Freedom, Freedom, Freedom…
It’s more than “politics” that gets in the way of what’s right and good: blind nationalism, is often at a greater fault for much of the evil that’s ever been perpetuated — on all sides. Many Americans are finding easy to unquestionably swallow this administration’s lies because Bush & Co. have managed to tie American nationalism with support for the administration, support for their catastrophic policies, and with the memory of 9/11.
I’m always amazed at how so many of my fellow Americans fall into line so easily, and so readily repeat whatever the slogan of the day is. What’s the rule of advertisement, oh, yes: repetition, repetition, repetition… Freedom, freedom, freedom… Bush said the word 27 times during his inaugural, and went on to say in so many words that his administration would topple regimes to establish “freedom.” So, of course, many close observes of politics thought, Well, here’s a new Bush Doctrine and a new American policy. Not so fast, Bush Senior said, as he was sent before the cameras the following day to explain that his son was merely metaphorically speaking, and not spelling out anything concrete.
Now, of course, it is clear that Bush’s intent was to create a new excuse/reason, for having gone to war: First, it was weapons of mass destruction; then, it became terrorism; then, Bush said that Saddam Hussein was an evil man; and now, it’s freedom. Of course, what we have here is just another excuse to rationalize the Iraqi invasion. Bush’s repetitive use of the word “freedom” is nothing more than the latest slogan his supporters can rattle off to rationalize the war.
I wonder, what would have happened if at the state of the union speech where Bush said that Saddam Hussein possessed WMDs that threatened America, Bush had instead said, “We will invade Iraq, and a year and a half after the invasion 1,500 of your sons and daughters will have been killed; another 10,000 to 20,000 of them will have been wounded — many of them irreparably damaged for the rest of their lives; it’ll cost you, the American tax-payer an initial $200 billion dollars, and another $80 billion dollars a year and a half later; and, yes, we will remain in that part of world for many years to come — yes, this is a generational endeavor. Finally, you may be asking, why are we going, well, we’re invading Iraq to bring’em “Freedom” — we’re going there to nation build. I wonder how many of Bush’s supporters would’ve lined up to volunteer themselves for that cause? Remember, many of Bush’s supporters had long-been the most outspoken anti-”nation building” critics in the political landscape. Furthermore, many of them had long criticized what they considered the irresponsible and un-planned use of our military; and now, of course, out of blind-nationalism and party loyalty, many of them readily utter the latest slogan to come out of this administration: Freedom.
I, personally, as a former Marine and as an American, cannot pardon the irresponsible miss use of our military by the Bush administration. As an American, I cannot forgive their lies about WMD, nor their lies about the alleged links between Al Quada and Saddam Hussein… I know the Bush administration had lied to me about matters of life and death, and for that I will never forgive them.
