Are You Uninformed?

Sadly, many good-hearted and well-intentioned US voters are going to go to the ballot box and vote for Bush in the sincere belief that he is the best man to run their country - not to mention much of the world - for the next four years.

This poignant article by Dr. Teresa Whitehurst encapsulates the beliefs expressed by many such voters:

"I read it on a blog, so I know it's true. The U.S. would never kill innocent people intentionally. It isn't killing when you don't target the civilians - it's just a part of war. Photos of babies and children supposedly killed by allied forces should not be believed. Or, if one does believe the pictures, one must understand that somebody else killed them because the U.S. would never do that. And if it did do that, it wasn't intentional. It was an accident. It was war. Just a part of war. We have to understand that. Nobody's to blame. I read it on a blog..."

It is very hard - usually impossible - to argue with such people. They cannot believe that massive media organisations like FOX News and CNN could be politically biased, or that Iraqi blogs like Iraq The Model could be CIA fronts run by people with close links to US puppets like Chalabi and Pachachi. They are being barraged from all sides - including their own schools and churches - by the same consistent message, so why should they believe you when you say it is all a lie?

But what do you call it when you invade a sovereign country in defiance of international law, set up a puppet government and then begin ruthlessly suppressing all resistance? I call it a War Crime.

What do you call it when you send fighter planes into heavily populated civilian areas and drop bombs that kill dozens of civilians at a time, day after day after day? I call it a Massacre.

What do you call it when the President of the USA is a reformed coke addict and alcolohic, the son of a former CIA Director who may have helped kill JFK, the grandson of a man convicted of supporting the Nazis, a man with extraordinarily close family ties to corrupt Saudi rulers and big business interests - most especially in the energy industries and military-industrial complex - whose fiscal goals now dictate the foreign policy of the USA?

You call it Conspiracy Theory. I call it Fascism.

What do you call it when good-hearted people vote for such a President?

You call it Patriotism. I call it Ignorance.