CON GAMES: Love The War You’re With

May 29th, 2006 at 09:22am Michael Conniff 2

We here in the United States love war not wisely but too well.

Think of 9/11 in this context and we can perhaps understand the vast red-white-and-blue reaction to a tragedy beyond comprehension. Remember the lapels and ballparks, the posters and front lawns, the T-shirts and ready-to-wear patriotism?

Where have they gone, Joe DiMaggio?

As a nation, we turned our lonely eyes to the tricolor plumage because we knew instinctively we were going to war: we knew even before the words “war on terror” passed a President’s lips, long before that terrible war underwent a corporate merger with the more comprehensible “War on Iraq.” Wearing the flag in our daily life was our way to slap on the body armor as a nation, to prepare for the worst by reminding us of what we do best. In the process, demoninzing the enemy—any enemy—was as simple as reading a verse from the Bible.

To resist the wave, to cringe at pregame patriotism, was to label oneself unpatriotic. To fight the automatic impulse to fight back at any country or anything was to be imprisoned within the minority of the traitorous and the unsure. Opposition politicians fell by the wayside so fast they looked like bowling pins after a strike has been struck. Our love of country and our love of war required that we strike back with the wrath of God, even if the identity of the enemy was so difficult sight unseen.

This unrepentant flag-wrapping took on verbal form. The phrase “support our troops” assumed transcendent meaning even as it rendered superfluous all debate. To support our troops meant to support the politicians and the policy they had deemed necessary without hesitation. It meant to swallow assumptions as readily as junk food at a takeout counter. To support our troops it became necessary to watch our President generate support for a flagging war while swaddled in the bosom of the troops who would pay for any mistakes or missteps with their lives and their limbs. When lives and limbs were lost these soldiers became the automatic heroes of a demonstrably just cause, glorified and lionized as if they were the embodiment of a purified body politic. At times the military even allowed us to see their coffins beneath the American flags in photographs.

If they died, it had to be worth it, right? Hadn’t it always been that way?

My Dad, a war correspondent, used to choke up at ballgames after World War II because he had seen firsthand the sacrifice in lives to make sure “the flag was still there.” He worried and he wondered if the post-war Americans traipsing so nonchalantly to the Polo Grounds or Ebbets Field realized the lives lost to win the big one. He remembered and it choked him up until the passage of time and a new enemy called Communism intervened. In a speech this weekend at West Point, President George W. Bush again likened the Cold War to what his advisers now call the “Long War” against terror.

Of all the holidays on our national calendar—from Columbus to Martin Luther King, Jr.—there is nothing like Memorial Day, a day to literally remember the dead who fought, right or wrong, for our country. It is not a feast, like Thanksgiving; or a religious holiday like Christmas; or a day to honor dead Presidents. Labor Day honors the rank-and-file of American, but Memorial Day honors everyone who has ever fought for the country and paid for it in the best and worst possible way. To remember their sacrifice is also to remember that our cause is just not just because of us.

God bless America, land that we love. Stand beside her and guide her—and never more so than when she thinks she knows which way to go.

Entry Filed under: Con Games, Foreign Policy

19 Comments Add your own

1. Michael Conniff | June 8th, 2006 at 5:47 am

I just noticed the wonderful irony of the Google ad supplied to this page Thursday morning: "We support our troops."

Click on it and you can get the "Support Our Troops" magnet.

So it goes in the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.
2. Michael Conniff | June 8th, 2006 at 5:49 am

This is becoming a game. The next Google ad was for the videogame "Dreamblade." Their slogan: "Reshape the world."
3. Mistah kim | June 27th, 2006 at 8:21 pm

EL PRESIDENTE

singing amidst smoldering corpses

too bored to study history

unworthy of a decent poem

laughter

georgeyporgey

we're about to forget you
4. alpha6 | July 13th, 2006 at 10:05 am

For those who have fought for it;
Freedom has a taste the protected will never know.
5. bartaxelman@comcast. | August 17th, 2006 at 7:06 pm

Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a facist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country. :Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials. Pg 167 Tha last true story I'll ever tell. John Crawford.
6. alpha6 | August 17th, 2006 at 8:35 pm

"The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable." - Sun Tzu, The art of War.
7. Chief Hosa | September 27th, 2006 at 8:01 pm

alpha6 chooses an interesting excerpt from Sun Tzu, inasmuch as Tzu's preeminent wisdom was in pointing out that the best wars were the ones you never actually fight, but win instead through alliances and positioning and waiting.

