Re: It turns out that CNN manipulated the news again!

[Dave Stratman <Newdem@AOL.COM>]

In a message dated 9/18/2001 2:18:27 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
Victor.Steinbok@VERIZON.NET writes:


> But preaching that the US brought it on itself is
> absolutely ridiculous. Neither most of the employees in the Pentagon
> nor the passangers and crew of the four flights nor the people in WTC
> did anything to deserve being in the line of fire.

Victor--

You're confusing things here that ought not to be confused. The US government
and the American people are not the same. To argue--as Doug Selwyn has done
and as I would--that the brutal policies and actions of the US government in
the Middle East and elswhere created the conditions in which desperate people
do desparate, even savage, things such as last week's bombings, is not to
argue that the thousands who died or lost loved ones in the events are
anything but innocent victims. But they are victims not only of the
hijackers' flying bombs but also of the US government and the powers which it
represents.

It is important to note that these terrible events will have dramatically
different effects on the government from what they will have on ordinary
people. Many Americans have already suffered greatly from these horrors, and
the rest of us, who may have no direct connections with the immediate
victims, will likely feel their impact for many years--in diminished civil
liberties, in raids on Social Security and other programs in the name of
increased military expenditures, in an atmosphere of deepened social
anxieties and increased pressure to conform to government policies, however
destructive they might be.

The government, however, and the corporate powers which stand behind it will
be affected very differently. It goes without saying that "defense"
industries will benefit. Bush's raid on Social Security will be--apparently
has already been--enabled. The most savage forces in Israel will grow bolder
and more powerful. Government and corporate figures at every level will use
the attacks as a pretext to discourage critical examination of social
policies, however far removed the policies may be from the immediate
questions of terror and war-making--policies such as high stakes testing and
standards-based education; to question authority will likely be made to seem
somehow not patriotic.

Doug is right: these attacks did not come from nowhere. He did not argue that
they were justified--the murder of innocent people could never be
justified--merely that they have a context which we must attempt to
understand, so that we can deal with it. I certainly hope that this is what
Doug and all of us teach our students.

Dave Stratman
Editor, New Democracy
www.newdemocracyworld.org
5 Burr Street
Boston, MA 02130
617-524-4073