Category: Political

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Make Jobs Not War

Thank you.

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I don’t understand it, I really don’t. I watched the news last night as Rumsfield said that this country has a right to defend itself and the world regardless of the UN or any UN resolution. Or law for that matter.

Loren writes:

 

With few signs that the economy is going to rebound in the near future, it increasingly looks like the Bush administration is gambling that a victory in Iraq will lead to their re-election. They appear desperate to start our war with Iraq as soon as possible, whether or not UN inspectors can find evidence to support our claims that Iraq is readying weapons of mass destruction.

What Loren says makes sense. So I don’t understand it, I really don’t.

Jonathon writes about Australia mobilizing 350 soldiers for a war in Iraq when only …6% of Australians support sending troops to join an invasion of Iraq without United Nations approval….

These precentages join with the percentages in this country and in other countries such as Britain, German, Russia, China, France who are basically saying that no country should go to war with Iraq without UN authorization.

That means us. U.S. Us.

So, I don’t understand it, I really don’t. Bush, Blair, Howard, these are all elected officials, right? These people are all accountable to the people they represent, right? Yet these leaders, and a few others, all want to stop the inspections now, and go to war now when we all know…

 

…people will die.

…….probably a lot of people will die.

…………and the war will cost a lot of money.

………………and disrupt a lot of soldiers lives.

…………………..and all of the countries who want to go to war have some real problems right now that are far more dangerous to the welfare of the citizens then Irag; problems including no jobs, no money, no food, rampant disease, and no health care.

But these world leaders, leaders mind you, will go anyway.

No matter what we say, they’ll go.

No matter what we say, they’ll go!

I don’t understand, I really don’t. But then, after thinking about it, I figured out what the problem is: we’re using words with too many syllables. We’re trying to provide intelligent arguments against the US and a few allies going to war with Iraq without UN support, and we’re relying on too many big words. Words such as: petroleum, accountability, unprovoked aggression, mass destruction, globalization, international law, responsibility, and morality. The leaders just don’t understand what we’re saying. That’s it — what we have here (to borrow a phrase from the movies) is a failure to communicate. What we need is an alternative communication style.

We need to use simpler words. So from this day on, let’s use the following:

 

War bad

Go to war, lose job

No go war

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I do not understand why we continue to focus on Iraq, whom I think we all know, deep in our hearts and minds not to be a threat, when we’re faced with situation far more chilling: North Korea’s withdrawal from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

I watched the Berlin wall come down and thought to myself at the time that I would no longer need fear the specter of nuclear war. That was such a bright and shiny, albeit naive, moment.

Chris from Emptybottle, who lives and teaches in South Korea, has written about the situation, providing a viewpoint I think is important for us to understand before we follow ‘axis of evil’ tangents

I don’t watch much commercial TV, so the ad I saw may be old to most of you. The TV commercial showed a group of men having lunch at a diner, one of whom is complaining about taxes. His companions are obviously uncomfortable with the talk, and a couple in the booth behind the man looked over at him in fear as they quickly leave the booth.

His friends tell him:

“Calm down.”

“Do you want them to ruin your life?”

“They can do that you know.”

At the end of the commercial the words:

 

Freedom. Appreciate it. Cherish it. Protect it.

The ad was sponsored by the Ad Council — the consortium of US advertisers that perform voluntary ad campaigns.

At first, I was pleased by the ad, thinking that here is a mainstream organization warning Americans what’s at risk if they continue to give up freedoms in the name of ‘safety’. That was before I explored the Freedom campaign at the Ad Council web site.

According to the Council web page:

 

Developed following the tragedies of September 11th, the Ad Council’s Campaign for Freedom is an unprecedented volunteer effort from the advertising industry. The initiative is designed to assist Americans during the war on terrorism through the development of timely and relevant PSAs. This first round of PSAs has been created to celebrate our nation’s freedom and remind Americans about the importance of freedom and the need to protect it for future generations. According to research, Americans are looking for messages that will inform, involve and inspire them during the war on terrorism. (emphasis added) This inspirational campaign is advertising’s gift to America. All of the ads conclude with the powerful tagline, “Freedom. Appreciate it. Cherish it. Protect it.”

I watched the TV commercials (all available at the web site) as a man is arrested for delivering newspapers, another for asking for forbidden books in a library, and church members attending services secretly. All the ads are intended to ‘inform’ the American public about what will happen if we don’t continue to support the war on Terror. All horrifyingly demonstrating the reality of what is happening to this country because of the war on terror.

 

The whole art consists of doing this so skillfully that everyone will be convinced that the fact is real, the process necessary, the necessity correct, etc. But since propaganda is not and cannot be the necessity in itself, since its function,
like the poster, consists in attracting the attention of the crowd, and not in educating those who are already educated or who are striving after education and knowledge, its effect for the most part must be aimed at the emotions and only to a very limited degree at the so-called intellect.

Adolf Hitler, “Mein Kampf