[img]583|left|Eric L. Wattree||no_popup[/img]The American propaganda machine tells us that Muslims are a hostile people who hate American freedom.
The most cursory examination of that claim reveals the evidence is highly flawed. Yet the American people have been persuaded.
This suggests people have learned nothing from our experience with the Nazis, and that the biggest threat to America is the propaganda machine itself.
The primary argument against the claim is that we had no problem with Muslims until we Western “Christians” and “Jews” began our imperialistic excursion into the Middle East.
Prior to that time, Muslims were content to be left alone to practice their religion in their own lands. When we discuss Muslim hostility towards America, keep two things in mind:
• First, all the hell we are raising over the loss of 3,000 citizens on Sept. 11. If we've been impacted to our core, how do you think Muslims feel over the loss of hundreds of thousands of their people resulting from the unjust and illegal invasion of Iraq?
• Second, while we are quick to call Muslims aggressors, we are invading their countries. They are not invading ours.
Americans tend to believe that American lives are more valuable than the lives of other people. When Americans are killed we never stop talking about it. It goes down in the history books. But when we kill innocent women and children in other countries, we say, “Oops. Sorry 'bout that.”
Then we expect people to forget about it. Look at what Obama said about Bush and Cheney's war crimes: “We want to look forward, not back.” What is he talking about?
Bush killed close to a million people for nothing more than corporate greed. How can we expect to dismiss the killing of a million men, wome, and children by saying, let bygones be bygones?
Propaganda Was the Vehicle
One can only wonder if Obama would have taken that position if his family had been among that million? I doubt it. That one remark that opened my eyes regarding our President.
While I consider Obama the best we've got, he is far from an angel. The remark reminded me Obama also is the product of a propaganda machine, his own. I never allow myself to forget that even though Obama is an impressive man, he's a politician, not the Messiah.
Americans need to recognize that life is not a football game. It is not good enough to just pull for our side, regardless of whether we are talking about the nation, political parties or individual politicians.
We have to pull for justice, not only our team. If we continue to allow propaganda machines to cloud our minds, none of us will be safe.
It's Muslims who are being demonized today, but tomorrow it may be Blacks, Hispanics, Jews, activists, the entire middle class, or whatever group is convenient to meet our rulers' needs. I said rulers because those who control our minds, control our destiny.
The propaganda machine is an insidious device, telling us what we want to hear, helping us hide what we don't want to see. It has the seductive properties of a drug.
We Are Just as Guilty
Take terrorism, defined as the killing of innocent non-combatants for political gain. Keeping that definition in mind, we must not forget we are the only country on earth that ever dropped an atomic bomb on not one, but two cities, killing and maiming hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.
As horrible as Sept. 11 was, that atrocity makes it look insignificant.
Accepting that we committed such a horrible act is inconsistent with the image we so passionately embrace of ” a shining city on a hill.” After Sept. 11, our propaganda machine swung into action, helping us to justify that action by convincing us we only did it to save the lives of thousands of American troops.
There is a serious flaw in the argument because it affirms a belief terrorism is justified at times. By our own definition, the United States is a terrorist state.
The only difference between Muslim terrorists and American or “Christian” terrorists is that we have a more efficient delivery system.
Before someone shouts I am un-American, remember truth and justice is the American way. What I have told you is true and just. This is not my opinion. Every word is verifiable, based on logic. Like mathematics, logic doesn't lie.
Mr. Wattree may be contacted at wattree.blogspot.com or Ewattree@Gmail.com
Religious bigotry: It’s not that I hate everyone who doesn’t look, think, and act like me – it’s just that God does
