The Din of War

02/19/2007

Paul Munnis

Bush Administration behavior is approaching a maddening noise level as his antics keep the airwaves humming and people reacting to political jabs.

Listen to some of the items floating through the crowd noise:

Russell Hess reminds us of the honest loss of a simple soldier and the impact of it on a community. We are filled with genuine sadness and realize that we are experiencing a sense of loss too.

Tim Walz reminds us that teaching students in a classroom only to have them go off to war and be injured and killed is a personal loss. We are filled with more sadness.

We are reminded that our government permits no photos of dead soldiers or wounded soldiers and yet we read of the horrible conditions inside the military hospitals. The Bush Administration wants us to forget the troops unless they are shown heroically and not as human beings suffering pain and death. Even as he praises our troops he trims their benefits and worsens the problems of transition to a post-war life. More profound sadness fills our hearts.

An Iraqi speaks of his two years being held as a prisoner in an American internment camp where he was tortured and abused only to be released as of no value. We are outraged and through the outrage we see that Italy is indicting 21 CIA agents for their role in rendition. How could our government be a party to this sort of behavior? More outrage follows in a rush.

Lawyers speak of the loss of rights to citizens who can be held incommunicado, subject to rendition, torture, and abuse with no trial, no lawyer, and no way to notify relatives of their plight. These people are not even allowed to know what they are being held for. We become fearful as we realize that such behavior could be used against us as in the old days of Inquisition and Fascism.

We watch the unbelievable level of incompetence in our government, the theft, the corruption, the raid on our Treasury by the GOP, and we are angry, outraged, and saddened.

We have been subject to lies, more lies, and damned lies from the Bush Administration on subjects large and small ranging from WMD to intelligence information leading up to the war. Our government can be believed about nothing any more. We are disgusted. All of their communications is ulterior motive based.

Tune into television for relief and these noises are amplified. Talking heads, editorialized news reports, propaganda that fills the air like confetti at a NYC parade -- these are the “entertainment” offerings.

And through it all runs a determination to divide the people of America and to confuse and polarize us by political party.

It is time to try to block the noise, to seek a quiet spot, to think through the material we are assaulted with, and to imagine the questions that we are not permitted to ask. When we do these things we are horrified at what we are witnessing and we ask ourselves what are we to do about it?

The same answer comes back each time that we ask: “Dump Bush!” Alone we can’t.

We elect Representatives to Congress to do the job and we are told that they can’t do it either.

The options open to us are shrinking and the future looks dark as the remaining options are quietly assessed. Some of these are dark options indeed while others require genuine statesmanship from our political leaders. Still others require continued patience by the majority. Americans are impatient and want a quick fix.