There's a reason I use the breakin line to Greg Mitchells book
So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits--and the President--Failed on Iraq.
Part of that reason is an article printed in the Asian Times, I just finished reading.
The "So wrong for So long" not only can describe how our current tragic history has been evolving, and what may be coming in the short term future and beyond, in it's lack of competent leadership, it's rapidly changed policies of death and destruction of others pre-emptively for no reason or a veriaty of reasons with no foundations nor proof of existance, it's violations of human rights through arrests and torture of others on whims of suspicion or even less than that.
The 'So wrong for So long" describes how this country doesn't learn it's own lessons from it's own past in it's relative short existance.
One of those lessons is the lesson of War, especially the Wars of Choice leading into Occupations of Others and the terror those invasions and occupations bring upon them, those others haven't done a thing to deserve the total destruction of the World they once lived in and now is changed forever, with the children growing up in a World the complete opposite of what should be and shaping their lives from the experiances of that existance.
The article in the Asian Times is titled What it means when the US goes to war but could be titled with any countries name substituted or just "What it means to go to War". This is about what happens to American Soldiers sent into Invasions and Occupations of Choice, we've gone through all this before, lessons not learned, none of the lessons of!
American soldiers in Iraq daily face "atrocity producing situations", from patrols, convoys (which race along like freight trains of death), home raids, detentions and military checkpoints: the essence of war, after all, is death. Using the experiences of soldiers on the ground, Chris Hedges strips away the myths of glory and honor and discovers the uncommon "moral courage" that the veterans he quotes have exhibited by telling the truth about their war.
And moral courage it is, when for the health and sanity of the individual, that individual must let go of what's deeply hidden and speak out on what they have seen or taken part in, in the hell on earth War, man's destruction of others, man's terrorizing others to force their ideologies and beliefs on them, or simply to strip them of their individual dignity and material wealth and countries resources.
They confront the grave, existential crisis of all who go through combat and understand that we have no monopoly on virtue, that in war we become as barbaric and savage as those we oppose.
This is an extremely important read for the Uneducated and Unexperianced of War and Occupation, and for those who have but choose denial to cope, how all that one has grown to learn, in many area's of ones young life, is quickly stripped away in the reality of what man does to fellow man.
These are the already grown children, sent off to engage in these Wars, think of the experiances of the young children living in these theaters of war, this is how they are learning the lessons of the world they were born into, and growing up in as it continues, they can't be taught differant, they can hear about beauty and peace, tolerance and love, but they exist in a hell created around them, with all the fears and terror it brings, that man rages on other men.
Last night, in case you missed it, Greg Mitchell was one of the guests on the Bill Moyers Journal on PBS
If you did miss it, or would like to re-visit, you can watch it here as well as read the transcript
A few clips from the discussion:
GREG MITCHELL: Right. Well, that's — again, it's different coming from the chief White House spokesman than coming from me — you know, for better or worse. But you know, I — that's what I mean. I think what's troubling to me is the response to that. The media has not responded by saying, "Boy, we really got caught out here, and we really need to look at what we did wrong. And we're, you know, we need to report on what the mistakes we made and what we — you know, what we've really learned now."
Now a few days ago the Senate Intelligence Committee finally released a report about the lies the administration fabricated, and more, in the reasoning to invade an innocent country, Iraq. Bush knew Iraq claims weren't true. And what have the media placed front and center as most important, what Hillary Clinton will do now that this Historic Presidential Campaign has passed the torch of leadership to Barrack Obama, even half the time frothing over Hillary could and should have been used to report on the Intelligence Report and our Soldiers at War, but for myself even more should be reported! The PDF of the Report
JONATHAN LANDAY: What's disappoints me is that here was an opportunity, once again, but a very large opportunity for major news organizations to do the mea culpa they never did, to admit that they indeed failed to do what they're supposed to do, failed to be the watchdogs they're supposed to be.
And yet we saw exactly the opposite for the most part. And I was just I was left breathless by some of the things that I heard where you heard correspondents say, "Well, we did ask the tough questions. We asked them to the White House spokesmen," Scott McClellan and others. And you say to yourself, "And you expected to get real answers? You expected them to say from the White House podium — 'Yeah, well, there were disagreements over the intelligence, but we ignored them'" when the President made his speeches and the Vice President made his speeches. No, I don't think so.
They blew it once again this past week, and will blow it in the coming weeks!
JOHN WALCOTT: You know, if Fox News's mission is to defend Republican administrations then they're right, they didn't fail. One of the things that puzzles me about all of this, in Scott's book is this notion that it was the liberal media. I'm not — I don't understand what liberal versus conservative has to do with this. I would have thought that conservatives would be the ones to ask questions about a march to war. How much is this gonna cost us? What's the effect of this gonna be on our military, on our country's strength overseas?
I don't think it's a liberal conservative question at all. I think that's, frankly, a canard by Scott
I highlighted the passage above because that's what I've felt right from the beginning even though it was so called conservatives beating the drums louder and louder for invasion and occupation, but I've been answered over and over with the fact that Conservatism, as it once was, is dead, none existant, undefined, in this new century. What's replaced it can only be described with a word from the past, Facism, for the many resemblances to.
GREG MITCHELL: You'd have to see whether the press this time would use the phrase "taking care of Iran." Now, what does that mean? Even if you do bomb Iran, what does that do? What is the aftereffect? What is the overall effect of it? What does it do to, you know, how many people do you kill? What happens in the wreckage afterwards? So if it's the media is — which it didn't do with Iraq — does it in this case then people will have a better understanding of what we're letting ourselves in for if we do attack Iran.
JOHN WALCOTT: That's an excellent point because the failures before the war on Iraq are probably matched by the failure to ask this question about invading Iran. Is it really gonna be easy? Are we really gonna be greeted with flowers and chocolates, as liberators, which is what the defectors told us? And one of the things this Administration has never been able to get through its head is the old saying that the enemy has a vote, that the enemy, whatever you do, they will respond in some way. And the Iranian-
Can the World, and our National Security, become worse than it is today, in the near future? Yes, invaded or bomb Iran and watch the Hatreds and Growth of Enemies result from!!
A Country like ours should be Leading by Example, making friends not enemies, helping others not destroying them, setting examples of moral and human tolerance and dignity not joining those who torture and control, trying to live as we preach, not condemning others when doing the same.........................................................................!
Setting the Example that can be Admired and Followed!
As the PBS Newshour once again changes it's name and enhances it's News gathering and presentation of using the tools of expanding technology in the 21st century Jim Lehrer closed the friday show off with the following:
