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"Unacceptable in the 21st Century"
By Paul Street at Aug 12, 2008 |
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Here are some interesting words from George W. Bush's statement on Russia's actions in and against its neighboring state and former posession Georgia:
"It now appears that an effort may be underway to depose Georgia's duly elected government. Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century."
If Americans did not live in a corporate-totalitarian political culture and if the U.S. possessed a remotely critical and democratc media, leading U.S. reporters and commentators would be heaping ridicule on this language, asking the White House:
What century was it, Master, when the Bush administration supported an atttempted coup against the democratically elected government of Hugo Chavez (in 2002)?
And what century was it, oh Masters, when the U.S. criminally and immorally invaded and occupied the formerly sovereign states of Afghanistan (October t 2001-present) and Iraq (March 2003-?) - the latter invasion having brought about a veritable Holocaust in Mesopotamia?
But no, our dutiful anchor men and women delivered the story of "the president"'s (their president, not mine) absurdly Orwellian statement with perfectly straight faces. I have yet to hear any leading Democrats, including Barack Obama (who believes that the U.S. invaded Iraq with an excess of "good intentions" and needs to stop spending so much money "trying to put Iraq back together") calling Bush or his "mainstream" media enablers on the supremely dangerous arch-authoritarian madness of it all.
It can't happen here? It's happening as I write today. It may have happened already. Wake up, America and pull your head out of the maddening ass of the masters' latest paralyzing quadrennial corporate-crafted electoral extravaganza.
I totally agree with Mumia Abu Jamal, who recently said the following:
If TV channels are any measure, the U.S. presidential elections, now less than 4 months away, are the permanent stuff of headlines.
If candidate A sneezes, it's breaking news; if candidate B hiccups, it's film at eleven.
It's hardly worthy of headlines, but the beast [the media] must be fed.
For far too many people this news overdose on the elections has bred a kind of passivity among millions, as they wait in front of TV screens and computers, like deer caught in headlights.
What happened to anti-war protests?
What happened to housing rights protestors?
What happened to anti-FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) activists?
People are dulled by the almost sure expectation that the Democrats will prevail in the next election due to the low ratings of the Republican Party, and its lame duck President George W. Bush.
And those dull expectations are based upon the totally unfounded faith that a Democratic win of the White House really means an end to the war. (We might ask, which war?)
Millions have apparently forgotten the bitter lessons from the 2006 mid term election, when Democrats prevailed in congressional elections, formed a slight majority in both houses, and proceeded to do - nothing.
Peace in Iraq? Off the table. Instead, like lemmings leaping off a cliff they voted for more and more billions for war.
And what of the recently renewed FISA bill, which legalized the law-breaking of the Bush Administration - and gave retroactive protection to phone and communications companies which violated prior law?
FISA - signed, sealed and delivered: and even the Democratic candidate (Sen. Barack Obama, D.IL), who blasted the measure, put his John Hancock on it, voting 'yes.'
The great abolitionist (and women's right supporter), Frederick Douglass, supported Abraham Lincoln, yet that didn't stop him from protesting against him, when he moved too slowly, or not at all. Reading his criticisms are still biting, even though over a century has passed. And yet, his teaching remains just as relevant, for Douglass said, "Power concedes nothing without demand."
Double standards
By Honningsvåg, Per-Stian at Aug 28, 2008 13:01 PM
Another essential fact that has not been brough up at all, either on Al Jazeera or our Pravdas: the West\'s recognition of Kosovo.
Russia\'s recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia is essentially the same. They even warned that if the West recognized Kovoso, Russia would do the same to Abkhazia and S-Ossetia. Yet this simple and obivous truth is hidden from us.
Al Jazeera, btw, if far from the good newsoutlet it once was. You still see stories you can\'t even dream about seeing in Europe or North America (for example the interview recently with Huwaida Arraf, though she was faced with an Israeli clown), but they in the main glue up to elite opinions there too, remarkably similar to those of the West. Their coverage of the Georgia war could easily have been sent on CNN.
To take one small example. The US sent warship after warship to the coast outside Georgia. Hardly a mention by the Western press, except saying they came with humanitarian aid. Yeah, I\'m sure they didn\'t carry any weapons at all... But when Russia sent some warships to the region (fewer than the US btw), Al Jazeera and the Western media fell over themselves claiming Russia had now moved the conflict onto the seas, and talked even louder of a new Cold War.
How about the missile "shield" on Russia\'s border? How about the pact not to expand NATO further East? How about the Iron Wall being constructed by the West from Greenland to Asia, right throug the oil-rich Middle East? Is this not a "new Cold War"?
it just reminds me of Chomsky\'s words. The West cannot do any wrongs - by definition. The fact the West does something means it\'s good. No matter how many countries it invades or how many times it breaks international law, it\'s always for good purposes.
Orwell would drop dead in sheer shock if he was to experience our "informed" media world of today.
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A perfect case study
By Street, Paul at Aug 15, 2008 15:21 PM
Hi back Mark. I have just done a piece (titled "Brave New America") on the totalitarianism of U.S. political culture. For me this is a perfect case study: the news anchors shamelessly read Bush\'s statements and reflexively suppress reference to "our" much worse illegal occupatiion in Iraq. Criticism of the equally illegal occupation in Afghanistan is unthinkable - completely beyond the pale.
And of course both Iraq and Afghanistan are on the other side of the world from Washington while Russia has invaded a neighboring state on its direct border - a former Soviet territory in fact. Nobody in the US Orwellian news and commentary structure seems to have much to say about what American authorities would think if Russia told them they could not invade a part of Mexico or Canada.
I find Bush\'s latest rhetoric incredibly provocative of Russian nationalism and supremely dangerous in a period when Russia remains a nuclear a superpower with degraded firing controls compared to the Cold War era in all likelihood. Chomsky has been warning us for some time that our imperial masters value Hegemony over Survival. I\'m not sure intelligent warnings and truth hold much relevance at this stage in the degradation of U.S. "democracy."
Oh, and the U.S. news authorities have been keeping a straight face while plausibly tying Russia\'s illegal invasion to its desire to control strategic energy resources....Hello? Anyone with some synapses still firing beneath their skull knows that the U.S. invaded Iraq to deepen its control of hyper-strategic Middle Eastern oil. Energy resources are relevant also in the ongoing Afghanistan crime that Obama so enthusiasitically endorses as the "good" colonial war.
The world should beware. It\'s crazy over here in this "Armed Madhouse" and the Wizard of Ozbama is not going to change all that. In fact at least two of his advisors (Brezinski and Albright) are very dangerous on Russia.
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By Conroy, Mark at Aug 15, 2008 09:20 AM
Hi Paul,
This was a very interesting piece and something I was thinking of myself. I nearly puked when I heard Bush\'s comments (on Al-Jazeera - it\'s freely available in Ireland and keeps me away from Fox and CNN) about Russia\'s actions.
The sheer hypocrisy is astounding and the media\'s silence is deafening.
I\'d like to have read more on this, perhaps you might consider expanding the article.
Regards,
Mark Conroy
Ireland.
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