Posted: April 7th, 2003 | Author: admin |
At a time in which we are all being asked to “support our troops”, we have to ask how the Bush administration is “supporting the troops”. Although the official line is that every precaution is taken to protect our soldiers and keep the death toll low, the reality is that war makes a victim of every person who participates in it. All soldiers who experience combat suffer some sort of mental or emotional damage regardless of whether they are physically hurt or not. War brutalizes all involved and breeds callousness among solders toward civilians, exemplified by the marine sniper who, upon killing an Iraqi woman accidentally, commented “the chick got in the way”. And yet the Bush administration, while knowing full well the effect of war on soldiers, is actually cutting government benefits to veterans.
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Tags: iraq, veterans
Posted: April 5th, 2003 | Author: admin |
The Bush administration continues to keep up the rhetoric about how “Operation Iraqi Freedom” was designed to rid the people of Iraq of a tyrant. While conservative talk show hosts and administration officials cite footage of Iraqis that appear to be happy to see coalition troops, a more detailed examination of the situation shows that the Iraqis are not eager to see the troops in their cities. The promised revolts and uprisings have failed to materialize. There are a number of reasons why the Iraqi people are not rising up — skepticism and fear about the coalition’s intentions, as they did not assist in uprisings during the Gulf War, nationalism, the bombing and detentions of innocent civilians, or the simple fact that when the United States “installs” a government, the Iraqi people will be far from “liberated.”
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Tags: iraq, media, propaganda
Posted: April 4th, 2003 | Author: admin |
Disguised as “National Security” the Bush administration, headed by the ever-watching John Ashcroft, continues to strip away our civil liberties. In the PATRIOT ACT II (among other measures taken by the administration) many of the loopholes left by the first PATRIOT ACT- devastating enough for civil liberties- have been closed and it is now easier for the government to completely overstep the boundaries of individual privacy and civil liberties.
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Tags: civil liberties, surveillance
Posted: April 3rd, 2003 | Author: admin |
“You can’t spread democracy by the points of bayonets.”
In an interview with Joseph Cirincione, the evolution of the Bush administration’s policy toward Iraq is picked apart. Its origins begin with a small group of influential officials and experts in Washington, D.C., who were calling for regime change in Iraq long before September 11, 2001. This group calls itself the
Project for the New American Century. Joseph Cirincione specializes in defense and proliferation issues at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is senior associate and director of the Non-Proliferation Project.
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Tags: george w. bush, iraq
Posted: April 2nd, 2003 | Author: admin |
With a chorus of media pundits imploring the public to “Support the Troops,” it’s no wonder that they haven’t bothered to see if the Bush administration actually supports the troops. US soldiers will again be exposed to Depleted Uranium, which will cause major health problems, and Bush has proposed a major cut in Veteran’s health benefits. Lastly, if you think that all veterans are behind the war check out the statement from Veterans for Common Sense.
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Tags: antiwar, iraq, military, veterans
Posted: April 1st, 2003 | Author: admin |
While the U.S. media falls all over itself trying to be as patriotic as possible and showing how much they support the war, they are failing to ask challenging questions. The media has hired public relations firms to construct their patriotism, they have gone along with incredible restrictions on what they can report from Iraq, and beyond that, they have been entirely too eager in functioning as an unofficial branch of the United States government. Whereas the press was once critical, it could be absorbed into the Department of Defense tomorrow without any changes being made.
Today’s articles focus primarily on how the media has been operating as means of propaganda, although, as is discussed in the Globe and Mail article on aid distribution, controlling the media is just one part of the government’s PR strategy. Finally, the last article by Noam Chomsky, offers a glimpse of the views that could be included in the press if journalists and media corporations were to take their role in providing a critical voice seriously.
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Tags: iraq, media, propaganda
Posted: March 31st, 2003 | Author: admin |
While the U.S. media has been quick to condemn Iraq for violations of the Geneva Convention, they seemed to be cheering as the U.S. violated those same conventions by attacking Iraq TV stations.
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President Bush is using the war in Iraq as an excuse to exempt the Department of Defense from some of our most important environmental laws.
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On a lighter note, here are a couple articles about the war and the animal kingdom:
Tags: animals, environment, iraq, media
Posted: March 30th, 2003 | Author: admin |
With the news media in the United States starting to report civilian casualties (although still trying to blame them on the Iraqi government), will they start reporting on the impending humanitarian crisis in Iraq? Kofi Annan has warned of an impending humanitarian disaster, and as the United States increases attacks on “dual use” and urban sites, casualties will increase both due to the immediate consequences of the bombing and the long-term destruction of the civilian infrastructure. As casualties increase, resentment for the United States grows in both Iraq and in the rest of the world, and in the case of Iraq, the “liberating” force is being greeted with skepticism and frequently, outright contempt.
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Tags: civilian casualties, iraq
Posted: March 29th, 2003 | Author: admin |
Since the military build-up began in Kuwait, the mainstream media has been unable to hide its elation over the fact that it has reporters “embedded” with the troops invading Iraq. The media frequently resorts to what can only be described as “gloating” when they consult with their “embedded” reporters—with news anchors making a concerted effort to show that since they have the reporters with the troops, they can be trusted to bring coverage of what is really going on in Iraq to the public. However, these reporters have done little more than repeat the official positions of the military establishment—they are by no means a source for independent reporting, rather they are actively participating in the charade that the military allows reporters access to the truth in Iraq. It is important to look at accounts of the military operations coming from people in Iraq who are not part of the military or the media that so willingly accepts everything the military says.
Independent Reports from Iraq:
Tags: iraq
Posted: March 28th, 2003 | Author: admin |
While all eyes are focused on the attack on Iraq, it is business as usual for the U.S. legislative body. Under cover of the war, bills, ranging from protecting pharmaceutical conglomerates to abortion, are being pushed through Congress. However, these issues are being mainly blacked out by mainstream media, or are hidden behind headlines about the war.
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Tags: congress, iraq, media
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