Supporting Our Troops Means To Resist Thought-Control

Supporting Our Troops Means To Resist Thought-Control

By Kevin Weaver

Support our troops…

To the peace movement, that has always meant supporting their right to live, to defend this country against true aggressors, and to have healthy and prosperous lives as full-time soldiers and veterans. But when the mainstream media and the right-wing pundits say "support our troops" they mean something different. What they mean is don't question or oppose the Bush administration's motives for war. To do so, they say, would be akin to treason or aiding and abetting the enemy; even to become the enemy itself. Again they are hoping to revive the "support our troops" propaganda used during the first Gulf War to crush real and possible anti-war dissent seething beneath the American conscience. Unlike Gulf War I, this war is an invasion and is widely opposed throughout the world. I'm afraid the White House press corps and their subsidiaries will have to work overtime to whip the American public back in line, especially since not that long ago we were forced to step outside of our self-imposed isolation and ask ourselves "why does the world hate us?". It's crucial for the Bush administration, and Bush's re-election campaign, that we don't connect the dots. But so far it seems the rehash of the yellow ribbon campaign is proving successful, in large part thanks to the mainstream press.

In wartime, propaganda is a weapon. The unusually public debate that occurred in the US military over whether to destroy Iraqi television is a prime example as the US generals try to walk a fine line between uncontrolled aggression and a strained public relations campaign. One researcher from the right-wing Heritage Foundation, who was recently quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, has already labeled this war a "politically correct" war since in his opinion we haven't killed enough Iraqi civilians and destroyed their media.

If only this was Afghanistan, he must say.

Ending the debate once and for all, US military finally did bomb Iraqi television, violating the much talked about Geneva Conventions. The same conventions the United States, standing on her soapbox, uses to criticize and attack Iraqi and Al Jazeera television when they show American prisoners of war, but which they conveniently feign ignorance of when CNN broadcasts the same type of footage of captured Iraqis. The attacks on Al Jazeera, the Arab equivalent to CNN based in Qatar, and free speech have already begun as pro-war hackers attacking the Al Jazeera English website made it inaccessible for several days. In the war on Afghanistan, the US military "accidentally" blew up the building of the local Al Jazeera affiliate – collateral damage they claim. In their artful game, US military tells us that in order for their invasion to be successful, they must make the enemy's (an ever-expanding category) voice disappear. But to think they're confining their strategy only to Iraq is a mistake. Flip the channel to any American news station and with a spoonful of sugar, the lies and cover-ups go down. For the White House, it's better if we see only what the government and the military wants us to see and this is what many American journalists in bed (not embedded) with the military also believe.

To our detriment, knocking out the enemy's media in Iraq also translates into the Bush administration's domestic program, where the enemy of the administration is the non-corporate, alternative press that is quickly disappearing thanks to a military General's son. Michael Powell, son of Secretary of State Colin Powell and a Republican, is chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and under who's direction is allowing media conglomeration to occur at an unprecedented rate, with mega-media corporations sucking up independent news outlets across the country. One only has to look at Clear Channel and their banning of the song "Imagine" by John Lennon from hundreds of radio stations to see that one doesn't have to bomb the uncooperative media in this country – you just buy it and slowly strangle it to death. Like a frog slowly lowered into boiling water so that it doesn't reactively save itself, this is the American way of coercion and compliance in virtually bombing the media.

Right now, how many of the soldiers in Iraq, supposedly defending our "way of life", know that their rights to free speech and access to information are not being hijacked by the evil Saddam Hussein but by the same Bush administration that has sent them off to die? Who's image is being hijacked by NBC, owned by General Electric – maker of bombs, to sell a lemon of a war like slick used car salesmen. And ultimately, who will be forgotten when this is so-called war is over, like the Gulf War I vets who continue to die from Gulf War Syndrome-related illnesses.

I have some harsh news for our troops. They are not defending our rights. It may be a hard pill to swallow for them and their loved ones, but the fact of the matter is that in this war of aggression, they are merely pawns in a rich, oilman's game. It is not them but us, the civilian opponents of the Bush regime who are out in the streets and public plazas, who are defending and fighting for that which makes America great. They will not bomb our way to freedom at home, as much as they will not bomb Iraq into a peaceful democracy.

Here at home we have the advantage. We have a voice and must use it. We have the power to do something now to support free speech, and yes believe it or not, by doing so we are also supporting the troops. If you want the truth, question authority wherever you find it. And when you find an independent news source that's providing you with the news you deserve, not just "the news fit to print", fight like hell to keep it. That's what we did with KPFA in Berkeley and that's the struggle we continue to fight. Because we, as American civilians, whether you are a pacifist or a hawk, are now fighting a real war. This war is more important than any war to date because it's casualties are too numerous to count and it's effects will be around long after the bodies stop smoldering. This war is a war for our minds. This war is a war to preserve our democracy, not from a foreign aggressor, but from members of our own society.

Remember that the next time you are asked if you "support the troops".




Kevin Weaver is a San Francisco-based social justice activist and organizer for the Out Against the War Coalition, a coalition of anti-war lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer groups and individuals.