Simple Frustration in Bushworld

On Saturday I picked up a copy of our local weekly newspaper off my doorstep and brought it inside to read. This newspaper has a good collection of competent columnists and an on going debate about national issues in the letters to the editor section. In fact, the letters to the editor section is normally the public forum for local issues, but the locals in my town also find in important enough to debate the Iraq War and other national issues in our local paper as well.

When I opened to the letters section I read this letter from Karen Ingalls and I saw it as a blatant example of how the deception of our national leaders influences the public’s perception of the national debate on Iraq.

Makings for WMDs found!

The Senate voted 403-3 against a timetable to pull out of Iraq. Just wanted to state this because I doubt that readers will see it in The Pinnacle as an article. So no matter how much garbage the liberals spew about the Bush administration and our presence in Iraq, they do not want to go on official record that they support a timetable for pulling out of Iraq. They know that pulling out of Iraq now is a confirmation to the terrorists that their suicide bombings and disregard for human life is working. Only the disillusioned and disinformed such as Kate Woods think a pullout is the answer. I see this vote as a huge boost of moral for our troops in Iraq - unlike those like Kate Woods that continually undermine the mission against terrorists.

I support our troops and their mission. They have found all the makings for WMD's, they have found the evidence of terrorist training camps, they have found the mass graves of all the human lives that Saddam's regime has taken..the news media and columns from the likes of Kate Woods feel more compassion for the terrorists in Club Gitmo than our American soldier. 99.99% of the time these liberals continue with their anti-Bush agenda without a second thought about it's impact to our soldiers efforts and moral. Friday's 403-3 count proved that no matter how much crap the liberals spew, deep down, they know it's not time for us to pull out of Iraq.

Karen Ingalls

It is quite obvious that Karen Ingalls didn’t read the resolution that was voted on. I actually wonder how she acquired any knowledge of it at all. The tally of the vote was correct but her information about what they Congress actually voted on is warped. But it is warped in the way that the Republicans would like it to be warped.

I felt compelled to respond in the following way, but there were so many possible ways to respond that I don’t know if I did the best job possible. In fact, I realize I was a bit hasty and left a few things out. The main problem is that there is a limit to the number of words that are allowed in a letter to the editor. Here was my feeble attempt to respond:

Karen Ingalls wrote in the December 4, 2005 Letters to the Editor that the House of Representative voted 403-3 against a timetable to pull troops out of Iraq. I actually believe that Ms. Ingalls believes this, but her response is the result of Republican deception on several levels. The actual text of the resolution voted on was:

RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately. Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately.

One should first notice that the word timetable was never mentioned in the resolution. In fact, the resolution does not even coincide with the speech that Rep. John Murtha give the day before this resolution was offered.

So, why would the Republicans offer such a resolution that they knew no one on either side of the aisle, aside from a few protest votes, could support? The Republicans wanted to create the illusion that they were voting against John Murtha proposal of a withdrawal over the next six months or so depending on the situation on the ground in Iraq. I have included the full text but because of word count cannot be published in the letters section.

The key here is that the Republicans are manipulating the way we perceive actions in Washington and based on Ms. Ingalls letter it is working. We should all realize that the Republicans are all acting like Used Car Salesmen selling us a War that we should never have been involved in and they are trying to get us to buy the extended warranty that doesn't cover anything when you actually read the fine print. And, Karen Ingalls is just another sucker that bought the sales pitch.

Michael Forbush

Misconceptions and misunderstandings are all around us. It’s obvious that it happens. It’s obvious that people choose to understand things the way they want regardless of the truth. I have been writing about this over several of my posts in the last week or so. I know that I should drop it and move on, but I don’t feel like I have done this topic justice. I don’t feel like I was able to convey my frustration in a clear and concise way. The big picture has been clear to me for five years now, the Bush administration just lies and they have no shame when they are caught in a lie. In fact, they just become more adamant and voice their lie and deception even louder. The effect of this refusal to admit a lie creates a deep polarization in the country. This is because half of the country will blindly believe the lies and deception, while the other half of the country can’t believe that the administration is getting away with these lines. The key is more along the lines of the deception. The lie is couched in a deception that makes the lie sound plausible. And, even when the lies are proven to be lies with facts, the deception changes just enough to allow the fact to be seen as only a conjecture by an unreliable source. The number of unreliable sources rises in proportion to the number of facts exposed.

