I grew up under a government that lied constantly to its people about important matters and engaged in all manner of evil and wrongdoing. Time and time again terrible crimes at the highest levels of government came to light and went unpunished. The government that lied us into Vietnam is the same government that lied us into Iraq, the same government that has sanctioned preemptive war, assassination and torture – the same government for that matter that slaughtered the Indians and took their land. Make no mistake about this, our government is up to no good and needs to be stopped. It is nothing but a miracle of propaganda that they have persuaded so many decent people into supporting anything and everything they do and have done for so damned long.
IMO we all need to thank our lucky stars for the rebels among us: Daniel Ellsberg, Bradley Manning, Julian Assange and all the rest.
If our government's actions are evil...and someone reveals them, they are acting heroically...laws, oaths or regulations notwithstanding.
All these secrets are covering up unspeakable horrors committed in all of our names. I, for one, have had my fill of it.
We as American citizens should not accept torture by our government, and that's what the military is doing to Bradley Manning.
In the earliest days of our Republic, a group of well-meaning Philadelphia Quakers set out to reform the prison system. The idea was to remove convicts from the mayhem and corruption of overcrowded jails to solitary cells where sinners would return to mental and spiritual health through reflection. In the Walnut Street Jail, no windows would distract the prisoners with street life; no conversation would disturb their penitence. Alone with God, they would be rehabilitated.
There was a small problem. Many of the prisoners went insane. The Walnut Street Jail was shut down in 1835.
WikiLeaks: Locking Up Whistleblower Bradley Manning in Solitary Confinement Puts America's Depravity on Full Display
Way too many people seem to have an awful lot of faith in our government's good intentions. Where does that come from? Are they not counting the same lies that I am? Are they really unaware of the thievery and corruption? Can they not smell the stench of death?
As Americans, do we have an enormous tolerance for governmental lies wired into our psyches? Do they somehow get a 'we're the government' pass on any and all violations of the law or good conscience? Are we, nevertheless, always and forever going to give them the benefit of the doubt? No matter what outrageous lies they tell us? No matter how much they steal? No matter who they torture? No matter who or how many they kill?
Wikileaks has shown that our government and military form a 'vast lying machine' that perpetrates mass murder in our name.
"Try as I may I can not escape the sound of suffering. Perhaps as an old man I will accept suffering with insouciance. But not now; men in their prime, if they have convictions are tasked to act on them."
Julian Assange
Do you believe that it is in Americans' interest to allow a small group of U.S. leaders to unilaterally murder, maim, imprison and/or torture anyone they choose anywhere in the world, without the knowledge let alone oversight of their citizens or the international community? And, despite their proven record of failure to protect America -- from Indochina to Iran to Iraq -- do you believe they should be permitted to clandestinely expand their war-making without informed public debate? If so, you are betraying the principles upon which America was founded, endangering your nation, and displaying a distinctly "unamerican" subservience to unaccountable authority. But if you oppose autocratic power, you are called to support Wikileaks and others trying to limit U.S. Executive Branch mass murder abroad and failure to protect Americans at home.
WikiLeaks' Most Terrifying Revelation: Just How Much Our Government Lies to Us
It's time to quit accepting, defending or even embracing what these bastards have done and are doing still. It's time to stand up against these monsters. It's time to do the right thing.
Don't be afraid of boogeymen, these bastards are real, they were the ones Eisenhower warned us about...and they own our damned government - lock, stock and barrel.
In 1961, Dwight Eisenhower famously identified the military-industrial complex, warning that the growing fusion between corporations and the armed forces posed a threat to democracy. Judged 50 years later, Ike’s frightening prophecy actually understates the scope of our modern system—and the dangers of the perpetual march to war it has put us on.
The Tyranny of Defense Inc. by Andrew J. Bacevich
h/t to teacherken for the Bacevich quote and link.
More from teacherken:
Ponder that for moment - a military hero, in 1953, was arguing that the diversion of resources away from social purposes to the destructive purposes of war depletes rather than enhances the nation's strength. In other words, it makes us LESS secure.
The Tyranny of Defense Inc. by teacherken
Further examples of egregious, aggressive and militaristic misbehavior on the part of our government:
School of the Americas: School of Assassins, USA
737 U.S. Military Bases = Global Empire
Is America on the path to 'permanent war'?
World Has Had Enough Of U.S. Imperialism
These realities should not be remotely acceptable to any of us. No thinking person can in good conscience defend, rationalize or make a case for supporting this alarming behavior on the part of our government. Any defense of it begins with a government lie. We need to stop swallowing that shit and put a stop to this insanity before it kills us all.
It's not our entire government that's evil. There are great swathes of it that do many good things. It's the corrupt leadership that festers and rots, and like a cancer needs to be cut out. I don't advocate for lesser or smaller government. I advocate for better government. If we had a benign and honest government, one that was actually devoted to the common welfare, one that would attend appropriately to the many pressing threats to our continued existence, one that was above corruption and bribery and wasn't dedicated to war-profiteering and imperialism, I think it's safe to say that we'd all be glad to have more of it. I know that I would take all of that I could get.
But...
"The sources that have deceived us so constantly don't deserve our trust."
War Made Easy
These thieving, war-profiteering bastards are hiding behind 'State Secrets' and making fools and paupers of us all while condemning humanity to extinction.
ENOUGH!
Don't They Know?
Special thanks to the makers of War Made Easy and Hijacking Catastrophe for the use of their trailers in my mash-up and Skeeter Davis for The End of the World and Marmalade for Reflections of My Life.
Once a Chinese friend of mine told me that all governments are dominated by evil men. I've never forgotten it, and while I reluctantly agree that it may well be true, I live for the day when it is not.
Long live the rebels!
Wikileaks Mirror Sites
