ are possible to produce. And then one has to consider the idea that ‘results’ might have to be manufactured. Sooner or later, the never-ending announcements of ‘plots’ discovered or advance notice of ‘terrorist attacks’ that come to nothing, will cease to have the desired effect of terrifying the populace. It’s more than possible that 911, Anthrax attacks et al, are in fact, manufactured by the ruling elites themselves in order to justify increased repression at home and the overthrow of the international order.
I know that many people feel that this kind of intepretation is hard to swallow. After all, it’s saying that the US government thinks nothing of sacrificing the lives of it own population in order to justify or rationalise domestic or foreign policy. Yet there are more than enough examples from history that back up this claim, whether they’re faked provocations aka Tonkin Gulf that dragged the US into a war that cost millions of lives or the sacrifice of US sailors during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, so it’s by no means a far-fetched or outlandish assertion.
It’s convenient and easy to dump on ‘conspiracy theories’ because most of us (including myself I might add), find the idea of a government organising a large and complex coverup simply too outlandish to accept, whether it’s the Kennedy assassination or the WMD fiasco. Yet the reality is, whether one wants to call it a conspiracy or simply government policy, backs up my case. From Sacco and Vanzetti in the 1920s to the Rosenburgs in the 1950s, to Watergate in the 1970s, to Iran-contra in the 1980s, right through to the current coverups of USUK complicity in the arming of Saddam Hussein as part of a cynical ploy, the evidence is incontrovertible; large scale deceptions involving hundreds of people that cost millions of dollars to execute are, if not part of ‘business as usual’ not so exceptional that they stretch the imagination.
The resources available to government and business are vast and it must be remembered that people are, by and large reluctant to question their leaders and for a lot of reasons. People would rather believe than doubt. Jobs and reputations are at stake and the difficulty of uncovering a complex plan that may spread over months and involve large numbers of people, each of whom may only come in contact with one small facet of the operation, shows just how difficult it is for an ‘outsider’ to assemble all the pieces into a coherent whole. And this is just the beginning of the process of revealing how governments operate.
And of course, the mass media is, for the most part, complicit in the process of pouring scorn on the ‘conspiricists’ as it did for example, on the "it’s all about oil" argument. As the Goebbel’s doctrine so correctly says, repeat a lie often enough, eventually the lie will replace reality. And people are very reluctant to think of their political leaders as nothing more than a bunch of lying scumbags and ruthless opportunists, motivated either by simple greed (aka the Bush family) or by some fundamantal flaw in their personality ie, Tony Blair. After all, they all look so ‘normal’ and come across to us as reasonable, ‘civilised’ people, how could they actually deceive us? It’s simply not possible. Yet of course, reality teaches us the complete opposite. And those of us who do admit to thinking their leaders to be liars, often do so for cynical reasons, arguing that ‘it’s always been this way, and it always will; there’s nothing we can do about it anyway.’
Most difficult of all, assuming that people can be convinced that their leaders are indeed, liars and murderers, is where does one go from here? Getting people to actually voice their opposition to their government’s policies even if it’s nothing more than a letter to their representative, especially in the current climate of paranoia, is a step too far for many people. Accusations of being ‘unpatriotic’ or even supporters of ‘terrorism’ is enough to put people off. And of course, we need only look back to the worst days of the Cold War, the House Un-American Activities, where people lost their jobs, were ostracised by their communities, or even ended up in jail, to see that for many, taking that one extra step is indeed, a step too far.
Yet unless one does stand up and be counted, repression will only get worse. What is ‘normal’ discourse and debate slides off the scale. The ‘middle road’ is all of a sudden, the extreme. Reality shifts. Those of us who oppose our governments policies find ourselves ‘out on a limb’. The dominant culture is all-pervasive, all-powerful. It commands the mass media, it compromises vast armies of experts, from journalists to civil servants, from judges to soldiers. Maintaining the status quo, is more than simply ‘not rocking the boat’, it’s peoples lives and livelyhoods.
Another result of the vast power of government to alter reality, is the feeling of absolute powerlessness that many of us feel to actually have any effect over government policies. Again, I can only answer this by saying that overwhelming opposition to imperialist aims, resulted in the ‘big lie’ being broadcast. Had we acquiesced in the first place, there would have been no reason to mount an hysterical propaganda campaign to convince us of the need to relinquish our civil rights and freedoms. History shows us however, that once we embark on the slippery road to repression, society becomes cannibalistic; it eats its own. It feeds on itself in an exponential cycle of repression which can only be broken by sustained opposition and exposure of its cynical manipulations.
Ultimately of course, one needs to ask the question whether or not the tactics perfected during the Cold War period will work today? And if they do, for how long? Increasing repression at both home and abroad, justified for example, by the ‘war on terror’, unless it it actually results in some kind of ‘success’ no matter how illusory the success is, will, like the ‘war on drugs’, be exposed for what it is, a war that is driven by ideology, distorted by by economic interests and of course, utterly hypocritical in content.
The occupation of Iraq is a perfect example of this process at work. Driven initially by fine words about ‘human rights’ and ‘democracy’ and the need for ‘nation-building’, none of which has come to pass, nor is there any likelyhood of any of this happening, we now see the rationale shifting as the ruling elite, caught up in its own ill-conceived propaganda war, now forced to admit that it’s going to be in Iraq as an occupier for an indeterminate period of time, perhaps several years, ultimately, for "as long as it takes". Eventually, all pretence at establishing ‘democracy’ will be quietly dropped as real politik dominates and the larger and longer term interests of US imperialism emerge, in fact, will be impossible to hide. Once a puppet regime is installed, regardless of the lengths the USUK go to in order to create the illusion of a genuinely representative government, it will be clear to all, that as with every other compliant regime installed by the imperialists over the last century or so, that its freedom and ability to actually represent the real interests of the Iraqi people will be severely limited. Indeed, it’s unlikely that anything close to a so-called liberal democracy can be imposed on Iraq, even with the best of intentions. Even worse, is the arrogant and racist assumption that we have the right to do so.
Finally, as it’s unlikely that the ‘international terror network’ will ever be uncovered, as it’s not at all clear that it actually exists anyway, at least not in the way it’s described in the propaganda war, the imperialist agenda is bound to unravel. It is after all, taking place in the context of a global crisis that encompasses the economy, political legitimacy and the impending environmental catastrophe, which unless confronted on a global level threatens us all. As time passes, it will be harder and harder to hide the reality of our situation. Lies and propaganda have a finite lifetime. Sooner or later, they will cease to work, as the underlying reality replaces the illusions.