Are We ‘Good Germans'?
By Ed Ciaccio
09/01/07
"ICH" -- - A shirt I recently bought from Old
American Century (www.oldamericancentury.org
) has the figure of Uncle Sam, steely-eyed, fists on
hips, and under it, the following text:
“If you
had told me a few years ago that we would have secret
prisons through out the former Soviet republics,
tortured our enemies, and used chemical weapons on
civilians, I’d have thought you were crazy. But I also
didn’t think you’d let Bush steal another election.”
Regardless
of whether you choose to believe that both the 2000 and
2004 Presidential Elections were stolen (and there is
ample evidence; see, for example
http://www.gregpalast.com/one-million-black-votes-didnt-count-in-the-2000-presidential-election-rnits-not-too-hard-to-get-your-vote-lost-if-some-politicians-want-it-to-be-lost/
and http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen
), there are many other disturbing facts about our
nation which no longer need to rest on faith to be
“believed” because they are now part of the historical
record.
Among them
are the following:
*If
you consider the one million Iraqis who died as a result
of the 1991-2003 sanctions and the one million who have
died since the 2003 invasion, the word genocide comes to
mind. If you consider the four million Iraqi refugees
resulting from our invasion and occupation, and the
resulting sectarian violence causing the creation of
unprecedented sectarian enclaves in Iraq, the term
ethnic cleansing comes to mind.
As
Americans, supposedly believing in the rule of law,
supposedly believing in fairness and compassion, what do
we do now that we know these facts?
Do we deny
them because they clash with our view of America as the
“greatest country in the world”?
Do we shrug
and say, “Well, every country has its dark side”?
Do we throw
up our hands and complain that we can’t do much because
Cheney and Bush have so much power and, besides, they’ll
be out of office soon?
Or do we
simply turn the page and see what else is on TV?
The “Good
Germans” who did nothing had similar reactions while
Hitler destroyed Europe and murdered 6 million Jews, and
5 million Poles, Russians, Communists, homosexuals and
other “non-Aryans” in his death camps. They denied, or
accepted and approved, or said they didn’t know, or
(justifiably for many) feared punishment or death in
Hitler’s dictatorship.
But we don’t
live in a dictatorship.
And we DO
know what has been done in our name.
So who are
we? What have we become?
Right now
there are three massive U.S. aircraft carrier task
forces in the Persian Gulf, and B-1 and B-2 bombers and
many fighters on airfields in countries surrounding
Iran. They are there waiting for Bush, with Cheney’s
urging, to give the signal to repeat “shock and awe’,
this time on the Iranian people.
Right now
another propaganda campaign, similar to that which
preceded our 2003 Iraq invasion, is beginning, but this
time charging Iran with unproven “evils” against our
troops in Iraq. Again it is accepted without challenge
by our compliant, corporate mainstream media with its
many links to the so-called “defense” industry.
Meanwhile, that same media distracts us with “coverage”
of Larry Craig’s men’s room saga, or the death of
Princess Di ten years later, or John Edwards’ haircuts,
or Britney, or Lindsay, or Paris, or…
And right
now, Iranian forces are accused, with little, if any,
solid evidence, of helping kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
Meanwhile, ignored by our media, U.S. special forces and
CIA operatives are in Iran selecting targets for our
planes, drones, and cruise missiles and supporting
anti-Iranian government groups there. In effect, we
have been waging war on Iran from inside Iran
for almost two years already (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4180087.stm
and
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0620-31.htm ).
And now Bush
wants our always-accommodating Congress, Democrats and
Republicans, to declare a part of Iran’s military as
“terrorists.” This will enable him to attack Iran
without Congressional authorization.
These are
also facts.
So what will
you do about this?
Will you be
a “Good German”?
