NPR 4/23/12 6:38 am: Quill Lawrence, NPR’s man in Kabul,
Afghanistan, being incestuously interviewed by the NPR morning anchor, repeats
for the umpteenth time the lie that “Korans that were accidentally burned” in
the big U.S. prison in Kabul. The lie that the burnings were “accidental” or
“inadvertent” (the other adjective NPR hacks routinely parrot every single time
the incident is mentioned) is now thoroughly embedded in the pseudo-reality and
pseudo-history created by the U.S. propaganda system.
The Korans weren’t accidentally mixed in with other garbage.
They were taken off the shelves, searched, and a decision was made to burn
them. Stealth was employed to hide the burning from the Afghans. (You have to
go to Aljazeera to find this out. The Iman at the prison told Aljazeera- on
camera- that the day before the burnings, the U.S. military told him to take
the next day off. Afghan workers asked the U.S. personnel where the truck was
going, and were told the books were being taken to “storage.” Of course the
truck was then driven to the burn pit. Afghan workers in the vicinity saw the
activity and came over to help, upon which they saw the Korans burning and
grabbed them from the flames.*
Stupid, bone-headed, callous, insensitive, counterproductive,
whatever you want to call it, the burnings weren’t “inadvertent” or
“accidental.” They were deliberate and intentional. The people burning them knew what they were burning. They didn't think they were empty egg cartons or something.
What NPR and the rest of the U.S. propaganda system has
never answered is who gave the order. Funny how the details are all swept under
the rug. What is so much worse that they’re hiding?
I would be surprised if the order came from general rank
level, but it’s possible. It seems that the camp commander probably had
foreknowledge at least.
What the incident shows to me is how disconnected the top
U.S. military and political bosses are from their subordinates. The
rhetoric that constantly flows from the
mouths of the top generals and bureaucrats, the tired old “winning hearts and
minds” shtick we were fed during the criminal Vietnam war, during which the
worst atrocities were routinely committed by the U.S. military, the country was
devastated with poisons, 6 million tons of bombs were dropped- three times the tonnage dropped in World War
II in a far larger geographical area, according to official U.S. Air Force
figures- and millions of Vietnamese were
killed, including huge numbers of defenseless noncombatants. The bosses spewing
this gush, like the disgusting Leon Panetta, lifelong political apparatchik, a made
member of the nomenklatura, who
started out as a hack Democratic party pol, then went on to power appointments,
like CIA director and now Secretary of “Defense” (he loves assassinating
people, by the way), either are too obtuse to notice or feign not to notice the
glaring contradiction between their avowed strategy and tactics and the reality
of the mindset, attitudes, and behavior of their troops. Apparently the message about the need for
“cultural sensitivity” and understanding the Afghans and winning their hearts
and minds somehow never filtered down to the ground.
I don’t think the Koran burners were clueless. They knew
enough to try and deceive the Afghans and hide what they were going to do from
them. (In order to claim it was “accidental” and “inadvertent,” the U.S. media
needs to black out the facts that Aljazeera reported. Damn that Aljazeera!) But
unless you pretend that the U.S. soldiers didn’t
know they were burning Korans, it’s still nonsensical to use those lying
adjectives, even based on what the U.S. media is willing to let us know. (Thank
God their monopoly on information is breaking down!)
Every time another “incident” comes to light- pissing on
corpses, posing with body parts, whatever- Panetta and the chorus of top
officials and generals gasp that they’re “shocked, shocked” at such behavior,
which “don’t reflect our values” “don’t reflect American values” as Panetta
avers after every single “incident.” (And obviously the incidents that become
public knowledge are just the tip of the iceberg. Soldiers don’t take photos of
every single questionable thing they do, don’t post the photos they do take
online every single time they take photos, the posted photos are not publicized
every single time they’re posted, for example. Far, far from it.)
In sum, calling the Koran attempted incinerations
“accidental” is an example of a small lie with a definite political and
ideological purpose. The purpose seems to be to say “We meant no harm.” Which
is besides the point, really. It caused great offense, and could reasonably
have been predicted to cause great offense, and it occurred in the context of a
foreign troop presence unappreciated (at the least!) by most Afghans that is
over a decade old, and that follows many, many other “incidents,” like bombing wedding
parties, killing innocent civilians, raiding people’s homes, etc.
