If any doubt remains that the mainstream media has devolved into nothing short of a Soviet-esque propaganda monolith, let it be dispelled now.
In case you hadn't heard, five "contractors" were "kidnapped" in southern Iraq on Friday. Don't get me wrong: I have nothing but sympathy for the families of these men who were just trying to make a living. Less sympathy accrues to the men themselves, who used their military training to abet an illegal war in search of riches.
The enormous misery caused by this goatfuck of a war makes me sad, but when the media resorts to Orwellian nomenclature, it just pisses me off.
What do you call someone who carries a gun in a foreign country for profit? The media calls them "contractors," as if they were remodeling kitchens. A strict dictionary definition would define them as mercenaries. We the taxpayers are shelling out six-figure salaries to these "security experts." Mercenaries throughout history have always been more expensive than regulars. Nothing new here, just a new word for an old profession.
Calling mercenaries "contractors" is kind of funny if you view it with a level of detachment, but the whole "kidnapping" thing is just repulsive. These guys are not victims. They are not some poor little Richie Riches shivering at gunpoint in some backwoods cabin. They, more than any grunt GI, voluntarily signed up for war, seeking wealth for themselves; or maybe they like war, in which case, to hell with 'em. I have no sympathy for these assholes. When they are captured, it's just the cost of doing business. It's a known risk. It's why they make the big bucks.
How is it that we just lap up this crazy distortion of the truth? Why haven't people risen up and taken direct action? How has the "land of the free and home of the brave" become the land of the lazy, dumb, and timid? It's not all our fault. Those "contractors" are not victims; we are victims of a very slick propaganda machine that lulls us into complacency as people die in our names and our currency is devalued and debased to the point that, pretty soon, karma is gonna be a real bitch. You don't really think Uncle Sam can just keep pulling money out of his ass forever, do you? The basic law of supply and demand dictates that this orgy of borrowing that enables the war will eventually render the dollar worth less if not worthless.
Still, somehow, we (most of us, anyway) miss the obvious. The morphing of mercenaries into "contractors" and capture on the battlefield into "kidnap" slips right by unchallenged by reason. The inevitable bankruptcy of our nation and total collapse of our currency -- with all the terrifying ramifications -- is the furthest thing from our minds.
Your perceptions are being cynically manipulated! Doesn't that piss you off at all? I mean, I don't mind it if they plant something like "Have a Coke and a Smile" in my head, but when they warp the basic truth so that they can rob and kill... well, it bugs me just a little. Am I the only fucking one?
Propaganda is un-American. I don't want to live in the USSR or Nazi Germany. I want my goddamn country back!