Neocons Drive Slow in the Fast Lane

[Elliot D. Cohen]

Submitted by BuzzFlash on Tue, 06/19/2007 - 12:04pm. Guest Contribution
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Elliot D. Cohen, Ph.D.

There is something morally repugnant about claiming to support a war that involves the destruction of thousands of human lives unless you are truly committed to the cause this war advances. One test to see how committed you really are, is whether you would sacrifice your own life for it or the lives of others whom you love. If not, then you have no business underwriting others sacrificing their lives for the same cause. Those who fail this test are clearly hypocrites. Unfortunately, in America, there are a substantial number of such pseudo-patriots. Sitting behind the wheel, these bumper-sticker patriots take it slow, but play fast and furious with the lives of others. Safety first, at least for themselves -- unfortunately not for the service men and women who dodge land mines and the fire of automatic weapons in the hellish war that these "safe" drivers support.

These hypocrites want a world safe for them and those about whom they care. They take no personal risks; they have no children in harm's way, nor would they ever permit it. They want others to take the risks and make the sacrifices. Bluntly stated, they are cowards.

Just like their war monger leader. After all, this "commander in chief" also never saw combat during the Vietnam war and instead went AWOL. Now his daughters have come of age, have they not? Is this "president" not so dedicated to "the mission" as to send other young women into harm's way by the torrents? And how many drones still sit in Congress and vote lockstep, afraid to step out of line, more willing to approve escalation of a bloody, pointless, and immoral war that has already claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands, rather than to stand on principle. Hypocrites and cowards, they are all.

Draped in the American flag, these blind conformists, statesmen and constituent alike, have been partners in the destruction of more than life itself. They have corrupted the spirit of American democracy. Like Nazi-like windup toys, they have rallied round the flagpole in support of a megalomaniac government administration that has voraciously gnawed away at the American Constitution: dismantling checks and balances and the Fourth Estate; trampling on fundamental rights to privacy and to freedom of speech; un-separating church and state; contravening established International Law such as the Geneva Conventions to barbarically torture and humiliate prisoners of war; canceling the writ of habeas corpus; and engaging in numerous other anti-democratic, un-American antics that would make the Founding Fathers puke.

These are the same little bigots who cast a jaundice eye on anyone who does not uphold their Christian fundamentalism. Some of them actually make hate and fear their career, some on the pulpit, and others in the halls of Congress. This "moral majority" despises gays, lesbians, and liberals and blames them for anything from the 9/11 attacks to Hurricane Katrina. For this band of hate mongers, tolerance for religious and moral differences (values on which this nation was founded) is a filthy word -- the coin of gays, lesbians, liberals, and other "heretics" and "heathens."

For this sanctimonious lot, the "enemy" consists of "terrorists" and "unlawful enemy combatants," which, in the words of Bush's Military Commissions Act (2006), means anyone "hostile" to American interests. This translates as anyone they hate -- including environmental activists such as Greenpeace.

With the arrival of this paranoid ideology at the White House, just war theory has been replaced with the doctrinal monster of preemption (aka the "Bush Doctrine") whereby America now has the "right" to invade "hostile" foreign nations and to maintain a "permanent presence" in them (that is, take control of them). The architects of this self-serving doctrine consist of the original members of the so-called "Project for the New American Century" (PNAC), a neoconservative activist group begun in 1997 by hardheaded neocon William Kristol. The avowed PNAC mission was (and still is) to strengthen and use the U.S. military (including the offensive proliferation of nuclear weapons together with a defensive policy of strategic defenses -- the revival of the failed "Star Wars" plan) to corporately privatize and control the world.

Out of these PNAC ideologues, the Bush administration was formed to carry out this nefarious, megalomaniac mission -- under the direction of such original PNAC members as Vice President Dick Cheney, his faithful ghoul Scooter Libby, former deputy secretary of defense and World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, former chair of the Defense Policy Board Richard Pearle, and even the president's brother Jeb, among others.

Many Americans know little of this scheme to rule the world, and those who do often see it as "conspiracy theory," a term often used to render a claim immune from empirical confirmation. But this is no pie-in-the-sky paranoia. The true paranoia comes from those who have orchestrated the plot, not from those who report it. The blueprint for militaristically seeking global dominion, including the invasion of Iraq (and Iran) can be found in PNAC's report of 2000 titled, Rebuilding America's Defenses. It's on the Internet. It's not a conspiracy "theory" to point it out.

These bellicose vampires are sucking the life out of our democracy. And they are being aided by the American corporate mainstream media that ghoulishly promulgate the "official" propaganda released by the White House. Such empty parroting is more "cost effective" than conducting an independent investigation. This is how it works whether it is Fox News, CNN, ABC, CBS, or MSNBC.

Dollars dictate reality. Cost decides news, not facts. This is why it took so long for many Americans to find out that there weren't weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It was cheaper and much easier to quote government sources than to butt heads with the White House. It was also a lot less risky since the federal government and its agencies (the FCC in particular) have the power to break up disobedient media conglomerates with antitrust laws, or otherwise to reward cooperative ones with tax breaks, military defense contracts, relaxed media ownership rules, and other government kickbacks.

To maximize their bottom lines, the corporate media also keep a select group of high-priced hookers in their news stables. MSNBC's Chris Mathews is a good example. He supported the Iraq war and spoke highly of Commandant Bush when it was fashionable to do so, but only recently made an about-face when support for the war began to wane. His views change with the direction of the wind and he "plays hardball" only when he has safely situated himself behind the backstop.

Americans who truly love their country should beware the little hypocrites, cowards, chameleons, and bigots who beat the war drum but assume no personal risk. They foster the wasteful sacrifice of others' lives while, at the same time, safely positioning themselves behind the flag. These are mean-spirited and unprincipled people, motivated by fear and hatred, not by rational standards. They demand of others what they themselves would not demand of themselves.

There are a considerable number of bumper-sticker patriots left in America who claim not to support the war but only the troops. This however is another logical howler, for what does this mean but to approve of what the troops are doing -- which is fighting a war these pseudo-patriots claim to reject. There are also others who claim that as long as the troops are in harm's way, we must support them by not speaking out publicly against the war. Why not? Because it would destroy the troops' morale, they say. Well, what would that mean anyway even if true? Discourage them from needlessly risking their lives? Discourage them from re-enlisting? Make it harder for the neocons to find pawns to accomplish their megalomaniac plan to rule the world?

Still others will say that they support the troops because the troops are putting their lives on the line for our beloved nation. But if the war is not helping the nation (and in fact harming it) then they are putting their lives on the line for no good reason. Thus they are approving of wasting the lives of those whom they claim to support, which makes no sense whatsoever.

To avoid such hypocrisy, all bumper-sticker patriots should peel the yellow "Support our troops" ribbon off their bumpers and replace it with, "Bring our Troops Home!" because that is the only rational, consistent way to support our troops.

At this time in American history, when democracy is dangling by a thin thread, separating the charlatans from the true patriots, the truthful from the dishonest, is of no small importance. And for those who themselves have been driving slow in the fast lane, there may not be much time left to fess up.


A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION

Elliot D. Cohen, Ph.D. is a media ethicist and critic. His most recent book is The Last Days of Democracy: How Big Media and Power-Hungry Government are turning America into a Dictatorship <http://www.amazon.com/Last-Days-Democracy-Power-hungry-Dictatorship/dp/1591025044>. He is also first prize winner of the 2007 Project Censored Award.

[redqueen]

1. Thanks for posting this here.

:thumbsup:

[NMDemDist2]

2. did DUers miss this one? K&N n/t