Pacific Views

Weekend Reading

May 1st was the 2nd anniversary of Bush's Mission Accomplished. Robert Fisk commemorates the date by recounting exactly what mission the Bush administration has accomplished: making torture an American policy resulting in a wide swath of cruelty and brutality in Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course, the latest white wash by the military absolved all senior leaders but General Janis Karpinski of responsibility. Nevermind that she was told by Maj-Gen Miller, "are like dogs, and if you allow them to believe they're more than a dog, then you've lost control of them". (via Wolcott)

What happens when the Christian fundamentalists no longer ever have to learn anything from outside their bubble? Echidne, my favorite pagan goddess, writes about a problem that I've been worrying about too:

An intriguing thought, this: that Christians can choose to receive nothing but Christian news. We are slowly moving towards a system where Republicans will only accept Republican news and Democrats only Democratic news. So why not have religious news broadcasts to groups who are especially religious?

The logical conclusion to this trend is frightening: a nation where no values are shared, where nobody can communicate with the members of groups who think differently and where nobody agrees on what is actually happening. Trends like home schooling could exacerbate this outcome.

Indeed, this is exactly what happened in the last election. A large number of Americans never even questioned whether Kerry would be a better candidate because they never got any news that would make them think to look. Remember the debates? Bush flopped badly, but most Americans didn't bother to watch. Instead what they see of Bush is the carefully manufactured advertisement of Bush, glorious leader and the chosen of God. The Stepford crowds are the product of the Cult of Bush brought about by the formation of people who only hear from those who think exactly like they do.

The hypocrisy of the Republicans is truly staggering. Jane of Firedoglake deals up her top three hypocritical (and frankly, creepy) Conservatives and observes:

Jung noted, the failure to acknowledge and integrate one's shadow persona can give it incredible, near-demonic power that the individual is quite helpless to control. It may go a long way toward explaining the list of morally outrageous behavior that seems to be growing longer every day.

Yes, the conservative belief that people are divided into good and evil means that they oftentimes set themselves up for a Jekyll and Hyde existence. One of the manifestations of this is the hyperbolic accusations that "liberals" are immoral and apt to do what these conservatives hate most about themselves. What better way to keep people from looking at the mote in your eye.

Finally, the War in Iraq has ratched up another notch this week with the latest foray into western Iraq. Known as Operation Matador, the operation sounds like the first battle of Fallujah where the generals once again underestimated the wiliness of the resistence and overestimating the capability of the Marines to overcome the "bad luck" that accompanied them on this expedition. James Wolcott provides an excellent summary of the operation that has just been fêted as an amazing success in cleaning out the insurgents by the US Military. No kidding. Bush invaded Iraq and after toppling Saddam's statue, declared victory two years ago, and still the US has no control over major sections of the country. I'd call that a success story too.

Posted by Mary at May 14, 2005 02:59 PM | Recommended Reading | Technorati links |