The Secret Way To War

[babylonsister]

http://www.findingavoice.com/mt/archives/000400.html

The Secret Way To War
Ann Davidow


In his book The Secret Way To War, Mark Danner credits his father with teaching him “how to read the newspaper … skeptically, always skeptically”. And he adds, “… the essence of being a real citizen {lies} in an unflagging determination to ask questions, and to demand answers.” The minimal coverage of The Downing Street Memo in this country is a source of consternation to Danner: The obvious conclusion to be drawn from publication of the memo is that the decision to go to war was made early on and all that remained was to “justify” the war by “fixing” the “intelligence and facts around the policy” as the memo indicates.

To its everlasting discredit, in the run-up to the war, most of our media seemed to care more about protecting their privileged entrée to the halls of power than about preserving their professional integrity. “The fourth estate” faltered when it failed to ask difficult questions and began serving simply as a stenographic pool for the administration. Given the duplicity and secrecy that is the hallmark of this White House, our media, when its reportage was not downright corrupt, was too often a superficial mouthpiece dispensing tip-of-the-iceberg news. Over the past six years, as events spiraled out of control on the war-front and partisan battles raged on the home-front, an intransigent president, a complacent press and a go-along Republican-dominated Congress left the country with few good options for “the way forward”.

Most disturbing of all, many of the same distortions and mindless rhetoric still dominate presidential speeches and press conferences. And supporters in the media and Congress continue to enable failed policies and ludicrous scenarios: Iran is said to be “meddling” in Iraq, while the US from way across the world is considered a legitimate player. We can’t take out Al Qaeda bases across the Afghanistan border in Pakistan, Carl Rove explained the other day, because we shouldn’t invade a sovereign nation - - a remark provoking loud laughter from his audience. And apparently Joe Lieberman thinks his pontifications about how his colleagues just don’t ‘get it’ still carry weight instead of being insulting and intellectually lame.

snip//

Congress will always fund the troops as long as they are in harm’s way. But one thing it could and should do is stop funding the obscenity called an embassy that is being constructed outside Baghdad. It is a huge and hugely expensive undertaking as well as an indication that this administration never had any intention of leaving Iraq no matter how that country’s fortunes evolved. And it cannot help but further inflame Arab militants who have maintained all along that our goal was to overtake and re-configure the Muslim world.

Surely our elected representatives should be actively engaged in developing policies that define our national character and shape our destiny, not hamstrung by an administration that makes up laws as it goes along and thinks Congress should opt out of the decision-making process. It is beyond imagining that our hard-won rights, our sense of ourselves and our constitutional form of government could be so ravaged in such a short period of time by people so profoundly unworthy of the positions with which they have been entrusted.

The American people have a right to expect honest answers from their government, refuse to accept 'facts' manipulated to support policy and to demand that leaders take their responsibilities seriously. Each of us is a lot more influential than we sometimes think even if it isn’t easy being an independent lobbyist.

[EVDebs]

1. Huge embassy and 14 Permanent Bases too

Publicizing this made the Quakers an NSA target,

http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/bases.htm

[MasonJar]

2. Absolutely! We need to call the reps and tell them that no more of our

money goes to the embassy or the bases. And that means period. No more Halibuton either.