Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 146 Editor's Choice: 12
-
The great catalyst
[Read the article: Army deployed seriously injured troops]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There are many aspects to this new scandal, not the least of which is the prevalence of careerism in the military. It took a network of decision-making to send the wounded and injured soldiers to a war zone. All of the deciders cooperated with the practice due to the pressures on their own status, and the need to go along in order to advance their careers.
I served in the U.S. Army when there was a draft, from 1968 to 1971. At the time, all medical graduates had a two year committment to serve in the military. As a result, the dilution of ethical standards was minimized by the independence of young doctors who had no career ambitions in the armed services.
The Judge Advocate General Corps (JAG) was also pretty independent, and many lawyers honed their skills by representing soldiers accused of crimes.
In one of the units in which I served, the first sergeant tried to interfere with medical decisions of sick call doctors, and learned painfully that he messed with the wrong people. He also wanted to get some kind of control over a favored JAG lawyer, and again learned a painful lesson. In an "all volunteer" army it might have been different.
We can thank Bush for all these scandals coming out. Bush, a total criminal, serves as a catalyst for bringing out the dark side of every component of our culture. Before he is through, we will be lucky if the country doesn't become another Iraq.
-
How the system works
[Read the article: Rove, proven liar]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think the easiest way to understand the inner circle of the Bush criminal organization and the Washington Press Corps that enables it is in terms of psychology. Two factors are at play: operant conditioning and ego structure.
The Bush criminal organization depends for its survival on the acquiescence, deference, and endorsement of its schemes by the mass communications media. Much like the Mafia of old, a network of corruption among law enforcement, news organizations, the judiciary, and also a sufficient part of the general public are all necessary for the gang to succeed in its various crimes. The news media are the glue that hold it all together. Thus we now have the term "embedded," which has taken on a meaning far beyond its original intended use to mean a press that is connected, as if by an umbilical cord, to the bestower of carefully crafted messages, commonly known as "spin."
The members of the embedded Washington Press Corps are beholden to the bestowers of information for their place in the professional and social matrix of their "karass," as Kurt Vonnegut would say - their effective human atmosphere. The egos of the press corps are fed by their ability to be on TV, to have space on newspapers and websites, and to be invited to parties and other social functions in the District of Columbia. They are conditioned to say what is acceptable to both the government officials who feed them their lines and to their employers, the corporate news and entertainment heavyweights - The New York Times, the Washington Post, CBS, ABC, NBC, and CNN. The newspapers of other major American cities are also part of the Washington Press Corps, but not as significantly as the largest players, and they behave similarly.
Now the game has gotten very interesting. Nothing the Bush crime family is doing is working, its crimes are plain for all to see, and the press corps is caught in a vise between enabling the BCF and the pressure of disenabling information coming from other sources. Thanks to the Internet, and in no small part to Salon and Joe Conason, the Washington Press Corps is finding its reinforcement system weakening, and its credibility declining. Even the corporate managers of the major media have to be feeling the pinch. Declining credibility leads to declining viewership, listenership, and readership. Being on radio, TV, and in the newspaper don't mean as much when fewer people are paying attention.
What is encouraging is that there is enough of an opening now that the criminality of the Bush regime is now likely to lead to impeachment. I hope Bush holds out to the bitter end. If that happens, the likelihood of his imprisonment is greater. If all goes well, maybe some of his enablers in the Washington Press Corps will join him. We should hold them responsible. Many have died because of their complicity.