Other official/media lies are larger. Sometimes there are
entire campaigns of lies, a propaganda fabrication, an ideological confection,
sinisterly designed with political-ideological goals in mind.
Some lies vanish without a trace after they’ve served their
purpose- the bogus propaganda campaigns “Yellow Rain” and “Pope Plot” (both
political theater produced by the CIA). “Yellow Rain” portrayed bee excrement
as Commie biological warfare. “Pope Plot” pretended that a Turkish fascist
terrorist from the notorious Grey Wolves was a KGB-Bulgarian assassin. You
never hear a mention of either media show these days. But there were no
retractions of the “Pope Plot,” and only some media “corrected” the “error” of
“Yellow Rain.” (Not the fascistic Wall
Street Journal, which in its self-appointed role as Ideological Commissar
viciously attacked scientists like Matthew Meselson for not toeing the CIA’s
line and blowing the fabrication up with honest science. This same rag of
course likes to condemn enforced ideological conformity in socialist regimes
past and present. Hypocritical or cynical? You make the call.)
By the way, the media propagandists aren’t naïve or dupes.
They aren’t such naïfs as to be fooled by the secret police. They are willing,
conscious stooges. Just like in any country where the secret police use the
media for propaganda operations. The naïve ones are the media “critics” who
portray the media accomplices as dupes- or pretend to think they are.
Then there are lies about specific events that must be
desperately reinforced over and over. The pesky truths about the CIA assassinations
of the Kennedys and King just won’t stay buried, so for example the Warren
Commission fraud must be reasserted over and over, while anyone refusing to
genuflect before that hoary pack of absurd lies is ridiculed, ridicule being
the only recourse when the facts are against the propagandists. Honest
discussing, debate, search for truth- fuggettaboutit! The propagandists
evidently know they’d lose.
Ridiculing one’s opponent is
an example of an ad hominen
argument, that being Latin for “to the man.” Instead of arguing one’s case on
the merits, one attacks one’s opponents personally to discredit the opponents,
instead of refuting their arguments with facts and logic. It’s a technique
often resorted to by people who don’t have a good case to make. The crudest
form of an ad hominen attack is
ridicule, which is what the corporate propaganda system has been reduced to
when it comes to protecting the CIA in the JFK assassination. (Shamefully, The Nation magazine is one of the worst
offenders in this regard, as they recently demonstrated just a couple of months
ago. Such behavior as accomplices in a never-ending cover-up of state murder
raises the gravest questions about the bona
fides of The Nation.)
Other, bigger, permanent lies are cornerstones of the
propaganda and official mythology edifice, key to the ideological
indoctrination of the populace- such as portraying the U.S. as World’s Freest
Country, U.S. as Spreader of Democracy Around The World, like some Johnny
Appleseed of Liberty. Which ignores actual fact and history- the history of
U.S.-instigated coups, numerous military dictatorships backed up and kept in
power by the U.S., U.S. providing lists of victims for the death squads of
those countries to torture and “eliminate,” and on and on. The U.S. has
destroyed democracy in many more countries than it could plausibly claim credit
for reinstalling (not creating) it in- if by “democracy” we mean bourgeois
class dictatorships that stage elections. Let’s see, after World War Two, there
was Germany, Italy, and Japan. Any others? Hmm… (Japan was effectively a
one-party dictatorship from after the major war until recent years. In Italy the CIA secretly funded the
“Christian Democrats” to keep them dominant. It also manipulated German politics
and funded right-wing media there. In France the CIA was very active to make
sure the politics came out the “right” way. In Spain and Portugal fascist
dictatorships were left in place for decades until their own people finally
managed to free themselves, no thanks to the U.S., the Big Defender of Freedom
And Democracy.)
*We can see once again why the U.S. elites hate Aljazeera so
much. Aljazeera complicates their efforts to deceive people and manipulate
events. Aljazeera is committing the worst crime in the eyes of the U.S.
power-elite- it is interfering with U.S. POWER.
No wonder the U.S. military kept bombing Aljazeera,
murdering their journalists. No wonder they kidnapped an Aljazeera employee and
kept him in Guantanamo Bay for years, where they pumped him for information
about Aljazeera they could use for malign effect and tried to force him to be
their mole inside Aljazeera or else rot for life in their military dungeon.
Oh yeah, the U.S. really stands for human rights.
You’all who believe that, have I got a fabulous deal for
you! I own a bridge in Brooklyn I need to sell quick!
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