The Afghan War, Terrorism And Media Propaganda

As 2010 winds down, I am reminded that there is no Imperial policy more reprehensible and shameful than the war in Afghanistan. This war is constantly presented to Americans as an integral part of the War On Terrorism, but it is no such thing. The Afghan war is a pointless, expensive, destructive exercise in futility whereby American power is projected into southern Asia for God Only Knows what purpose at this point. Those who remember the Vietnam War, which was a much, much bigger senseless, destructive exercise in futility, know what I'm talking about.

Some folks old enough to remember Vietnam chained themselves to the White House fence earlier this month to protest the Afghan war. If you didn't hear about it, that's no surprise, as Dave Lindorff reports at the website This Can't Be Happening—

There was a black-out and a white-out Thursday and Friday [December 16^th and 17^th] as over a hundred US veterans opposed to US wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world, and their civilian supporters, chained and tied themselves to the White House fence during an early snowstorm to say enough is enough.

Washington Police arrested 135 of the protesters, in what is being called the largest mass detention in recent years. Among those arrested were Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst who used to provide the president’s daily briefings, Daniel Ellsberg, who released the government’s Pentagon Papers during the Nixon administration, and Chris Hedges, former war correspondent for the New York Times.

No major US news media reported on the demonstration or the arrests. It was blacked out of the New York Times, blacked out of the Philadelphia Inquirer, blacked out in the Los Angeles Times, blacked out of the Wall Street Journal, and even blacked out of the capital’s local daily, the Washington Post, which apparently didn't even think it was a local story worth publishing an article about (they simply ran a photo of Ellsberg with a short caption)...

Clearly, in the US the corporate media perform a different function [than real reporting]. It’s called propaganda. And the handling of this dramatic protest by American veterans against the nation’s current war provides a dramatic illustration of how far the news industry and the journalism profession has converted itself from a Fourth Estate to a handmaiden to power.

It's true—the "media" in this country are nothing more than servants of Imperial power. What they don't tell you is often far more important than what they do. And weirdly, even as the story about the war protest was blacked out, an ABC/Washington Post poll showed that 60% of Americans believe the war has been a total disaster—

A record 60 percent of Americans say the war in Afghanistan has not been worth fighting, a grim assessment — and a politically hazardous one — in advance of the Obama administration's one-year review of its revised strategy.

Public dissatisfaction with the war, now the nation's longest, has spiked by 7 points just since July. Given its costs vs. its benefits, only 34 percent in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say the war's been worth fighting, down by 9 points to a new low, by a sizable margin.

You're allowed to think the war is a waste of time, but Heaven Help You if you protest it. And here's another story you're not likely to hear much about. Apparently some reporters at the Wall Street Journal—the mainstream media is not yet a total loss—got a hold of some UN maps that contradict the story that progress has been made in Afghanistan.

The Wall Street Journal was able to view two confidential "residual risk accessibility" maps, one compiled by the U.N. at the annual fighting season's start in March 2010 and another at its tail end in October. The maps, used by U.N. personnel to gauge the dangers of travel and running programs, divide the country's districts into four categories: very high risk, high risk, medium risk and low risk.

In the October map, just as in March's, nearly all of southern Afghanistan—the focus of the coalition's military offensives—remained painted the red of "very high risk," with no noted improvements. At the same time, the green belt of "low risk" districts in northern, central and western Afghanistan shriveled.

The security situation in Afghanistan is getting worse, not better, but that's not the "official" story as reported by Salon in two separate stories—

The big takeaway from the Obama administration's review of the Afghan war this month was that the strategy is working. But a new independent assessment [the UN maps story] suggests just the opposite: that, in fact, the situation is deteriorating.

[And from Salon's report on the Obama administration review.]

The White House today [December 16] released a summary of the results of its Afghan war review (the full version is classified), attempting to put a positive spin on a war that is claiming more American lives and dollars than ever before.

The review summary offers no specifics or evidence to back up its conclusions, but here is the key paragraph propaganda message:

Specific components of our strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan are working well and there are notable operational gains. Most important, al-Qa’ida’s senior leadership in Pakistan is weaker and under more sustained pressure than at any other point since it fled Afghanistan in 2001. In Pakistan, we are laying the foundation for a strategic partnership based on mutual respect and trust, through increased dialogue, improved cooperation, and enhanced exchange and assistance programs. And in Afghanistan, the momentum achieved by the Taliban in recent years has been arrested in much of the country and reversed in some key areas, although these gains remain fragile and reversible.

