None Dare Call It Reason

[Jcrowley]

None Dare Call It Reason
by Mark Harris

http://www.opednews.com

None Dare Call It Reason
Pro-War Talk Media Continues to Tell It Like It Isn't
By Mark T. Harris

I couldn't help but overhear the young man in the retail chain store last week. He was the fellow wearing the T-shirt with the word "security" emblazoned in large block letters. He was talking to a young couple as they browsed the store's music section.

At first I thought the young man, who looked like he was in his early 20s, worked for the store. But a closer look at his T-shirt revealed in smaller letters the word "eternal" above "security," and below that a biblical reference to John 3:16. It was not an unusual message in this part of the Midwest. But what really caught my attention was what the young man was saying. Apparently, the other man was planning to enlist in the army in a few months. The man in the Jesus shirt was telling the couple about his military tour of duty in Iraq. How they shouldn't believe all the media reports about how terrible it is in Iraq.

"I mean, when you're over there and you hear that a million people got electricity last week, it's awesome, man," declared our evangelist for Jesus and foreign occupations. "Some of these people live in mud homes." The young couple he was addressing smiled and nodded their heads agreeably. "You'll see, it's not like they're saying. There are amazing things happening," the young man assured the future soldier.

Listening, I was also amazed. I wondered what this fellow knew about the modern history of Iraq. Did he know about the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report from 1990 that discussed methods at the outset of the first Gulf War for sabotaging Iraq's water treatment system? Did he know about the U.S. bombing raids then on Iraq's dams, pumping stations, municipal water and sewage facilities? Or how the post-war economic sanctions against Iraq included a ban on the chemicals and equipment needed to repair water and sanitation treatment facilities? Did he know about the approximately 500,000 children estimated to have died during the sanction years, deaths caused in significant number by disease related to the deterioration of the sanitation system?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mark_har_061205_none_dare_call_it_re.htm

[thingfisher]

1. Americans have a notoriously short memory.

Oh, and they don't read all that much either.