Wednesday, March 02, 2005

TV News Lies color of this state...

Greetings from the Red state of Texas
I lived in Florida before coming here- Indiana before that, I grew up in California.The Blue state Red state stuff gets much talk as of late. I don't remember it before.

The past week or so I have been involved in my local community a little here and there. Things aren't looking good- the poor are getting poorer- awe, you know the rest.

Some questions came to mind about the silence I hear- I ran across this while checking out some stuff on the net.
I'll be back soon.

SPEAK UP! let your voices be heard
Power to the peaceful,
Jess


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From TV News Lies dot ORG
Has the opposition been permanently muted? Do we just sit back and watch the endless war go on? Do we pretend it is no longer our concern? Do we become one with the warmongers? Do we watch in silence as Death rides unfettered through the streets of Iraq?
Or do we start asking the questions that no one has answered?
Not long ago, Death had some clout. Not long ago, the mounting deaths of our fighting men and women in Iraq were reported on the evening news. Not long ago we heard the totals and not long ago the numbers saddened an enraged us. As the futile and immoral war against Iraq went on, Death boldly rode roughshod over our troops with impunity. In a horridly short time, ten deaths became twenty, twenty became a hundred, and then, with much fanfare, we passed a much heralded milestone. By the closing days of the 2004 election campaign, more than one thousand American men and women had lost their lives in George Bush’s War!
Not long ago, as Death was riding high, we railed against him. Not long ago, though Death was in charge, we shook our fists in anger, and raised our voices in protest. We were half the nation, and we were loud.
As Death dealt his blows, coalition casualties didn’t seem to matter; their numbers were never of much interest. What the heck….foreigners are foreigners. But, if you listened closely, some Americans did care. Some of us loudly and consistently mourned the deaths of all who were being sacrificed in the growing quagmire. And some of us abjectly refused to look aside as Death continued riding high.
Iraqi deaths didn’t really matter, either – a thousand here, a thousand there, what the heck. You couldn’t tell an insurgent from a terrorist, anyway. But, in truth, some of us really did care. We sought after the numbers, and we asked to see the photos, and we were terribly troubled by what we learned. But they had stopped counting the dead civilians long before…. it wasn’t a very good statistic for the Bush image. So time went on, and Death went on. And just his month, he took full advantage of it all. Death went on a rampage and rode into Fallujah.
And then, and then….and then came the Darkness and the Silence.
The darkness came from the media. The silence came from the people. American bombs plastered a city of 300,000 people, leaving the survivors of Fallujah, without water, electricity, food, medical supplies or doctors. The assault went on, and a densely populated city was soon strewn with the dead and wounded, and no relief agencies were permitted to come to their aid. Imagine, Death had a picnic and no one came.
FOR THE PEOPLE WERE SILENT!
There was no one to cry out against the slaughter. After all, the assault was designed to end the insurgency and miraculously restore Iraq to an acceptable level of safety and security. In fact, the devastation was strategically necessary for George Bush. He hoped to capture his Terrorist-of- the-Day, Abu Musaab Al-Zarkawi, and save the world from evil. Or so we were told.
In fact, in less than a month, another 101 Americans died. Thousands of Iraqis, many of them women and children were killed. Our soldiers were instructed to shoot on sight all males in Fallujah between the ages of 15 and 50 – ARMED OR NOT! Insurgents don’t wear uniforms, so Death rode blindly through the streets of Fallujah seeking his prey. Zarkawi was nowhere to be found. The insurgency continued. Violence erupted in ten other Iraqi cities, and the madness still increases every day.
AND THE SILENCE CONTINUED!
The media largely ignored the battle in Fallujah and the one that followed in Mosul. They offered no stories, no casualties, no photos, not even verbal images of the horror that was. The war in Iraq is no longer really news. The voices of Americans who once spoke out against this senseless war are no longer heard. . So, in the end, Death is losing his clout – he can no longer arouse the people of this county to cry out in rage. Death in Iraq, ironically, is now a tolerable way of life.
Kidnappings in Iraq are accepted as commonplace; even beheadings get little more than a passing comment. Roadside bombs are routine, people are blown to smithereens every single day. As of this week, at least 1,236 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war. The British military has reported 74 deaths; Italy, 19; Poland, 13; Spain, 11; Ukraine, nine; Bulgaria, seven; Slovakia, three; Estonia, Thailand and the Netherlands, two each; and Denmark, El Salvador, Hungary and Latvia have reported one death each.
Civilian deaths in Iraq, at the hands of American led forces, have been estimated to be around 100,000.
Is there anyone out there screaming for an end to the slaughter? Does anyone still care?
IF SO, WHY ARE THE PEOPLE SO SILENT?
Has the opposition been permanently muted? Do we just sit back and watch the endless war go on? Do we pretend it is no longer our concern? Do we become one with the warmongers? Do we watch in silence as Death rides unfettered through the streets of Iraq?
Or do we start asking the questions that no one has answered?
Why are our brave men and women killing and being killed?
What has been accomplished?
How long will this carnage go on?
How much will it cost – in lives, in money, in despair?
Who has an exit strategy?
Who will take responsibility for the war and its failure?
And do we start organizing and protesting and demanding to be heard? Everyone who protested against the war in Iraq BEFORE it began knew this would be the result. We warned of the chaos and the needless deaths. We shouted about the illegality and the immorality of the invasion. We failed then. Can we be silent now?
Can we live with the Darkness and the Silence that have descended upon our nation? Can we close our minds to the continuing carnage and accept the inevitability of an endless war against the people of Iraq – and the probability of more invasions? Can we surrender meekly and quietly to those who took us down this road with their lies and deceptions? Can we even consider that possibility?
TvNewsLies is throwing down the gauntlet here and now. We challenge those who care to connect, to network, to organize and to speak out. We plead with all the wonderful organizations that mobilized the nation before, to rise up again. We ask MoveOn, International A.N.S.W.E.R, Stop the War, Not in Our Name, and United for Peace, Code Pink, Veterans Against an Iraq War, and Voices in the Wilderness to help end the silence.
Death cannot rule the day. George Bush and his PNAC handlers must not be allowed to play their deadly war games any more. We are half the nation, at least. That means we are tens of millions in strength, and tens of millions in determination. If we choose to do so, we can end the silence, now.

1 Comments:

Blogger chuck said...

Jessica,

You speak with insight...and you make the case powerfully!

Chuck

March 05, 2005 1:14 PM  

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