Even I was moved by the Jessica Lynch story. I wasn't cynical about it like I was with the death of Pat Tillman. But I should have been. Her bones were broken in a crash during battle, but she was not shot and stabbed during her rescue. In fact, hospital staffers had tried to hand her over to American troops before the "raid", which involved NO Iraqi soldiers. She didn't fire any shots, as had been reported, because her gun was jammed with sand. She was uncomfortable with the military publicizing her story (though she helped quite a bit). When she asked about inaccuracies they were attributed to the media outlets. Exactly what happened to her is still being investigated.
Evidence has been destroyed in the Pat Tillman case. Witness statements were changed. His family was told that he was killed heroically in battle when, in actuality, he was shot to death by our own troops.
If our government lies to us about our heroes, doesn't it stand to reason that they are lying to us about other things, whether they're related to the war or not? Why aren't we having a SERIOUS debate about the impeachment of both President Bush and Vice President Cheney?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
daveawayfromhome said...
Everything the Bush Administration has touched can be considered to be contaminated. Here's a point I read just today: What did the unfired U.S. attorneys do that resulted in their not being fired.
Maybe nothing, but Dubya's taint has now extended to offices that were once well-regarded.
I've long since decided that any news that comes out of BushCo is a lie. Whether it is or not, my odds are better that I'll be right believing it to be not true.
4:19 PM
United We Lay said...
I wonder how the general public isn't seeing this. Even further, I wonder how there are still people defending this adminsitration. Whatever this adminiostration says, I tend to believe the opposite. It's hard because I'm so torn between wanting to believe that my friends and family memebers involved in this war are not getting wounded or dying for no reason. That's one of the reasons I've spent so much time trying to find ANY credible information about what's actually going on over there. The more I look, the less I find.
6:25 AM
Vigilante said...
Why aren't we having a SERIOUS debate about the impeachment of both President Bush and Vice President Cheney?
Dennis Kucinich is asking for just that.
10:37 AM
exMI said...
The government, ours and everyone else's, has ALWAYS lied in time of war to create propaganda. I fail to find this anything to get terribly excited about.
(note: The manner in which Tillman was killed on the other hand is something to get excited about, that was a major breakdown in training and planning and the officer(s)who laid out that plan and rushed them into it should have been cashiered the next morning for incompetence)
10:56 AM
Todd and in Charge said...
Well said. Greenwald is on fire today about these two stories, btw.
2:29 PM
United We Lay said...
Vigilante,
I know, but no one is taking it seriously!
Exmi,
I hate that argument. I hate the idea that just because it has always been done means that it's not wrong or that it should be continued. It's worng. Call it like you see it. Tell your government to stop treating you like a child and TELL YOU THE TRUTH!!!
6:40 PM
daveawayfromhome said...
Exmi, consider it this way: If you dont protest, loudly, then the lie becomes the middle of the road. Even if lies are occassionally necessary in wartime (and I wont argue with that, though not necessarily in this case), lying should never be allowed to become the norm (as appears to have happened with the Bush Administration).
One of the Republicans most successful tactics is to have prominant conservatives at the fringes make outrageous suggestions, which then, because the Left is largely afraid to respond with truly crazy "liberal" ideas, pushes what is considered to be the center in a rightward direction.
Seriously, think about what "liberal" ideas are considered to be "whacko". Is universal health care really a menace to a freedom-loving society, or is the danger from an industry that skims it's profits from money that ought to be working to make sick people well? What's more dangerous; continuing with an imperfect, potentially underfunded social security system (i.e., federally supported retirement insurance) or placing the future of a generation's retirement in the "benign" hands of for-profit investment companies, like Enron?
2:34 AM
rcb said...
I can agree that the real stories behind Tillman/Lynch are tragic and heroic and fascinating enough to have made wonderful pro-military propaganda in the first place. There never was a need, except for the cowards whose behinds needed covering - lying is always about fear - to make someone who is already a hero INTO a hero.
But whatever lies you're referring to that supposedly originated from the Bush administration, your biggest problem is the ease with which your perspective is manipulated.
"I'm so torn between wanting to believe that my friends and family memebers involved in this war are not getting wounded or dying for no reason."
The "reason" that so eludes you is very plain. That you cannot see it or that you refuse to give it the serious consequence that it deserves is more a display of your own self-involved ignorance than any "truth" you think you possess.
The radical Islamists are real... they don't give a rat's patoot about our politics except that they know that a Democratic election victory gives them time to re-group for their next attack. Their previous attack on US soil was planned during a Democrat's presidency and they took hostages of US diplomatic serices employees during a Democrat's presidency. Both of those actions, and many others, were (and remain) internationally recognized acts of war. Until 9/11 the US had responded with incredible patience that almost became farcical during the Somalian debacle under Clinton's administration. By 2001 it was already well past the time that the Islamist "Ummah" be shown that we have our limits.
So please accept my absolution to you for your "torn" psyche. None of the deaths or injuries are your fault. You've had nothing to do with our battle to continue as a nation with rights. Hell, you don't even know what's going on.
rob
1:55 PM
daveawayfromhome said...
Radical fundamentalist Islamists to the left of me / radical fundamentalist Christians to the right / here I am, stuck in the middle with you
1:41 AM
United We Lay said...
RCB,
There are so many things wrong with what you just wrote that I don't even know where to begin. Where are you getting your facts from? What makes you believe your government when they've lied to you about so many things? Wha has proven to you that there is a credible threat from the extremists? Why are we at war with Iraq? What exactly happened on 9/11? Wy did the EPA clear the site when they knew it was toxic? What is the connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda?
Dave,
I really should stop reading your comments with a mouth full of coffee!
It all makes me so angry. As a Canadian I feel helpless to it all. It started with the invasion Iraq of course. From my perspective though is how they insult and play down Canadians because our Prime Minister at the time chose (rightfully so) not to go to Iraq. All the ridicule came when our troops were in Afghanistan. We sure as hell didn't go there for ourselves. WE weren't attacked.We went for the USA..for their citizens. But no one cared after Iraq. It was all about how dishonourable Canadians were. Still our soldiers were there. They are fighting because the United States...our 'friends' were attacked. we lose some every week. No one seems to care. US soldiers and Canadian soldiers are forgotten about in Afghanistan. it's all about Iraq..and Iraq is a lie!!!
You can start a movement in Canada to get ex-pats with their citizenship to Impeach. Canadians can still protest the war. War protests cannot and should not be limited to the countries involved in the war. When people or countries disagree, they should make their voices heard.
Post a Comment