Put A Shroud On Your TV, Truthfulness Is Dead

By Dennis Rahkonen

Online Journal Contributing Writer

My faith in the establishment media, always tenuous at best, has finally snapped like a bad rubber band.

I awoke on the morning of June 28 (04) to learn "power" had been transferred to the Iraqis, that they now enjoy "sovereignty," and that the occupation is no more.

Yeah, sure.

Just how stupid do they think we are?

First off, the Iraqi "governing" apparatus has more puppets than the prop room at Sesame Street.

Those guys are under such strict U.S. control that they can't even break wind without getting Washington's prior approval.

It's ridiculous to believe they could take any step consistent with their own people's genuine self-determination and best interest.

With 138,000 U.S. troops on hand to assure strict compliance with neo-con dictates, it's only Wall Street goals we'll see advanced in Iraq, not the main street aspirations of Fallujah, Ramadi or Kirkuk.

"Quisling" and "Vichy" typify the bogus national independence the Bush gang is trying to scam us with as the real McCoy.

For instance . . .

According to a recent poll, only 2 percent of Iraqis believe Dubya's war achieved their liberation. Another survey reflected an overwhelming Iraqi desire to have the Americans immediately leave.

Doesn't democracy entail leaders abiding by the citizens' will? Of course it does.

But it's painfully obvious American forces aren't going anywhere, unless the Iraqis' own resistance and international (especially U.S.) peace sentiment drive them out.

About all the yes-men in Baghdad will do is help facilitate the theft of Iraq's oil wealth, some $20 billion worth of which is already unaccounted for, according to the charity Christian Aid.

There's a positive side to all this, though. One can't so blatantly misrepresent truth without objective facts ultimately exploding in one's face.

Look for exactly that to happen, sooner rather than later, with George Bush eventually getting burned like some hapless cartoon character who's just had a stick of dynamite go off in his hand.

Not since the days of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Gobbels have a government and an ostensibly impartial news media been so completely in cahoots in spreading an outrageous lie. Without exception, all the abundant falsehoods of the Iraq war have been exposed first by the independent and foreign press. Major newspapers, news magazines, and broadcast networks have pitifully followed the White House line.

I'm tempted to recommend that we all take John Prine's musical advice: "Blow up your TV . . ." But Attorney General Ashcroft would probably label us "enemy combatants" and ship us to Gitmo. Besides, the new football season isn't that far away.

Just drape the sucker in black for now, and go see Michael Moore's movie instead. Then buttonhole every living soul you see with your nitty-gritty rage: Lost jobs. Lost pensions. Lost healthcare. Young lives lost in a needless war. Lost U.S. prestige worldwide.

Workaday Americans and their hard-pressed families simply can't tolerate more devastating losses.

Meanwhile, the prestigious journal Nature warns that one-quarter of Earth's animal and plant species could irrevocably be lost in 50 years due to the ominous global warming the loser presently occupying the White House refuses to address.

To divert us, conservatives scapegoat gays, claiming their marriages threaten civilization. Shame on them for sounding like Hitler ranting about Jews!

Isn't it time we started winning for a change? Really getting ahead?

That can't happen under our nation's current misleadership.

We'd be far better off having Jay Bush and Duke in charge rather than George Bush and Dick!

Dennis Rahkonen, from Superior, WI, has written progressive commentary and verse for various outlets since the '60s. He can be reached at dennisr@cp.duluth.mn.us.