Mass Lobotomies Key to Selling War
Support Depends on Victory of Fear/Anger over Reason
Regime Exploits Terrorized Nation's Desire for Delusion
Forced to articulate precisely who or what the enemy is in the fight against terrorism, all rational people would conclude that the enemy is not any easily-identifiable and targeted nation, religious group, or people espousing or practicing a particular system of government, but a mindset that can take root anywhere at any time, independently of geography, system of government, social class, or religion. Razing Iraq and every other Arab country the US can get away with razing in the Middle East, the ideal solution in the terrorized minds of many Americans in the days immediately after 9/11 and from time to time since - and all Iraq war supporters now - isn't going to work.
It's true that an invasion of Iraq will temporarily satisfy the residual fear and anger the 9/11 attacks provoked much better than a systematic, diligent, boring and covert "police operation" focused mainly on intelligence gathering could. But that's all it will accomplish, and it will do so at the cost of increasing the chances for all Americans of becoming victims of similar terrorist attacks, by strengthening the resolve of those who already possess the fanatical terrorist mindset as well as creating that mindset in countless new individuals.
But the hawks want you to forget all of that. Listen closely to their "arguments." They repeat words and phrases like "mushroom cloud," "al-Qaida-type terrorists," "dirty bomb," "9/11" to keep the public's mind fixed on the searing images of the attacks here in the US and keep Americans emotionally incapable of rational thought regarding real solutions to terrorism.
Alternative solutions or suggestions of an invasion as self-defeating are never addressed, as anyone who viewed last week's "press conference" or any of Ari's daily press briefings knows.
The man-on-the-street pleadings from war supporters are always along the rote lines of, "He gassed his own people," and the pathetic, childlike, "Why don't these people understand our president is trying to protect us?" Those who offer such pitiful rationales for war indicate that they resent the anti-war movement not because its arguments are flawed but because it interferes with their successful self-delusion.
The administration hawks know, too, that if Americans begin thinking rationally, they will realize that 9/11 + inspectors in Iraq + "giant mushroom clouds," the product of nukes Iraq doesn't have, do not = Necessity for an invasion of Iraq.
They will instead calculate that 9/11 + inspectors in Iraq + an invasion of that secular power causing destabilization of the region + alienation of all traditional allies we depend on to assist in capturing individuals of a terrorist mindset = increased chances of every American's death at the hands of terrorists.
The Bush regime's rationale for war simply doesn't "add up," and Americans' acceptance of a war now with Iraq depends on the the regime's effectiveness in conjuring persistent, terrifying images of a burning WTC and fantasy mushroom clouds in their minds. The tension between the resulting emotions and the rational recognition that Bush's "solution" is based on faulty logic - even though it might delude one temporarily into believing he'd be better off because "at least something is being done" - is the reason support for an invasion is so tenuous.
All Americans know at some level that, while some things "changed" after 9/11 as Bush and the hawks are so fond of saying, the rules of logic didn't as the regime so preposterously suggests, and war with Iraq has nothing to do with fighting terrorism.
more at
mediawhoresonline.com |
