J'accuse


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J'accuse (a political rant published on Buzzflash)


I don't know about the rest of you, but I am becoming disenchanted with the mainstream media.

Let's take the Iraq War as an example of how the mainstream media has failed every US citizen. Not only were there remarkably few dissenting voices during the march to war with Iraq but there was simply no common sense. And I see it repeated over and over and over.

Let's take the official view that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons. Neither of these is a weapon of mass destruction. Nuclear weapons are the only weapon of mass destruction. Guess who has the most of these on the planet? It was the opinion of the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iraq was light years away from producing nuclear weapons. But the good old mainstream media went along with the farcical story that President Bush and colleagues promoted.

Let's step aside for a brief moment and consider a "what if." What if Iraq really had biological and chemical weapons? As a third rate military power, Iraq had no ability at all to deliver these weapons outside a very limited range. Several studies concluded that the only time Saddam might be tempted to use them was if Iraq was invaded.

So let's just assume that the mainstream media is stupid. It isn't that hard to believe. Bush and his colleagues claimed that the invasion of Iraq was based on bad information ... mostly from the CIA. Even if this were true, how many outlets in the mainstream media asked a question that to my knowledge has never been answered (or even asked)? Why didn't President Bush let the United Nations Weapons Inspectors finish their job? What single piece of information was so important that the only answer was an invasion that has killed over 650,000 Iraqis and 3,500 of our armed forces?

It really doesn't matter how many times President Bush asserts that "Everyone thought they had WMD." He had the wherewithal to find out without a single human life being lost, but he chose to invade a country that had never posed a threat to the United States. Why didn't you ask President Bush to answer this simple question? Why weren't you there? Didn't you care? It wasn't such a difficult thing to ask, was it? Where were the editorials arguing for more time for the inspectors? Why were you all so filled with blood lust against a country that had nothing to do with 9/11? You parroted the official line and whipped up public hysteria for this humanitarian disaster.

But it continues to get worse. The mainstream media echoes the Bush administration's mantra of "staying the course" and remaining in Iraq until "victory is achieved." Sorry, guys, once again the mainstream media has let us down. While several journalists have asked the question "What is the course?" no one in the mainstream media is asking the question as to what constitutes victory. I am really really angry. You should be, too. How can anyone talk about victory when this is never defined?

Is it free and democratic elections in Iraq? Well, we now have an Islamic theocracy aligned with Iran. Is that total victory? Are we actually worse off now than when Saddam maintained open hostilities with the Ayatollahs and religious extremists throughout the region?

So what does cutting and running actually mean? Does it mean leaving before the Shiite death squads are properly up and running? Does it mean staying until the Shiite majority and the Ayatollahs exert total control?

We already know that America only really likes democracy when it aligns with our global economic aims. Hugo Chavez was more cleanly elected than President Bush, but we continue to try to paint him and any other left leaning president or government as fundamentally bad. Look what happened when Hamas won power by an overwhelming popular vote. We cut off aid.

Wake up! Where are the critical questions? Why don't you ask these questions publicly? Why don't you get off your fat posteriors and do your damn jobs? You are sleep walking your way to Fascism, and most of you are so attached to the mainstream media teat that you can't wean yourselves off it.

J'accuse. When we lose our democracy you will be most at fault.

As American jobs stream overseas, as we torture and kill innocent people, as we turn our backs on Katrina victims and as our elections are stolen and working folk work longer hours for less pay and the rich get obscenely richer and the poor get obscenely poorer, where the hell are you?

J'accuse.


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