The Independent: "America's One-Eyed View of War"

This is an excellent article in The Independent and one would hope (for about the thousandth time) it might be a wake-up call to Americans. The grossly distorted view of the world we are getting from our government and our media is self-destructive.

We should be very concerned. This promotion of one viewpoint is not the natural result of a rational examination of the facts, resulting in a reasonable choice between competing opinions within a complex framework of varying perspectives. This is the promotion of a viewpoint in an effort to benefit a wide variety of interests of varying degrees of invisibility. All of those interests have one thing in common -- power, both the holding of it and the desire for it.

This then is a prime ingredient in a recipe we all know far too well. Combine the politics of hysteria with a subservient media with sophisticated propoganda and the result is a citizenry primed and ripe for exploitation.

We are marching, lockstep, into a situation that never turns out well. Indeed, the indications are we may be too far in to hope for a good or even satisfactory ending. However things turn out, though, we can guarantee it will be worse if we do not seek the truth by braving the complexity of the real situation rather than accept the simplicity of what is presented to us by the media and the government.

Time and again we hear from supporters of the current administration that in this time of war it is our duty to put aside questions and criticisms and get behind the president. Such an action would be deadly to this nation. Now is a time of crisis. One need look no further than the lies and manipulation of the country's leaders to see that. In a time of crisis, it is more than ever incumbent upon all American citizens to be informed, to question, to criticize, to demand, and to take control of our government, which has become far too convinced of its right to control us.