Lenghtly poorly planned and incompetently exectued seiges of misunderstood enemies was highly discouraged. To say the least.
8. edfromaspen | October 4th, 2006 at 11:18 am

If one were to exile all of the worlds reactionaries, conservatives and religious affiliated "fundamentalists," including those in or from America, onto a large island, armed them with axes but no body armour, a frothing bloodbath of shocking dimension would likely ensue. Yet if you took the worlds liberal people who have a spiritual connection perhaps, through any of those same religions and did the same, there would probably be diplomatic debate instead. Why is that? Is there a qualitative difference between; the halcyon of liberality, and the antipodal depths of the reactionary/fundamentalist axis?
9. moehand | December 21st, 2006 at 10:10 am

I thought you might be interested in The Pod People And The Plane That Crashed Into the Pentagon. You can view it at http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/ppfinal.html
10. alpha6 | December 21st, 2006 at 11:08 am

Nice link moehand. However, I doubt that the conspiracy wacko's are ever going to believe anything other then what they want...these are the same people that ACTUALLY believe that the "government" is listening to their phone calls. Unless they are a terrorist, and a dumb one that actually gets noticed by the government because of recklessness, do you really think the government or anyone else for that matter gives a rats ass about your phone calls? Think about it.
11. reckless G | January 9th, 2007 at 11:52 am

ACTUALLY…yes! As someone who visited Iraq under the sanctions (thereby breaking Treasury Dept. law), made phone calls from Iraq to home and vise versa, sends money via Western Union to the Middle East, and has been a general rabble rouser against the war from the beginning, the government might very well be listening to my phone conversations, or email, or blog entry!
The problem with the Feds spying on citizens is not who they are obviously looking at (potential terrorists) but who they might choose to look at either now or in future administrations, and what they do with the information they gather. I’m no conspiracy theorist but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a fat file somewhere with the “evidence” I stated above. It wouldn’t take much for them to make a case against me, and I could get locked up for a long time just for being an anti-war activist…or as the Bush administration refers to us; “enemy of the state.”
12. Star Eagle | January 26th, 2007 at 10:32 pm

Yo alpha6,

I can't believe you wrote.. "do you really think the government or anyone else for that matter gives a rats ass about your phone calls? Think about it".

With all the news you have heard, and hopefully will continue to be hearing in the future, about "domestic wiretapping", all I can say is can you say...DENIAL!

I am dissapointed in your perception of the OBVIOUS. That goes a long way in explaining how you have a hard time grasping the possibilities of another reality beyond yours in this whole "conspiricy thing".

I just got off the "wire" that Rove is being subpoenaed for the Libby trial and the plot thickens. This story is getting very interesting.

And there is more to come. I was telling all the Bush voters in 2004 that the best thing they could do would be vote against Bush if only because the legacy would be gone and these final years would be scandal and courthouse fodder for the (yeah right) left wing media.

Bottom line is this thing is coming unraveled at the seams.

Its time to quit whinning and come up with some solutions. Any ideas? Star Eagle
13. alpha6 | January 26th, 2007 at 11:08 pm

Star Eagle you really make me laugh. Do you know what it takes to conduct a wire tap? Do you know the man power involved? I doubt it. I personally don't have time to educate you on all this. I don't have the time nor, do I believe after your continued insistence that there is some huge conspiracy out there and "they" are after you because they have nothing better to target, that you have a ability to understand anything about exactly how the process works with NSA super computers, network switches, T-3 boxes, OEO, funding, agency missions, entities within those agencies, let alone the layers of management and oversight of that entity that would have to all agree that the target is worthy of time, money and effort or anything else that would need to be conducted to just begin to work on a wire tap. What do you think, its a guy in a room hooked to a phone? Too much TV...hate to break it to you, but Hollywood ain't reality.

However, let me make it simple for you. Just look at the number of people out there with phones, and then look at the number of federal agents (which is public record) that work for the government. Now lets suppose that they all stopped doing whatever they are doing and just decided to do wire taps, (which can't happen, but I am trying to make this easy for you to comprehend.) It equates to about two traffic cops to control all the traffic in New York. Hmmm....lets step out of our fantasy world for just a second and think about that Star.

But who am I to discourage you. If you want to believe that the federal government has nothing better to do then to listen to Star Eagle talk to her friends about whatever, then you go ahead if thats what makes you feel important. Hey, its your world...we're just in it. : )
14. reckless G | February 1st, 2007 at 12:23 pm

Sorry alpha6, but it seems you are the misinformed one.

ECHELON is a global network of computers that automatically search through millions of intercepted messages for pre-programmed keywords or fax, telex and e-mail addresses. Every word of every message in the frequencies and channels selected at a station is automatically searched. ECHELON connects all these computers and allows the individual stations to function as distributed elements an integrated system. ECHELON can capture radio and satellite communications, telephone calls, faxes, e-mails and other data streams nearly anywhere in the world and includes computer automated analysis and sorting of intercepts. ECHELON has been used in the past for the targeting of peaceful political groups and has targeted Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and even Christian ministries.

