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D(isinformation) Day: 60 Years is Enough, p. 2 But
it wasn't appeasement that took place prior to W.W.II. It was, at best,
indifference; at worst it was collaboration...based on economic greed
and more than a little shared ideology. U.S.
investment in Germany accelerated by more than 48% between 1929 and
1940, while declining sharply everywhere else in Europe. For many US
companies, operations in Germany continued during the war (even if it
meant the use of concentration-camp slave labor) with overt US government
support. For example, American pilots were given instructions not to
hit factories in Germany that were owned by US firms. As a result, German
civilians began using the Ford plant in Cologne as an air raid shelter. The
pursuit of profit long ago transcended national borders and loyalty.
Doing business with Hitler's Germany or Mussolini's Italy proved no
more unsavory to the captains of industry than, say, selling military
hardware to Indonesia does today. What's a little repression when there's
money to be made? This
is where the most relevant similarities between Hussein and Hitler exist.
Despite committing atrocities, both murderers received overt and covert
support from the U.S...in the name of profit and capitalism. Make no
mistake: The US, with its stockpile of lethal weapons and no shortage
of bipartisan leaders dying to use them, has never been in the business
of appeasement. When
President (sic) Bush says, "You are either with us or against us,"
he's merely selling old wine in a new bottle. The
first step toward smashing that bottle is to "just say no"
to the myth. The 20th century has been called the century of genocide,
but it was also a century of propaganda (partially to justify the genocide).
Little has changed in the way foreign interventions are aggressively
packaged and sold to a wary public...except the technology by which
the lies are disseminated. More
than 100 years ago, anarchist Emma Goldman described the national mood
at the beginning of the Spanish-American War: "America had declared
war with Spain. The news was not unexpected. For several months preceding,
press and pulpit were filled with the call to arms in defense of the
victims of Spanish atrocities in Cuba. It did not require much political
wisdom to see that America's concern was a matter of sugar and had nothing
to do with humanitarian feelings. Of course there were plenty of credulous
people, not only in the country at large, but even in the liberal ranks,
who believed in America's claim." If the working class is kept unaware of what is being done in their name, rebellion is unlikely. If the average citizen in inundated with images designed to demonstrate that the US government has always acted in a benevolent manner, rebellion appears unnecessary. As a result, justification is crucial for those in power. Films
like Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan are popular attempts at
such justification. Even if war is hell and the good guys sometimes
lose their way, these vehicles teach us that there is still no reason
to question either the morality of the mission or the stature of that
particular generation. Tom
Brokaw's best seller informs those who came of age during the era of
Reagan and Rambo that those who came of age during the Depression and
W.W.II were indeed "the greatest generation any society has ever
produced." Thanks
to the seductive power of myth, millionaire celebrities like Brokaw,
Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and others gain further wealth and prestige by
playing the role of corporate/military propagandist to an audience deceived
and pacified by jingoistic hysteria and the solace it often provides. Nazi
propagandist Joseph Goebbels said, "It is not enough to reconcile
people more or less to our regime, to move them towards a position of
neutrality towards us, we want rather to work on people until they are
addicted to us." Thus,
it is our moral obligation to see through our own propaganda and kick
the addictive habit of lazy thinking. We must address the many uncomfortable
truths about W.W.II by recognizing on the public relations and media
propaganda used by Western corporate states to transform a conflict
between capitalist nations into a holy crusade. In
1941, revolutionary pacifist A.J. Muste declared, "The problem
after war is with the victor. He thinks he has just proved that war
and violence pay. Who
will now teach him a lesson?" Precisely how and when such a lesson
will be taught is not known, but it can be safely assumed that this
lesson will never be learned from a standard college textbook, an insipid
bestseller, or a manipulative box office smash. The past 60 years have
also shown that without such a lesson, there will be many more wars
and many more lies told to obscure the truth about them. Ending this cycle begins with each of us deciding we will no longer buy what's being sold. Debunk the "Good War" myth and the tenets behind the "War on Terror" will crumble. As Bob Marley sang, "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds. END EDITOR'S NOTE: John Kerry has taken personal responsibility and made apologies for his acts during the Vietnam War and worked upon his return from the war to end it, although this regrettably cannot bring back lives nor erase the wrongs done.
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