<\/p>\n
Like people, no <\/p>\n Historically the That said, the Of course both One of the most But the balance Under Bush II we Before we When photographs Being complicit The US has
\ncountry is all good and no country is all bad. Great heroism can occur in the worst of times and great evils can happen among the most enlightened of peoples. <\/span>That said, the impact of some countries has been better than
\nthe impact of others. <\/span>Genghiz
\nKhan’s empire comes to mind as an example where the positive accomplishments,
\nwhich were significant, do not make up for the slaughter and oppression. <\/span>The Vikings during the time of their
\nraids are another example. <\/span>But as
\ncontemporary Sweden shows, cultures can change, the balance shifting in a good
\nway. <\/span>Germany under Hitler
\ndemonstrated the balance could shift in the other direction as well. Like people, countries and cultures can become corrupted, debased, and they can heal. With this preamble let’s look at ourselves.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nfounding principles of the US held out hope that a better society is possible
\nto millions dominated by far more brutal and corrupt governments. <\/span>When they could, these people often
\nimmigrated, their letters home often encouraging others to make the
\njourney. <\/span>Here religious liberty
\nand political freedom <\/span>was
\npioneered on an unprecedented if never perfect scale. <\/span>After our revolution a few states gave women and blacks the
\nright to vote<\/a>, something that had never before happened in human history. <\/span>Our Founding Fathers, unlike every
\nother major revolutionary elite, did not fall into killing one another, setting
\na vital precedent of loyal political opposition and toleration of that
\nopposition that has done us great good.
\n<\/span>The poor were a minority here before any other major nation and our
\nculture has provided many of the inventions that have made the world a more
\nprosperous and healthy place.<\/p>\n
\nAmerican record is not all good.
\n<\/span>Our ancestors committed genocide against the Indians, and it is not for
\nlack of trying that they did not entirely succeed. <\/span>Women and blacks did not keep the right to vote, and when
\nthey finally received it nationally it was belatedly. <\/span>A great many other countries finally gave women the vote
\nwell before ours. Our country’s record with African Americans, and for a while
\nwith Asian Americans, was a prolonged exercise in brutality, oppression, and
\nall too often, murder. Our labor history was among the most violent in the
\nworld, workers and their families being shot down by hired thugs. <\/span>Beginning in the early Twentieth
\ncentury we have an almost continual record of invading and occupying countries
\nthat were no threat to us. <\/p>\n
\nparagraphs could be expanded into books – and have been.<\/p>\n
\ndifficult things people can do is hold a balanced sense of their country, for
\nit inspires great love and also great loathing and anger when that love is
\ndisillusioned. <\/span>Like all societies,
\nours has been engaged in an intricate dance between decency and oppression
\nthroughout its history. <\/span>Our best
\nmoments as a culture have come when we recognized both, and sought to make
\namends for past unjust actions.<\/p>\n
\nhas shifted dramatically in the wrong direction in the 21st<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n
\nattacked an innocent country and in the process killed between a hundred
\nthousand<\/a> to well over a million <\/a>of its citizens. For comparison’s sake, this is in the ball park of the Rwanda genocide<\/a>, maybe less, maybe more. <\/span>Our military has refused to
\nprovide statistics on the number of people it killed. <\/span>Significantly, in a country fascinated by opinion polls,
\nrarely were we informed of opinion polls regarding Iraqis, and when we were
\nthey overwhelmingly wanted us gone.
\n<\/span>For example, Iraqi opinion was that the “Surge” made matters worse<\/a>, even
\nas we were being told otherwise by our government. (And of course we are being told the same thing about Afghanistan.)<\/p>\n
\nattacked Iraq, millions of people demonstrated world wide against such
\nviolence. <\/span>Most American Middle
\nEast experts opposed the attack, as did a huge number of American
\ncitizens. <\/span>The press did not report
\nmuch on these demonstrations – even when 100,000 to 300,000 demonstrated<\/a> in
\nWashington. <\/span>(a few tens to over 75,000<\/a> Teabaggers
\ngot vastly more coverage). <\/span>The
\nmedia also ignored the war’s critics while mindlessly parroting the government
\nline about weapons of mass destruction and the certainty that Iraqis would
\nwelcome us as liberators.<\/p>\n
\nof torture finally emerged, Bush and others blamed a few “bad apples” and the
\npress swallowed these lies. <\/span>Later,
\nwhen torture was shown to be standard operating procedure, the press failed to
\npoint out its illegality, or the fact that these methods had been devised to
\nget confessions regardless of their accuracy. <\/span>Torture wasa too, of tyrants, not law enforcement and
\njustice. <\/span>Now we were the
\ntorturers. <\/span>Many Americans endorsed
\nsuch methods, as they still do.<\/p>\n
\nin encouraging mass murder and spreading lies, the mainstream media (except for
\nMcClatchy news) has done nothing to investigate this bestial period in American
\nlife. <\/span>My friend Jim suggested this
\nis why we see such dishonest and venal people getting major positions in the
\nWashington Post and New York Times.
\n<\/span>Honest reporters and commentators would be drawn to this national
\ndishonesty and seek to uncover and report on it. <\/span>Because the mainstream media is dominated by reporters who
\ncheered on the crimes and corporations who benefited from the slaughter, it
\nshares in the guilt. <\/span>Consequently it
\ndoes not want honest reporters.
\n<\/span>And so we get Neoconservatives like Bill Kristol and Bushies like Marc
\nThiessen whose major qualifications are they are marginally more literate hacks
\nthan the average. <\/span>To my knowledge,
\nno person proven right about the Iraq War has received a major position in the
\nmedia other than perhaps Rachel Maddow, who got her start on domestic issues.<\/a> <\/p>\n
\ngradually become a culture of lies.
\n<\/span>While the Muslim world has rejected Al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam<\/a>, Americans have yet to do the same about our own war criminals, torturers, and
\nmurderers. <\/span>A substantial
\npercentage of Americans continue to close their ears, eyes, and minds to simple
\nfacts. <\/span>The initial lies about Iraq
\nand torture have metastasized, and today we are surrounded by lies about
\nterrorism<\/a>, Acorn<\/a> , public health care , global warming<\/a>, a<\/span>nd much much more. <\/span>Those who defend the liars say “both
\nsides do it” and so no side is innocent.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n