Not really my opinion, but something I wonder about none the less.

I was sitting and listining to a local political talk radio show at work the other day, and they were jabbering on and on about how America's "terror alert" has been raised from yellow to orange again (I wasn't aware it was ever lowerd, but that is beside the point) and it occurred to me that Al Queida (sp?) has been basicly silent in the American media during the Iraqi slaughter, and now that it's over Al Queida is all across the US media radar screens again. Much like it was after 9/11 and during 2001 an anthrax odessy. People reporting that they had received "reliable information" that Terror Inc. was targeting the malls, sporting events, whatever. Meanwhile things like United Parcel Service sueing the Canadian Government under NAFTA claiming that they interfeared with their "right to profit" by having their own postal service is basicly blacked out of the news, along with the massive riots in Canada over the WTO meetings (much bigger than seattle).

It seems we have reached a point in American culture where our media is little better than the old Soviet Pravda (8 pages of all the soviet government thought their people should know...) We are bombarded by more information, yes, but giving people mass amounts of information, most of it useless, is as good a way to keep them ignorant as limiting their acess to information (and the American people wouldn't stand for such an abridgment of the first amendment, not yet anyway).

The Republican party loves to brag that they are all for reduction of government, and taking the power out of the hands of the politicians. What they don't brag about is that they seem to have a hard on for giving that power not back to the people, but instead to large corporations, like General Electric, Clear Channel, Rupet Murdock, and TIme Warner, all massive media conglomerates. And given the ever increasing number of Contra-gate criminals showing up in places of power in the Bush cabinet, and people like Colin Powell (who helped cover up the Mei Lai massacre in Vietnam, on of the most horrible atrocities ever committed by US troops). And, yes, in American politics party always trumps person, no matter how much you like George W.

I begin to wonder if, in a political regime filled with people who seem to have no problem with killing people on any kind of scale, and are in bed with huge multi national corporations, if this whole war on terror isn't just a huge smoke screen to block the veiw of the world as they slide through things like the GATS treaty and all it's nasty brothers and sisters, or whatever agendas these people have going on.

I have heard roumers that the Bush cabinet has hired the Hill and Nolten Corperation, a PR firm, to help them spin TWAT so that the American people will keep lapping it up like they do American Idol (sadly I haven't had time to research this, but it wouldn't suprise me a bit to find that it was true).

Like I said, it's not something that I firmly believe it's just something I wonder about, and something I use to temper myself against all the propaganda I am fed daily as a patriotic American. The whole thing just smacks of 1984 meets Wag the Dog. And the one thing that made Geoge Orwell's bleak vision of the future possible was that they were constantly at war with an undefined enemy Al Qeida much like Ocianna. I'm just waiting for the chocolate rations to start.

[ 24. May 2003, 19:31: Message edited by: SickpuPpy ]

I think that's absolutely right. And that's only the things we know about...

in what society ever have people been kept fully, accurately and truthfully informed?

I'd say that all governments keep distasteful truths from their citizens. Some do it more than others, but all do it to some extent.

Not saying its right, but it certainly ain't new or different.

Colin Powell was involved in covering up the Mei Lei massacre? Didn't know that. Read a bit about Mei Lei before. Not nice. Good to know you guys have such an admirable moral figure running your military.

what an excellent rant! I think that the world needs many more critical thinkers.

There is a show here called the "Passionate Eye" which showcase documentary every sunday and monday. Anyways last Sunday they had a really good one called "War Spin". Really good examination of the Bush Adminsteration use the media to win the war. You can download it from here. It's about 45min long but worth the time.
http://images.indymedia.org/imc/washingtondc/war_spin.rm
Even now that the war is so-called over you don't here about the troops that are getting shot because of resistance in Iraq. You don't hear that they still don't have water, electricity, or police. It almost seems that the media is more interesting in what Jennifer Lopez is doing this week. And yet after going through this war the alert level is still high, and no WMD have been found. It's upsetting and furstrating the twist they put on stories to keep you in dark.

I agree with everything said about the smokesceen effect. I remember when global warming was in the news and Bush seems to have got off the hook about Kyoto. It is so handy for the ruling class to be able to call anyone who opposes them a terrorist. When I hear on the news that a 'terrorist training camp' has been attacked by US troops I can't help but wonder exactly what and who the target really was. The media seems to swallow it whole and never asks for evidence. Calling people terrorists seems to give governments (and it's not just the US here by a long way) the right to murder, jail, imprison without trial, deport and deny social security. Amnesty International has said that the world has become a more repressive place since september 11 as a result of the restrictions on rights to privacy, new police powers etc. This is not new however, and is one of the reasons why Leon Trotsky wrote a pamphlet against individual terrorism in the 1930's. It gives the ruling class the excuse to bring in more repression of everyone and allows them to justify it to the population on the grounds of protecting them against the terrorists.
The 'War on Terror' is really a war against anyone who may threaten the money and power of capitalists. Hence environmentalists are called terrorists for trying to stop dams being built and phone taps are used against trade unionists.

The question we now face is what are we going to do about it? Not everyone has bought the lie as shown by the massive demonstrations against the Iraq war (eg the biggest demonstration EVER in the history of Britain) and I think that more will see the reality as governments crack down more. We are not alone.