Dissident Voice

April 1, 2003

Fox News just ran a segment glorifying the pornographic aspect of Gulf Slaughter II. They added beautiful music to video clips of bombs exploding in Baghdad and elsewhere in the besieged country of Iraq. Music videos designed to "wow and awe" their audience of bloodthirsty, vengeful, repugnant, pseudo-patriotic American sheep. It is an obscenity beyond description that has been seen around the world and will only further serve to enrage a very angry world. Fox News has turned war into salacious pornography. They will not show the victims, presumably as a show of their good taste and journalistic integrity. They mock all of humanity.

They miss the irony of the Robin William’s movie, "Good Morning Vietnam." Louis Armstrong sang, "What a Wonderful World," while napalm swept across a field and children played. But these are George Bush’s rules: "We will show the world our power and might and they will tremble in fear, begging for democracy." It will someday be scorned as the "infamous reverse domino theory." The "Arab street" (that awful phrase) respects the strong horse and despises the weak. The Great Democracy has become Osama with night vision goggles. Democracy is not an airborne virus.

Peter Arnett is again fired for failing to toe the corporate line and belch out the disgusting American propaganda. The GOP rejoices — a chance for the noose to grow tighter on independent reporting. Fox suggests he is a traitor, in their fair and balanced quest to be the best media whores money can buy. Countless numbers of reporters "in bed" with the American killing machine extol the virtue and bravery of our soldiers who are pissed off because the Iraqis "do not play by the rules." They have been purposely misled by war criminals in neocon war paint — the dark princes of democracy.

The idiotic and headstrong Rumsfeld has made them even angrier because they are running out of food and water. He looks and sounds more like McNamara each day. The soldiers turn their rage at the Iraqi people. The liberators now hate those they were told would blow kisses and bow at their feet. Overnight, these beautiful and proud people have been labeled "terrorists." They are now ALL targets because "you can trust no one." George Bush and Tony Blair have been vindicated. Why? It is because we are fighting terrorism in the name of peace and freedom. They told us so.

The soldiers are coerced to "pray for George Bush," while they kill "chicks" who happened to get in the way. Kids not old enough to buy a beer decide who lives and who must die. Their decisions will haunt their dreams for a lifetime. I know this to be true.

The Pope makes an urgent plea for sanity in a world headed for a war of Christianity versus Islam. He is ignored and not graced by a reply. He is, like all that disagree, irrelevant. The evangelicals are chomping at the bit to bring salvation to the "heathens." Doesn’t everybody want to be like Christ? Praise the Lord and pass the ammo. Make it depleted uranium please. We want to be remembered.

Fox News features a yelling, bellicose warrior as he shouts: "God and country, man, this is why we’re doing it, and we’re gonna win." He is on top of a tank. They play this clip many times. Congratulations, young man, you just made a million new enemies.

Has anyone in this once great nation of ours figured out that a band of powerful neocons are leading us down a path of destruction? They have turned our own "Shock and Awe" at the events of 9/11/01 into a mad hunger for vengeance -- vengeance of a sort that is out of control and needs no justification. We no longer care who or what the target is. We'll justify all that later after our thirst for blood has been sated. Does anyone doubt that our government has greater control over us than even after Pearl Harbor? Why, then, is anyone surprised that when we dish out our own version of shock and awe, it has backfired? Welcome to the dessert version of Vietnam.

Guerilla warfare has been banned from the pentagon lexicon of approved terms. All who fight us must play by our rules, even though they do not have $500 billion in their defense budget. All who resist us are now deemed to be TERRORISTS.

I would have felt so much better, while I was "fighting for our freedoms" in Vietnam, if I had just known I was calling the enemy by the wrong name. And now, those very freedoms are slowly and quietly slipping away. To borrow the words of Senator Robert C. Byrd: "I WEEP FOR MY COUNTRY."

Robert Gaiek is a former Army Infantry Captain, earning a Purple Heart, Bronze Star with Oak Leaf, and two Air Medals in Vietnam. He owns his own video production business and is actively opposed to Gulf Slaughter II. He can be contacted at: bob@gaiek.com