Reader Supported News | Perspective
he recent dump of war data/documents by WikiLeaks has been met with two basic reactions:
he recent dump of war data/documents by WikiLeaks has been met with two basic reactions:1) This is the GWOT version of the Pentagon Papers. The truth is out there. Look! Look! - OR -
2) A sigh and roll of media eyes. Nothing new. Nothing "we" didn't already know say pundits, reporters and government officials as they use the "royal we."
The American "we" are not amused - or at least should not be. But don't count on it.
Numbed and dumbed and blinded by sunshine patriots and the tinkling brass of mainstream and cable news, Americans have been sold substandard feckless politicians and trained to accept cognitive dissonance as the real normal.
Let's not view the WikiLeaks dump as our modern version of the Pentagon Papers, but rather as an indictment of the Fourth Estate and political hubris. That is really what it is.
Most of what has been revealed so far is the mundane daily field reports in that sterile impersonal military jargon intended to be reviewed and discussed among those who speak the true language ofwar. It is not intended for civilian rubes that lack professional accreditation and the sacred magic freedom-defender handshake. It is intended for the owners and their guardians - and that ain't us.
The media must downplay this as old news because they have failed to report the massive number of civilian casualties in any sort of context. Our modern media is part and parcel of the ruling class and an integral piece of the war machine.
"If Americans pulled back and started paying attention to this war, it would become even less popular," a senior McChrystal staffer told Michael Hastings in his Rolling Stone article, "The Runaway General." Hastings was quickly pilloried by a CBS reporter and others who whined about access and trust with commanders etc. etc. They are not concerned about trust with the American people.
The Washington Post recently ran a story, "Top Secret America," about contracting and outsourcing of CIA and other intelligence agencies' roles in protecting America. There was much chatter prior to its release about what it would mean. Once printed, the cable pundits and reporters issued the same, "It's pretty much the stuff WE already knew." Again, nothing to see - move along.
Of course, Tim Shorrock had already published a book in 2008 titled "Spies for Hire," that pretty much told us the same thing. No big media coverage then. Two years later The Washington Post joined the information age and still - crickets.
Are you seeing a pattern here?
The current WikiLeaks revelations show us the price of our so-called war on terrorism, not just the death and maiming of American troops, but the slaughter of Afghans and Iraqis carried out with the most horrendous justification by using "collateral damage" as the description of killing innocent people. This is the perspective of Afghans and Iraqis that has been ignored or demeaned far too long, and perhaps, we might begin to actually hold that conversation in the open now. Perhaps not.
The Obama administration has made it clear that it will go after whistleblowers. They want to look forward, not backward, which is code for "truth and transparency is best left to those who know best" - and that ain't "We The People." Obama appears willing to become Col. Jessep by telling us that we can't handle the truth.
And what of Bradley Manning who stands accused of being the leaker? I recommend this article by Glenn Greenwald that covers a lot of territory about PFC Manning and all the parties involved in this situation. Well worth a read.
How important is WikiLeaks? It is imperative for "We The People." It provides the means and capability for honest whistleblowers to help reveal the crimes and manipulation of the public for the benefit of the powerful and greedy and the death of democracy.
The military will continue to do what it does best: obfuscate, manipulate and escalate without consequence. The government will continue to hide truth, and the media will continue to protect its place at the cocktail party of the elite and ruling class. And "We The People" will continue to suffer at the hands of our corporate owners and what was once called democracy.
In his 2007 documentary, "Sicko," there is a moment when Michael Moore discusses healthcare with some American ex-pats living in France. One of the women says, "In France, the government fears the people but in America, the people fear the government."
Maybe WikiLeaks will receive documents from inside BP that will reveal the full truth of the destruction of the Gulf oil disaster, and the death of 11 people apparently due to lax regulation and plain mismanagement and disregard for human life.
Maybe WikiLeaks can help instigate transparency by deed rather than by lip service.
This was not the equivalent of the Pentagon Papers - but it could become that.
The truth is out there.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
Comments
Nearly 40 years ago I was drafted and while wasting 2 years of my life in the military I learned the specifics of the various groups I was assigned to.
While the usage is not transparent to the common Joe it is not actually intended to exclude anyone but more so to act as a shorthand helping minimize unnecessary communication. It does tend to confuse anyone listening in till they decode it.
What to do: since the main stream corporate media = the ministry of propaganda, save the TV for public access channels, some public broadcasting, and some C-Span. Keep your newspaper for coupon savings and get a good one for reading information and analysis.
Meet with other intelligent people of integrity at publc meetings and figure out how to change your family and friends behavior to a sane, humanistic outlook.
Live as simple a life as possible and support worthy heroes like Bradley Manning, Colleen Crowley, the wonderful people who give us alternative web sites, etc.
Talk to young people and give them an alternative picture.
If we do not draft citizens into the military but insist on outsourcing to overpaid contractors no one will become aware that outsourced wars are a vicious, expensive and destructive method for the GOP to enrich its major donors but it is in no way beneficial to the bottom 90% of our populace.
I believe it is only about one percent of our population that is fighting and dying. All too many of them are fighting in order to get an education??? THEY GET AN EDUCATION ALL RIGHT. A TERRIBLE EDUCATION.
This is exactly what the right wants. A small percentage to avoid an uprising, and keep the money coming in to the merchants of death. They get richer every day while our country as a whole gets poorer. We have less money for education, so we fall further and further behind India and China. We are creating a vast underclass almost forced to go into the military.
America is this really what we want. LET'S WAKE UP AND STOP THE MADNESS.
It has worried me for years that we produce too little of the goods we need.
It makes us too vulnerable. Remember the tainted foods, toys and pet food we got from China a few years ago? Unfortunately
there is something we DO produce: WEAPONS
And we produce so many, that in too many conflicts we arm BOTH sides. In my book THAT IS INCREDIBLY IMMORAL
If we, the American people, continue to pay taxes for the war efforts that are killings so many innocent people, whom we call collateral damage, and fail to rebel against this injustice, are we not all murderers as though these deaths were by our very own hands?
A secondary question is this, if you'd like to comment: is there a discernable American concept of "justice" alive any more, or did we kill it along with the God we used to worship to?
I am pleading for an opinion. I'm trying to figure out if our nation has a soul left or if we buried it along with our dead from the Vietnam war of which we are both veterans.
You say that our (outsourced) wars are a vicious, expensive and destructive method for the GOP to enrich its major donors . . .
This also applies to Democrats. They eat at the same trough as Republicans while the two parties play good cop, bad cop. We really have a one-party system.
And, yes, re the 225 mil deaf and dumb Americans. This is an "I've got mine" society and the downfall of this nation. The politicians are very aware of this and are also most interested in creating divisiveness as in Divide and Conquer.
If you bring it up they turn the conversation to other topics, and it HURTS US ALL, when a large segment of our population is not involved UNTIL SOMETING GET'S THEM WORKED UP, as last summer, the healthcare?? then they wake up and scream blody murder, LITTERALLY.
What happens in the country needs constant attention from ALL of us. If you are not involved, if you don't vote, you really can't complain.
I try to engage younger people, push them to do more than complain. I try to make them understand that it is THEIR FUTURE. They need to inform themselves and let their voices be heard, preferably in a positive way.
But let's not look back, let's look forward. Sorry, folks, more of the same. If any of you know global karma, please let me know what's next. Meanwhile I hope you all have a power to pray to. Pete Edler Stockholm