Here is news of the Third World War. The United States has invaded Africa. US troops have entered Somalia, extending their war front from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen and now the Horn of Africa. In preparation for an attack on Iran, American missiles have been placed in four Persian Gulf states, and "bunker-buster" bombs are said to be arriving at the US base on the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
In Gaza, the sick and abandoned population, mostly children, is being entombed behind underground American-supplied walls in order to reinforce a criminal siege. In Latin America, the Obama administration has secured seven bases in Colombia, from which to wage a war of attrition against the popular democracies in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay. Meanwhile, the secretary of "defense" Robert Gates complains that "the general [European] public and the political class" are so opposed to war they are an "impediment" to peace. Remember this is the month of the March Hare.
According to an American general, the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan is not so much a real war as a "war of perception". Thus, the recent "liberation of the city of Marja" from the Taliban's "command and control structure" was pure Hollywood. Marja is not a city; there was no Taliban command and control. The heroic liberators killed the usual civilians, poorest of the poor. Otherwise, it was fake. A war of perception is meant to provide fake news for the folks back home, to make a failed colonial adventure seem worthwhile and patriotic, as if The Hurt Locker were real and parades of flag-wrapped coffins through the Wiltshire town of Wooten Basset were not a cynical propaganda exercise.
Pilger's in fine form in this piece.
Elections are coming. The question is, are most Americans going to vote again to continue to support this war? Maybe in 2008 they had the excuse of being fooled by Obama and the Democrats. But, in 2010, there is no doubt that a vote for either the Democrats are the Republicans is a vote for more war. There are usually other names on the ballot. And if not, you can usually put one there. Or at worst organize a write in campaign.
There's this belief somehow that the American people don't support the slaughter and the detentions and the torture. That belief is bolstered by the great lengths gone to in order to both hide what is going on as well as to cover it with explanations and lies. All of this leads to the belief that the American people wouldn't support these wars deliberately.
But, at some point, the people will have voted in support of these wars too many times for that belief to continue.