And let’s not forget the lessons of the COINTELPRO (counter intelligence program) of the 60’s aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the US.

Our government and those of other countries have and will continue to invade the privacy of their citizens. That’s not fantasy, it’s fact.
15. alpha6 | February 1st, 2007 at 8:08 pm

Um, no Reckless, I was right on. You however chose to zero in on the NSA program only, and while it is able to do what you say, what you don't know is that it casts such a wide net and gathers so much information, that there is a huge backlog and much of what is gleaned goes unanalyzed let alone worked. "Canadian ex-spook Mike Frost, there's a real problem sorting and reading all the data; while ECHELON can potentially intercept millions of communications, there simply aren't enough analysts to sort through everything. "Personally, I'm not losing any sleep over this," says Richelson, "because most of the stuff probably sits stored and unused at [NSA headquarters in] Fort Meade." (Please refer to my original comment regarding this exact thing)

Also, the current system utilized by the NSA is a far better product then the original ECHELON and is classified but rest assured its capacities are far better then even the updated last known abilities of ECHELON.

Also, your information regarding ECHELON targeting Amnesty International and "Christian ministries" is incorrect. What was reported in the London Observer was "the establishment in question being the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain's version of the NSA. The operatives said that an intercept system based on keyword recognition was routinely targeting the communications of Amnesty International and Christian Aid. While it may have been the British equivalent of ECHELON, it was not our system and the ones that leaked the information were in fact British Agents.

Lastly, COINTELPRO was a program of the FBI's and J. Hoover during his reign and was not at all like the current program.

If you want links to all that I have written, let me know. I can back up everything I say.
16. reckless G | February 2nd, 2007 at 7:09 am

According to my sources, everything alpha6 has written is correct, but it doesn’t change the fact that there is a program that can and is being used to monitor citizens.

Where there is power, there is potential for abuse.
The technology is improving all of the time, and when the National I.D. card law goes into effect next year, it will be even easier for the feds to have access to information on every aspect of our lives.

People like you, who spout the company line, have no need to fear government reprisal. I on the other hand, being a vocal opponent of the neoCon agenda, have good reason to believe that I could be under surveillance. It’s not paranoia, it’s practicality.

You wrote: “it casts such a wide net and gathers so much information, that there is a huge backlog and much of what is gleaned goes unanalyzed let alone worked.”

That’s what I’m counting on. May it always be so!
17. alpha6 | February 2nd, 2007 at 9:15 am

Reckless,

You are correct and right on with your "where there is power, there is potential for abuse." And it takes place, a perfect example -"One Clinton scandal involves the discovery of over 900 Republican FBI files in the White House. Files of former Secretary of State James Baker, former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, and Newt Gingrich's spokesman Tony Blankley were found to be on this list. Upon the discovery of these files, the White House issued an excuse claiming that the files were mistakenly requested by a White House employee working with an outdated list. They were called a simple "snafu." Investigations into Filegate revealed that not a common White House worker but the President's friend and close advisor, Anthony Marceca, had requested the files.

I appreciate your outspokenness with regards to government control and abuse. I am a firm believer in personal rights and small government and as such attempt to educate myself on the actual abilities of the government and not the conspiracy or X-file Hollywood versions that many fall for. By knowing their capabilities and how they operate you can better equip yourself to exploit those weaknesses and vulnerabilities to your advantage.

Lastly, unless you had an army behind you to implement your opposition ideas, I seriously doubt you are under any kind of surveillance. And if you were, it would only take about five minutes to discover it...but thats for another day.
18. reckless G | February 2nd, 2007 at 9:30 am

Excellent reporting alpha6! If only our news media were as diligent as you in resourcing and exposing information that the public doesn't generally see.

I don’t blaim specifically the Bush administration, as obviously this stuff has been going on for a while now. I have a healthy suspicion of all power, no matter the Party.

Yes, I’m small potatoes to the Feds at this point, and hopefully I’ll continue to fly under their radar. While peace groups have been monitored and infiltrated by federal agents (as recently as a few years ago in Colorado Springs), I don’t feel in any imminent danger as an individual at this point. It’s more a matter of principle…so far.

I have considered asking to see my FBI file if one exists, under the Freedom of Information Act, but…I’m not sure if I really want to know what, if anything they have on me!
19. Star Eagle | February 11th, 2007 at 11:28 pm

Interesting stuff but let me keep it very simple.

The other day we punched in a destination in Denver on one of those Map-Quest sites and even though we did not put our address in.. it gave us a reply that started our quest three-tenths of a mile from the house. We live 2.5 blocks from where the map began.

Simple, oh yea...way simple!

Bottom-line alpha...its time to acknowledge the new milennium and its possibilities beyond the complex gobbly-gook you chose to over-rate by calling it...intelligence. Star Eagle