"Bomb, bomb, bomb -- bomb-bomb Iran"
Let us stop kidding ourselves. This is not funny.
The Iranian people are being set up -- have been set up -- and they know it. And we should know it.
Recent US administrations, whether Democratic or Republican, have been deeply dishonest and insincere in their diplomatic maneuverings -- with many countries, not only Iran. They have been bellicose. They brag about the next war. They talk of wars intended to last generations.
They are uninterested in pursuing peace. They are interested in playing to the misinformed prejudices of the American people, who have been guided by a self-serving and immoral media.
We all know that the press/media is not about truth -- it is about entertainment and lies. What we also need to remember is that it is all about war.
America is murdering innocent people by the tens of thousands because we are addicted to lies and we can't kick the habit. We know that the media are liars, but . . . we're hooked. Hooked on obscenity and cruelty. We want to see people having sex -- preferably violent and demeaning sex. We want to see people dying -- preferably a grisly death induced by treachery and violence. We have made Caesars for ourselves and expect the world arena to stock our personal Coliseum of depravity.
Why, do you suppose, are our fellow-citizens (or we ourselves) so deeply fascinated by images and reports of cruelty and obscenity? Is it because they (we) want to know that the world is evil -- so that we can feel good about ginning up some first-class evil of our own? Why is the major part of our world-girdling English-speaking culture taking its cues from its tabloid-oriented media? Why is Israeli culture experiencing the same thing?
The behavior of religious people in this country has been horrible. The world has heard the loud chorus of false religiosity and self-righteousness and shallow civic religion as it has paraded across our country. We have proudly displayed a mindless antagonism toward all Muslims. Prominent Christian and Jewish personalities are leaders in this propagandizing of the American people.
Meanwhile, serious-minded Jews and good-hearted Christians know that the lies are lies, and that religion-baiting is wrong and destructive; and many of them are trying to take effective private and public stands against this shameful behavior. But they are being marginalized and largely ignored by their noisy, more numerous, and better-connected co-religionists.
Liberals lie. Conservatives lie. The government lies. Sometimes, religious people lie. They have for decades. Some people believe their lies because they don't know any better. Some people believe their lies because they are scared of the truth.
Nine years, and we refuse to admit that the invasion of Iraq was based upon a completely concocted lie.
Eleven years, and we still can't face the truth about September 11 and the completely mis-led war in Afghanistan.
Almost fifty years, and we still don't want to face the truth about John Kennedy's death, the run-up to the Viet Nam war, and the ascendancy of our military-industrial complex; although most of us who are old enough, know -- we have seen for ourselves how it has unfolded, and how it has been disguised.
Our media/government overlords have already spent more than a decade manufacturing a "crisis" with Iran. I think it is entirely possible that major elements in our national-security state will manufacture an event, as well -- probably explosively violent -- in order to release the dark tensions of crisis into the darker tensions of war. Again.
They have done this before. And we have not learned to distrust them.
America: It is time to stop the hate-mongering, and the fear-mongering, and the lie-mongering. It is also time to stop believing that war is the answer.
War is not the answer. And Iran is not the problem.
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You may find this article by Steve Lendman interesting.
Amen.
ReplyDeleteWow, thank you for this post. Amen.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts EXACTLY - and I am a Christian. I'm also incredibly fed up and frustrated with the Christian Right. They are war-mongers and hate-mongers who believe that Ahmadinejad and Iran are the epitome of evil, while Israel is right and good in everything it does. Gag! Most of them won't even listen when you try to discuss these things; they only stare at you in wide-eyed terror that you would even suggest a paradigm shift is necessary. I am accused of being anti-Semitic for saying that Israel is guilty of ethnic cleansing and apartheid and that our government is duplicitous in this. I could really go on and on, but at any rate, thank you very much for writing this post.
ReplyDelete