One tool of war is propaganda. The Nazi war machine used propaganda to maintain support for the war even when all hope should have been lost. The Soviet Union used propaganda to through out the Cold War to bolster the idea that Socialism was superior to the West. Chairman Mao used his little red book to make sure that everyone knew the propaganda and memorized it so that it could be recited. Propaganda is power to the government. Propaganda is a wall to all those who think differently. Propaganda is an enemy to Democracy, because propaganda quiets the opposition to the government; without which there is no choice and hence no Democracy. On the other hand, propaganda could be seen as free speech of the government and the government has a right to lie to its people.

Above I posted one small battle in the war for truth. I read a letter to the editor from a woman who clearly didn’t know the truth and her writing clearly demonstrated it. Although we don’t know for certain how she came to her conclusions we can surmise that she had been listening to the carefully worded propaganda of the Bush administration and she interpreted what she believed that she had heard. Yesterday I only looked at one aspect of her letter, the vote on the resolution to withdrawal troops immediately from Iraq. The Republicans who submitted the bill wanted a bill that could be used to demonstrate support for the War in Iraq. But, instead of being honest about the intention of the vote the deception of the Republicans in congress was to create a bill calling for an immediate withdrawal. Since the genesis of this debate was a speech by John Murtha, a respected veteran who had called for the US to plan a withdrawal procedure. The subtle difference of course is that a “planned withdrawal procedure” and an “immediate withdrawal” are not the same thing. But, the Republican deception machine would like the general public to believe that they are the same things. Planned withdrawal gives responsibility to the Iraqis in a methodical and planned way. Immediate withdrawal means everyone load up the planes and fly home tomorrow. The Republican deception machine understands very well that the general public does not spend enough time on any one issue to be able to distinguish these subtle differences. “Cut and Run” has become a mantra that the Republicans yell at anyone that wants to create a withdrawal plan. With the lack of a withdrawal plan the troops are stuck in Iraq until the Republicans decide that they don’t want to yell the “Cut and Run” mantra any more. This puts the Republicans in the driver seat on the withdrawal from Iraq.

What frustrates me even more is how this same letter illustrates the propaganda from the Bush administration and the Republican Party has warped the minds of many otherwise reasonable people in our country. This is quite obvious but so many people continue to tout the Bush line. The woman begins her letter by claiming that the newspaper is so liberal that they would never publish the truth. Obviously this gives the person who has been deceived an out for the discontinuity between the facts that are published in the media and deception transmitted by the radical right. In this letter the woman professes a fantasy of an Iraq that had WMDs and terrorist training camps. Maybe she is confusing Iraq with Afghanistan where there actually were terrorist training camps. If Iraq really had WMDs, don’t you think that they would have used them when they were being attacked? And, if they weren’t prepared to use them while their regime was falling, do you really think that they were a major threat? But, all logic has flown out the window with the distribution of propaganda from the radical right. And they like it that way.

So, in the latest deception the religious right has determined that liberals have decided to do away with Christmas. However, the catch-22 is that George W Bush sent out invitations to a “Holiday” celebration at the White House. Shouldn’t the leaders of Right Wing American have planned this a little more carefully? And the deception continues.

Just for completion here is John Murtha's resolution courtesy of Daily kos:

Whereas Congress and the American People have not been shown clear, measurable progress toward establishment of stable and improving security in Iraq or of a stable and improving economy in Iraq, both of which are essential to "promote the emergence of a democratic government";

Whereas additional stabilization in Iraq by U, S. military forces cannot be achieved without the deployment of hundreds of thousands of additional U S. troops, which in turn cannot be achieved without a military draft;

Whereas more than $277 billion has been appropriated by the United States Congress to prosecute U.S. military action in Iraq and Afghanistan;

Whereas, as of the drafting of this resolution, 2,079 U.S. troops have been killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom;

Whereas U.S. forces have become the target of the insurgency,

Whereas, according to recent polls, over 80% of the Iraqi people want U.S. forces out of Iraq;

Whereas polls also indicate that 45% of the Iraqi people feel that the attacks on U.S. forces are justified;

Whereas, due to the foregoing, Congress finds it evident that continuing U.S. military action in Iraq is not in the best interests of the United States of America, the people of Iraq, or the Persian Gulf Region, which
were cited in Public Law 107-243 as justification for undertaking such action;

Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That:

Section 1. The deployment of United States forces in Iraq, by direction of Congress, is hereby terminated and the forces involved are to be redeployed at the earliest practicable date.

Section 2. A quick-reaction U.S. force and an over-the-horizon presence of U.S Marines shall be deployed in the region.

Section 3 The United States of America shall pursue security and stability in Iraq through diplomacy.

Politics, Iraq, Iraq War, Bush Lies, Propaganda, George W Bush Impeach Bush