One could list lies, contradictions and omissions in offical statements and reporting about Afghanistan all day long and still not be nearly finished. After all, the war is entering its 10^th year.

Here is the bottom line: the media have bludgeoned Americans with the terrorism threat over and over and over again ever since the 9/11 attack. The true purpose of this reporting could not be more obvious, whether it's done intentionally or simply because the media is psychologically co-opted. A fearful populace is an obedient populace. We must be reminded time and time again that radical Muslims or others who reject the wonderful benefits of Western Civilization are a greater threat to the American Way Of Life than astonishing wealth inequality, growing poverty, predatory and parasitic Wall Street banks, corrupt politicians and any of the thousand other ills that beset the United States.

How bad has the terrorism propaganda become? I want you to watch this video of the PBS News Hour "news wrap" for Monday, December 27^th.  Watch it very carefully in light of what I just told you.

Did you get that? The "news wrap" for the day includes—

• Drone attacks killed 18 "suspected" militants in Pakistan
• A female suicide bomber killed 43 at a UN food distribution center in Pakistan
• Experts defused a parcel bomb delivered to the Greek embassy in Rome by Italian anarchists
• Police in Britain charged 9 terror suspects with plotting bomb attacks
• Government troops were on patrol in Nigeria after Christmas violence between Christians and Muslims
• The US Senate race in Alaska is settled, Lisa Murkowski will take the seat
• Wall Street had a quiet day, the Dow was down 18 points to close at 11,555

Terrorism, terrorism, bomb threat, terrorism, Muslims versus Christians, politics, and the stock market. I hope you realize that the selection of stories which PBS deemed "newsworthy" on Monday is distorted beyond all recognition, a total assault on your peace of mind, and otherwise completely deranged. That's how bad things have become. And now, to complete this exercise in consciousness-raising, watch the video again.

Comments

[Jason]

Dave, Thank you for bringing this up, this element of DOTE which I think is the most tragic and vomit-producing. I see our vets from time to time for head injuries, but many are psychically scared. This HBO special does some justice to this issue: "War Torn 1861-2010" (no link, need subscription).

But, we ravage innocent civilians of other counties as well. In this new documentary "The War You Don't See" by John Pilger (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cJ9ca0ed64) I was appalled by the ratio of civilian deaths to military deaths looked at from WWI, WWI, Vietnam, and now Iraq.

[BJ]

Be afraid, very afraid. Afraid of what you may ask? I don't care, as long as you are afraid, so THEY can come to our rescue. Americans, if not humans, love the bogeyman, we can't get enough of him.

Remember the good old days, when the Red Menace was the bogeyman? When that bogeyman was eliminated, a new one had to be created, pronto, less we not be controlled by fear. Yes, be afraid.

I was in the military back in the 1980s operating under terrorist threats, but at that time, the media and most Americans were only aware of the Red Menace. Even back then, you quickly learned you were expendable, of no value to the powers that be. At times I wasn't allowed to arm and protect myself, fearing I kill someone, even though I was told repeatedly I would be targeted, simply for being an American. In one foriegn country, I was being guarded by men with machine guns, but I was unarmed. This is who is protecting you, those who likely cannot protect themselves. Oh yes, the good old days.

Of course if we ended the war on terror, how many millions would become unemployed almost over night? The "war" will continue for at least as long as unemployment is high, or until cheap money dries up and no one values our Monopoly money.

[Tim Hammond]

The purpose in Afghanistan has always been and continues to be the TAPI pipeline project expected to be completed in 2014. Does that date sound familiar? It should. For official background see http://tim-hammond.com/why

NATO is now training the Afghan Army to protect the pipeline which does not yet exist. Four major US military bases are now located along the planned route of the pipeline.

Enron was deeply involved early on before going belly up. Halliburton still is involved. Unocal abandoned the project in 1999 but China is now financing the project. Coincidentally, Hillary Clinton refers to China as our banker. How does a debtor nation respond to the wishes of their banker? Perhaps our insane commitment to a pipeline project in Afghanistan is even bigger than the insatiable profit motives of our military industrial complex.

