From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Feb 16 2003 - 11:15:23 MST
--- Amara Graps <amara@amara.com> wrote:
> One of the programs I remember particularly well was a Thursday
> evening talk show of an intense discussion with ~6
> politicians/political party people and one journalist: Peter Arnett.
> They were (of course) discussing the possible war in Iraq, and trying
> to understand the Bush administration motivations for such a war. At
> one point Arnett said: "You know you would never see such a
> discussion as this on American TV."
>
> He's right, you know. So why not? Why is the current narrative of
> the U.S. media in Bush's back pocket, if policies are forged that
> affects everyone's (U.S. citizen's and others) lives? Who is paying
> for that narrative?
I'm rather surprised that Peter Arnett, who is well known for his CNN
work here in the US, would make this sort of statement, but then again,
not very if he is personally typical of the newsmedia in general.
Here in the US, we've had more than a decade of dealing with Saddam's
lies and deceptions. He is a known quantity, and for Americans, the
idea that there is any reason for any person with an ounce of
intelligence to have not made up their mind about doing something about
him by this point in time is ludicrous.
What surprises me is that so many Germans, and others, seem to think
that the problem is with Bush and not Saddam. This is a blind spot on
the part of the Germans. While Arnett might be right about the US, I
can say the same thing about Germany: Germans do not seem to be
constitutionally capable of having a rational discussion about the need
to dispose of Saddam's regieme and free the Iraqi people.
Is it because German companies are so complicit in the Iraqi war
machine? How many German politicians are being paid off by these German
companies? How many German tv channels are owned by these companies?
It is understandable that Germans are so hip-deep in their social
welfare state that the need to keep it financed is the primary domestic
and foreign policy dog-wagger, such that any policy by any country that
threatens it is automatically wrong and evil. Even socialists are
primarily motivated by self-interest, even if it is a collective one.
Given this, it is understandable that Germans cannot help but look on
Bush with distain and hate.
As I've detailed recently, freeing the Iraqi people from Saddam and
opening Iraqi oil to full exploitation by western industry will cause
the collapse of the european social welfare infrastructure, because
doing so means one thing: cheap oil.
When the French, Germans, and Russians accuse Bush of wanting to
control the Iraqi oil, they say this only because it is THEY who
currently have the most control over it, limited as it is by UN
restrictions. The last thing they want is free and unfettered
competition by all international oil companies to provide exploitation
services to the Iraqi government, which will only occur when sanctions
are lifted after the end of Saddam's regieme.
Americans know what their self interest is, and that interest is to
take a principled stand for the liberty of the Iraqi people. I find it
rather hilarious that the French see no problem with themselves taking
unilateral action in the Ivory Coast for their own self interest, yet
continue to call the Anglospheric coalition of the US, Britain,
Australia, along with countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy, and many
eastern european nations a 'unilateral' action if we take it outside
the UN umbrella.
While the French are preoccupied with teaching the US lessons in
'liberty' by refusing to extradite convicted murderers (Einhorn as well
as others) to the US, they also give political sanctuary to tyrants
like Saddam. Is this teaching us lessons in liberty?
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
"Pacifists are Objectively Pro-Fascist." - George Orwell
"Treason doth never Prosper. What is the Reason?
For if it Prosper, none Dare call it Treason..." - Ovid
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