Letters to the Editor
MereMortal
Published Letters: 151 Editor's Choice: 19
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US politics is completely broken and EVERYONE on all sides knows it
[Read the article: How Bush is trying to save face in Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You had all the sophisticated operation in place to coordinate various strands of Petraeus [whose name itself eerily sounds like that of a ancient Roman General] coming to testify on the hill. First there is the symbolic date of 9/11. Then there are the leaks. Then we find out that the report is being written by extensive coordination with key white house staffers and finally the republican noise machine kicks in, not least with the likes of Ari Fleischer and his unhinged from reality Freedom's [hint look for the opposite] watch PR blitz.
but
there is a weary sense that all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put humpty dumpty back together again. This was not 2001 or even 2003 redux. We've all travelled some way down the road since then, we've all [including in their heart of hearts] plenty of republicans how learned of the bottomless depth of this administration's depravity.
I get a sense that even if this buys Bush some time, plenty of individual politicians of both stripes seemed to act in tune with the idea that nothing is inevitable, if only you could seize fate by the horns, you could affect the outcome of the future rather than resign to it. Bush is pretending that the outcome could be victory, everyone else knows it's just a question of when rather than if the US must pull out of Iraq. Defeat has privately been acknowledged.
It's a measure of the cowardice of the US political classes that all debates are framed solely from the point of view of US interest [not real only perceived] and 'our troops' [oh yes, we must never impugn them] except in practice by denying them decent pay, equipment or after-care...that the US never apologises to the real victims of its wars of aggression and choice.
Since it would be political death for anyone to declare openly that the US owes Iraq and its people an apology, and that similarly declaring any sympathy with the Palestinian cause would also result in huge political approbium, you have there a measure of the sickness of the pervasive bullying and unreal atmosphere in US politics.
You can say and do what you like so long as you never have to be real or address the metastasizing cancer in the country's body politic.
I don't know about you, but I find that truly disgusting.
On a happier note, it looks like everybody is finally starting to see through all this staging, PR and flim-flam whose sole purpose is to dress up as good news the inevitable further and worse woe that is the US's only destiny.
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@futhark - 100% agreed
[Read the article: How Bush is trying to save face in Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]whenever I've tried to make a similar point [albeit not as well], I've been largely and politely ignored on these letter pages.
The big dirty secret is that MSM's [and in this case Salon is no different or better than the MSM] only way of talking about 9/11 is through hushed respectful tones with articles accompanied by beautifully arresting photography that the US media is so good at. We can see after the 1st anniversary, the 2nd anniversary and on and on, more of these exquisitely framed shots of men and women with their heads bowed attending to a minute's silence, and nothing, about the real problems with the official account.
That's the dirty secret. 9/11 is to be 'respected' in good taste, as for journalism worthy of the name or even just basic commonsense, forget it.
All polls consistently point to an ever increasing arc of US voters believing that the Bush adminstration had at the least actionable foreknowledge or at worst actual complicity in the attacks, but this does not matter. It must never be investigated. And the more time that passes, the more it will never be investigated by the MSM. If that fact wasn't so profoundly depressing, you'd have to admire their genius levels of apparent insouciance in the face of such a crisis.
Before zelikow [the insider he] let's not forget that the first choice for commissioner was Kissinger.
the alpha and the omega of what is being visited on the US has at its root the fact that at some level [what exact level I obviously don't and can't know] 9/11 is an inside job, whilst that is not the main talking point of any official media outlet and nobody on the inside being investigated and held up to full public scrutiny, your country will go from bad to worse, as no good can ever come of such a monumental lie.
all this in the age of the internet. You can admire previous generations in other countries that fought to uncover the depredations visited on them by their rulers, but even with the internet, [most of the] US citizenry rolled over and fell asleep when it was time for their Fuhrer to arrive.
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Imagine...
[Read the article: The real reason Bush is withdrawing troops from Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]the hysterical and over-vituperative reception a liberal troll in the mirror image of Snake Pissen would receive on a right wing website letters page.