[Morocco Bama]

Very good point, Tim. I've suggested that for years, but I've also observed that although that was the initial driving impetus for the campaign, the campaign is now even larger than that....and, of course, why not? There are many revenue streams and geopolitical strategies that have been grafted to the Afghanistan Occupation. For example, heroin. Let's face it, the CIA is the largest and most powerful drug cartel in the world and Afghanistan, post invasion, is the largest supplier of heroin....ostensibly right under the nose of the most powerful fighting force in the history of Civilization. I don't believe in a coincidence that preposterous, and neither should anyone else. War is sinister, and never for officially proclaimed ends stated. It's always about the spoils and those who execute are witting, or unwitting, mercenary pawns for the moneyed interests who stand to gain everything from their misdirected "sacrifice."

[Cynthia]

Just what I was thinking, Tim. Did you read, "Beyond the Rubicon" by Michael Ruppert? He lays it all out in his book... the game plan by the Neocons.

Concerning the lack of coverage of the protests: all I could think of was "China". It reminded me so much of China! Where did my country go?!

[Gail]

When I was a young mother the biggest threat I perceived to a habitable climate and stable society in the future for my children was Reagan's Star Wars plans and so I dragged my baby to all sorts of protests. One time RR made a campaign stop at the little neighboring town in our rural area, because he like the name - "Whitehouse." So I and my merry band of protesters brought our posters and signs to a field and sat in the center of the bleachers, comprising a goodly percentage of the audience, and listened politely to his speech. Then we went home, all excited to see the media coverage of our demonstration, because there were lots of cameras.

Every major channel in the NY metro area had panoramic footage of the rally, and every single one started to the right of our group, panned across the bleachers, the podium, and back to the bleachers, stopping just short of us and our signs.

That's when I learned that the media is owned by unscrupulous people.

Since then it was really fascinating to learn recently that after Star Wars was rendered obsolete by the fall of the Soviet Union, the same proponents of the project turned their jaundiced ambitions to found the George C. Marshall Institute where they honed the strategies of sowing doubt on science in the tobacco wars, before expanding their corrupt attention to denying climate change science which happens now to be, in poetic irony, the biggest threat I perceive to a habitable climate and stable society in the future for my children.

[Morocco Bama]

Tom, that was also an excellent link, and I appreciate the highlighting. It's pretty much right there, out in the open, for all to see.....but there are no eyes to see, unfortunately, or not nearly enough. I'm glad you brought up the part about China's function in the endeavor. The average Joe believes China and the U.S. are diametrically opposed. In otherwords, they have swallowed the propaganda, when in fact, the opposite is true. China and the U.S. may not be one and the same, but that day is not too far off. A globalized solution of governance is pragmatically being conjured and I believe it will look similar to the Feudalism of the past, only more bells and whistles. Here's an excellent article on the symbiosis inculcating between China and the U.S. China, I believe, is the experimental prototype for the eventually rolled out Corporate Feudalistic Global Governance Initiative.

http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/05/chinas-all-seeing-eye

"""The security cameras are just one part of a much broader high-tech surveillance and censorship program known in China as "Golden Shield." The end goal is to use the latest people-tracking technology — thoughtfully supplied by American giants like IBM, Honeywell and General Electric — to create an airtight consumer cocoon: a place where Visa cards, Adidas sneakers, China Mobile cellphones, McDonald's Happy Meals, Tsingtao beer and UPS delivery (to name just a few of the official sponsors of the Beijing Olympics) can be enjoyed under the unblinking eye of the state, without the threat of democracy breaking out. With political unrest on the rise across China, the government hopes to use the surveillance shield to identify and counteract dissent before it explodes into a mass movement like the one that grabbed the world's attention at Tiananmen Square.

Remember how we've always been told that free markets and free people go hand in hand? That was a lie. It turns out that the most efficient delivery system for capitalism is actually a communist-style police state, fortressed with American "homeland security" technologies, pumped up with "war on terror" rhetoric. And the global corporations currently earning superprofits from this social experiment are unlikely to be content if the lucrative new market remains confined to cities such as Shenzhen. Like everything else assembled in China with American parts, Police State 2.0 is ready for export to a neighborhood near you."""

[jcg1969]

I continue to think after this discussion that civilian deaths are the marker here for DOTE...in the documentary I placed above here are the numbers:

WWI: 10% of the dead were civilians
WWI: 50%
Vietnam: 70%
Iraq: 90%

"The killing of civilians and wilfully causing great suffering is a war crime" 4th Geneva Convention 1949.

Breaking this convention is a sign of a desperate people.