-Caveat Lector-
THE CONVENTIONAL MEDIA WISDOM OF OBEDIENCE
"To sin by silence when they should protest
makes cowards of men."
- Abraham Lincoln
EXCERPTS:
Judgments at Nuremberg and precepts of international law forbid
launching aggressive war -- an apt description of what the U.S.
government has in store for Iraqi people this spring.
The deadening lockstep of obedience is easier to fault in other
societies. Close to home, as the adrenaline of unfathomable
violence pulses through the televisions of America, the siren of
deference to authority may seem irresistible. But it isn't.
By Norman Solomon / Creators Syndicate
As the possibility of a U.S. invasion turns into the reality of massive
carnage, the war on Iraq cannot avoid confronting Americans with a tacit
expectation that rarely gets media scrutiny. In a word: obedience.
When a country -- particularly "a democracy" -- goes to war, the passive
consent of the governed lubricates the machinery of slaughter.
Silence is a key form of cooperation, but the war-making system does not
insist on quietude or agreement. Mere passivity or self-restraint will
suffice to keep the missiles flying, the bombs exploding and the faraway
people dying.
On the home front, beliefs are of scant importance. Antiwar sentiment is
necessary but insufficient to halt a war. Much more is needed than
expressions of dissent that stay within the customary bounds.
Daily media speculation about the starting date for all-out war on Iraq
has contributed to widespread passivity -- a kind of spectator
relationship to military actions being implemented in our names.
We can't just blame the media conglomerates and Washington spinners for
the prevailing stupor. After decades of desensitizing propaganda, we
routinely crave the insulation that news outlets offer. We tell ourselves
that our personal lives are difficult enough without getting too upset
about world events.
The conventional wisdom of American political life has made it
predictable that editorial writers and politicians cannot resist
accommodating themselves to expediency by the time the first missiles
reach Baghdad. Conformist behavior -- in sharp contrast to authentic
conscience -- is notably plastic.
A pathetic case in point is Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat
who voted for the congressional war resolution last October while trying
to pass himself off as a critic of President Bush's enthusiasm for war.
While campaigning in Iowa the other day for his party's presidential
nomination, Kerry told a New York Times reporter: "When the war begins,
if the war begins, I support the troops and I support the United States
of America winning as rapidly as possible. When the troops are in the
field and fighting -- if they're in the field and fighting -- remembering
what it's like to be those troops, I think they need a unified America
that is prepared to win."
Prepared to win. Such a phrase rolls off an oily tongue with ease. As a
consequence, of course, many blameless people must die.
Howard Dean, a former governor of Vermont, is supposedly an antiwar
candidate for the Democratic presidential slot. On the campaign trail in
Iowa, he "stopped short when asked what he would say if there was a war,"
according to the Times.
"You know, I don't know the answer to that yet," Dean said. "Certainly
I'm going to support American kids that are sent over there. Obviously,
I'm going to wish everybody well. You know, you root for your country."
You root for your country. No matter how horrific its actions.
Billions of buds on countless flowers and trees will wondrously open
across the United States during the next weeks. Meanwhile, the Pentagon's
firepower will destroy uncounted human beings in Iraq during what will
be, to put it mildly, a war of aggression.
Judgments at Nuremberg and precepts of international law forbid launching
aggressive war -- an apt description of what the U.S. government has in
store for Iraqi people this spring.
"We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their fallen
leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that they started
it," said Supreme Court Justice Robert L. Jackson, a U.S. representative
to the International Conference on Military Trials at the close of World
War II. He added that "no grievances or policies will justify resort to
aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and condemned as an instrument of
policy."
Last November, more than 300 law professors in the United States signed a
statement pointing out that "the international rule of law is not a soft
luxury to be discarded whenever leaders find it convenient or popular to
resort to savage violence."
The deadening lockstep of obedience is easier to fault in other
societies. Close to home, as the adrenaline of unfathomable violence
pulses through the televisions of America, the siren of deference to
authority may seem irresistible. But it isn't.
###
Norman Solomon is co-author of the new book "Target Iraq: What the News
Media Didn't Tell You," published by Context Books
(www.contextbooks.com/newF.html).
For the transcript of Solomon's March 11 appearance on CNN discussing
U.S. plans for war on Iraq, go to:
www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0303/11/sdi.04.html
Background link: www.lcnp.org/global/IraqLetter.htm
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http://archive.jab.org/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http://archive.jab.org/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
