What Do We Want To Know? When Do We Want To Know It?
There are a number of interesting things I'm reading today, ranging from the usual blather of President Bush about the connections between Al-Qaeda in Iraq and the leadership of Al Qaeda to a somewhat dubious rationale for having the CIA run covert operations in Afghanistan instead of the Pentagon (an op-ed in the New York Times) to a fascinating book review on one of my favorite websites - www.tomdispatch.com, http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174824/chalmers_johnson_agency_of_rogues, where Chalmers Johnson reviews a couple of different books about the CIA and their shady doings.
It's fascinating to me that the self-proclaimed "moral leaders" of the country, people like George W. Bush, Pat Robertson, James Dobson et al, seem to have no moral problem or conscience about the use of torture, the disregard for international norms on the treatment of prisoners and the general use of secrecy as an agenda, yet have no problem preaching to all of us on the morality of things like stem cell research, reproductive rights, marriage and a host of other topics.
What is that we Americans really want our country to represent? Do we really want to know about what is happening behind closed doors in CIA prisons or the prisons they have rendered people to in the hopes of gaining some dubious information. Or, are we content to live in the fantasy worlds of "24" and "Mission Impossible", where we root for our "heroes" to defeat the bad guys by any means necessary?
If we truly want the US to be regarded as a beacon for human rights, freedom and liberty, why aren't the God-fearing, church-going masses out in the streets protesting the actions of this current administration and demanding an end to the policies that have made us so hated around the world.
Or, are we to interpret their silence as a willingness, if not even an eagerness, to see Armageddon happen in their lifetimes - consequences for the rest of us be damned?
Are most of us content to continue watching the fantasies offered up by Hollywood and TV, not to mention the fantasies of a deluded political structure and not ask what we're doing, why we're doing it and when it will stop?
I'm really beginning to wonder.
It's fascinating to me that the self-proclaimed "moral leaders" of the country, people like George W. Bush, Pat Robertson, James Dobson et al, seem to have no moral problem or conscience about the use of torture, the disregard for international norms on the treatment of prisoners and the general use of secrecy as an agenda, yet have no problem preaching to all of us on the morality of things like stem cell research, reproductive rights, marriage and a host of other topics.
What is that we Americans really want our country to represent? Do we really want to know about what is happening behind closed doors in CIA prisons or the prisons they have rendered people to in the hopes of gaining some dubious information. Or, are we content to live in the fantasy worlds of "24" and "Mission Impossible", where we root for our "heroes" to defeat the bad guys by any means necessary?
If we truly want the US to be regarded as a beacon for human rights, freedom and liberty, why aren't the God-fearing, church-going masses out in the streets protesting the actions of this current administration and demanding an end to the policies that have made us so hated around the world.
Or, are we to interpret their silence as a willingness, if not even an eagerness, to see Armageddon happen in their lifetimes - consequences for the rest of us be damned?
Are most of us content to continue watching the fantasies offered up by Hollywood and TV, not to mention the fantasies of a deluded political structure and not ask what we're doing, why we're doing it and when it will stop?
I'm really beginning to wonder.
posted by Paul Salinger at 6:11 PM
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