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-Caveat Lector-
THE MEDIA MENTALITY OF OBEDIENCE CONSENT
"To sin by silence when they should
protestmakes cowards of men."- Abraham Lincoln
By Norman Solomon / Creators
SyndicateAs the possibility of a U.S. invasion turns into the reality of
massive carnage, the war on Iraq cannot avoid confronting Americans with a tacit
expectation that rarely gets media scrutiny. In a word: obedience.When a
country -- particularly "a democracy" -- goes to war, the passive consent of the
governed lubricates the machinery of slaughter. Silence is a key form of
cooperation, but the war-making system does not insist on quietude or agreement.
Mere passivity or self-restraint will suffice to keep the missiles flying, the
bombs exploding and the faraway people dying.On the home front, beliefs
are of scant importance. Antiwar sentiment is necessary but insufficient to halt
a war. Much more is needed than expressions of dissent that stay within the
customary bounds.Daily media speculation about the starting date for
all-out war on Iraq has contributed to widespread passivity -- a kind of
spectator relationship to military actions being implemented in our
names.We can't just blame the media conglomerates and Washington
spinners for the prevailing stupor. After decades of desensitizing propaganda,
we routinely crave the insulation that news outlets offer. We tell ourselves
that our personal lives are difficult enough without getting too upset about
world events.The conventional wisdom of American political life has made
it predictable that editorial writers and politicians cannot resist
accommodating themselves to expediency by the time the first missiles reach
Baghdad. Conformist behavior -- in sharp contrast to authentic conscience -- is
notably plastic.A pathetic case in point is Sen. John Kerry, the
Massachusetts Democrat who voted for the congressional war resolution last
October while trying to pass himself off as a critic of President Bush's
enthusiasm for war. While campaigning in Iowa the other day for his party's
presidential nomination, Kerry told a New York Times reporter: "When the war
begins, if the war begins, I support the troops and I support the United States
of America winning as rapidly as possible. When the troops are in the field and
fighting -- if they're in the field and fighting -- remembering what it's like
to be those troops, I think they need a unified America that is prepared to
win."Prepared to win. Such a phrase rolls off an oily tongue with ease.
As a consequence, of course, many blameless people must die.Howard Dean,
a former governor of Vermont, is supposedly an antiwar candidate for the
Democratic presidential slot. On the campaign trail in Iowa, he "stopped short
when asked what he would say if there was a war," according to the
Times."You know, I don't know the answer to that yet," Dean said.
"Certainly I'm going to support American kids that are sent over there.
Obviously, I'm going to wish everybody well. You know, you root for your
country."You root for your country. No matter how horrific its
actions.Billions of buds on countless flowers and trees will wondrously
open across the United States during the next weeks. Meanwhile, the Pentagon's
firepower will destroy uncounted human beings in Iraq during what will be, to
put it mildly, a war of aggression.Judgments at Nuremberg and precepts
of international law forbid launching aggressive war -- an apt description of
what the U.S. government has in store for Iraqi people this
spring."We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which
their fallen leaders are
