Carpe Datum

War, Ho!

It's worth catching up on Art Silber over at "The Light of Reason" once in a while. He's one of the most eloquent and consistent libertarian writers out there, and he never fails to unmask the fake libertarians infesting the Right Wing Nutball Brigade. He tells us what he thinks of the current state of affairs today:

The evidence of the ascendance of a uniquely American version of fascism , in the form of a virulent and spreading corporate statism which has expanded the military-industrial complex into an all-consuming monstrous behemoth , is all around us and increases every day. This incipient fascism (which began its most recent rise with Reagan and the New Right in the 1980s) has been provided with an invaluable and incalculable boost by Bush’s purposely never-defined and intentionally never-ending “War on Terror.” Bush and his many defenders can only deny these obvious and profoundly dangerous truths if they are remarkably unintelligent, if they wilfully blind themselves to basic political principles and their logical implications, and/or if they are willing propagandists for the all-powerful Welfare-Warfare State. The only “innocent” explanation is stupidity. Bush’s accomplices and enablers are welcome to avail themselves of that explanation if they wish. [...]

The fate of those who dissent —that is, those who dare to question or, heaven forfend, even to criticize the government’s propaganda line about the “War on Terror” or any of its many facets—has been clear for some time now. All such people are demonized in advance : they are accused of undermining our “national will ,” of undercutting the fight against our enemies at a time of great national peril, and even of treason—of being “on the other side.” In this theology, to question the exercise of government power in any serious manner at all is to place oneself in the camp of the enemy, and to make onself a traitor. Similarly, if any cowardly member of our media should momentarily forget his or her place and report a story which calls into question any item of government propaganda, then the reporter and the newspaper or magazine is a killer . Be sure to grasp the complete inversion of the truth involved here: our government waging an entirely unnecessary war against a country that never threated us does not result in death and destruction, but publishing a small item in a magazine does . And our media, with very, very rare exceptions, is happy to accommodate and mold itself to the government’s demands, thus ensuring that it deserves no respect at all from anyone capable of serious thought.

Mr. Bush himself takes part in this attack on anyone who dissents whenever he has the chance, no matter how massive the evidence supporting anyone’s criticisms of his administration. Thus, in the midst of his press conference yesterday—during which occasion, I note, not one member of our courageous press dared to ask a single question about the Downing Street Memo (and sign Conyers’ letter , if you haven’t already—he needs 100,000 signatures)—Mr. Bush said the following :

QUESTION : Mr. President, recently Amnesty International said you have established, quote, a new gulag of prisons around the world beyond the reach of the law and decency.

I’d like your reaction to that, and also your assessment of how it came to this—that that is a view not just held by extremists and anti-Americans, but by groups that have allied themselves with the United States government in the past, and what the strategic impact is that in many places in the world the United States these days under your leadership is no longer seen as the good guy.

BUSH : I’m aware of the Amnesty International report, and it’s absurd. It’s an absurd allegation.

The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world. When there’s accusations made about certain actions by our people, they’re fully investigated in a transparent way.

It’s just an absurd allegation.

In terms of, you know, the detainees, we’ve had thousands of people detained. We’ve investigated every single complaint against the detainees.

It seemed like to me they based some of their decisions on the word of and the allegations by people that were held in detention, people who hate America, people that have been trained in some instances to disassemble, that means not tell the truth.

BUSH : And so it was an absurd report. It just is.

A very brief aside: does it bother other people that we have an illiterate war criminal as president? Not that many other people, or at least not nearly enough, it would appear. At least he managed to memorize the word “absurd.” [...]

Bloggers, too, get into this act—informing us that on Memorial Day of all days, we shouldn’t criticize our government in any manner at all, since that would be “unpatriotic” and would undercut the sacrifices made by our military personnel. (“Memorial Day is not a time to separate out which of the dead served and died for good reasons or bad; to second-guess which decisions to declare war, launch a campaign or charge a hill were justified or not ...”) Not surprisingly, such comments came from The Volokh Conspiracy —Central Headquarters for those Court Intellectuals who willingly propagandize for the government on all the points that matter, while they delude themselves that they maintain their “credibility” because they question the government on issues that pale into insignificance by comparison. Other Court Intellectuals might be impressed, but those people capable of thinking for themselves should not be. (Keep in mind that that the blogger and law professor for whom the Conspiracy is named recently revealed himself to be nothing more than your common everyday sadist . Well, hopefully not all that common, although that may be a losing battle at this point.)

I continue to be amazed that people who otherwise would seem to be in command of their faculties are unable or unwilling to acknowledge that two entirely separable issues are involved. On the one hand, one can deeply admire and be profoundly grateful for someone’s military service, and his (or her) willingness to even give his life on behalf of his country. On the other, one can recognize that the government itself engaged in a series of blunders and lies, and that this administration (as well as a number of previous ones) has no compunction whatsoever about killing those people it is sworn to protect in an unnecessary and counterproductive cause. Are these concepts truly that complicated? For some, it would appear that they are.

Lots more at the link, including a common-sense case for impeachment and conviction, the only chance of which would come with a miracle mid-term election in which Democrats are elected to majorities in both houses. Not that Democrats would do it, the spineless cowards, but it's sure fun to dream of the train wreck.

Posted by Observer at June 1, 2005 05:55 PM