Myth and Propaganda: George Bush and the American Illusion

Myth and Propaganda: George Bush and the American Illusion

AmericaHeldHostile.com

In the great causes of nations, myth and propaganda are essential political ingredients. Myth tells a nation who they are, what they stand for and attempts to establish good purpose for sending its youth to spill their blood and lose their lives on foreign soil. Propaganda is the means of propelling myth into motion. Remember the Maine…make the world safe for democracy…Remember Pearl Harbor…United We Stand…Support Our Troops, etc. Myth even evokes God as a faithful ally in the acts of murder and theft that war brings. All is 'just' because it is done in His name.

Myth by definition is not intended to be a scientifically sustainable hypothesis but an article of faith. Myth is part of the human condition and it can also be dangerous. It's akin to believing one's own self-serving press releases. In the ongoing orchestrated propaganda scenarios surrounding the Iraqi Question, much has been said about the relative ease with which the US military will crush any and all Iraqi forces. US military personal and the American public have been repeatedly told that US forces are the best trained, best equipped and best fighting units in the world. All the American public has to do is provide billions of dollars, an endless inventory of young men and women and "Support Our Troops."

Before one blindly accepts the illusions of certain national myths and the accompanying propellant of propaganda they might consider that oft-forgotten record of the past, history. For example, in 1957, a section of the Israeli Army General Staff developed a survey and sent it to more than a thousand military experts around the world including senior military officers, historians and war correspondents. The survey asked for an assessment of the best armies, bravest soldiers, best trained, most skillful, most disciplined, etc. who participated in World Wars I and II.

On the list of armies fighting in WWI, the American army rated number five. For WWII, the survey asked for a numerical rating from a low of ten points to a maximum of 100. The American Army, with 55 points, placed seventh on the list. The German Army, rated number one in WWI, topped the WWII survey with 93 of a possible 100 points. Only in the WWII elite units category did American fighting forces score better than number three, the US Marines rated second behind the German Waffen-SS.

In January 1945, as the Battle of the Bulge was winding down, US Army Private Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion. In his biography of Private Slovik, author William Bradford Huie argues convincingly that Slovik was not a coward but a person mentally unable to kill anyone. Slovik's requests for reassignment to duty behind the fighting lines were repeatedly denied. The execution went forward as a deterrent to the rampant problem of desertion plaguing the US Army at the time. Huie recounts that during WWII, "about forty thousand'[inductees] deserted before the enemy'". Slovik was the only American soldier shot for desertion in WWII, in fact, the only American soldier executed for desertion since the Civil War.

To place these historical facts into a meaningful context, one should recall that WWII was the "good war", with defined military objectives launched after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and after Germany's declaration of war against the US. Yet, the American Army received a low rating when compared to the armies of other countries and desertion was a serious problem in the European theatre of operations. If these assessments of US fighting capabilities and problems related to desertion under fire in the "good war" are accurate, then how will American forces roll over Iraq?

Military power is an abstract term that is meaningless until numbers define it (personnel, aircraft, tanks, ships, guns, cannon, etc.). And, if the American fighting man or woman is not the key to a victory that is practically guaranteed in the current propagandizing campaign, then what will be the key to victory? The answer is military hardware and weaponry.

The weapons of mass destruction inventoried in the US arsenal causes the scourges of war, famine, pestilence, and death unleashed by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to pale in comparison. The US has the world's largest stockpiles of biological weapons and agents, poison gases, nuclear bombs, and now, the weapon du jour, projectiles manufactured from depleted uranium. Yet, US political leaders feed a fear-instilled public a cornucopia of threats emanating from terrorists with everything from atomic bomb-laden suitcases in Macy's basement to deadly biological agents delivered via the Postal Service. Asserting that some religious nut with a cellular telephone is planning an attack on the US or a de-fanged tiger in Baghdad is a danger to civilization is an illusion.

Parts of southern Iraq is a nuclear waste dump due to the millions of rounds of depleted uranium projectiles fired from US weapons during the first Gulf War. Iraqis continue to die from deadly radiation related illnesses, as do young Americans who served in the campaign. Speaking before "the troops" at the Maryport Naval Station in Jacksonville, Florida on February 13, 2003, George Bush stated "the gravest danger was from 'outlaw regimes' seeking chemical, biological and nuclear capability and passing on their know-how to terrorists". If "outlaw regime" is further defined as one that starves civilian populations, underwrites repression, ignores international law and sends its youth into dubious battle, then the US qualifies. Passing on the know-how of terrorism has been the standard syllabus of the US Army's School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia for decades and providing tools in support of state-sponsored terrorism has been part of US foreign policy throughout much of the post-WWII era.

In the past 5,000 years approximately 700 dynasties have come and gone in the Middle East. Some lasted a few weeks some for centuries. The US is dynasty number 701 but its role in Middle East history makes it unique. None of the 700 other dynasties left deadly radioactive waste as evidence of their murder, evidence that will continue to emit death for decades if not centuries to come.

If the reckless cadre of intellectually mediocre elites that occupy the decision-making offices of the Bush Administration were as interested in protecting the American public from terrorism as they pretend to be, their first act would be to stop participating in it. Their next act should be resignation en masse. While departing Washington, DC with their baggage of nefarious agendas they might invite some of the odious excuses for leadership that occupy the halls of Congress to join them. These are the spineless overpaid aristocrats who, in a moment of fear and panic, abdicated their Constitutional authority and the people's Constitutional guarantees to neo-fascists determined to launch an illegal, immoral and insane war.

As for George Bush, if he were the honest man of God he pretends to be and dedicated to liberating the earth from terrorist leadership, his first act would be to submit to the American people his resignation from office. He should seek exile in Southern Iraq, walk among the living dead and dedicate his life to begging forgiveness for the war, famine, pestilence and death he is promoting in the name of his personal god.

Louis Farshee is a freelance writer and business man from the Northwestern area of the United States. Contact Louis at: lfarshee@easystreet.com

Source: http://www.americaheldhostile.com/ed021603-2.shtml

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