When will voters finally get wise to the shell game?
Robert Jensen
School of Journalism
University of Texas
Austin, TX 78712
work: (512) 471-1990
fax: (512) 471-7979
rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu
copyright Robert Jensen and Rahul Mahajan 2003
Philadelphia Inquirer, September 9, 2003.
by Robert Jensen and Rahul Mahajan
The Bush administration's contempt for the intelligence of
Americans hit a new low Sunday night in the President's speech about Iraq.
People around the country are asking about the failure to find
evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which everyone still remembers
were the stated reason for the war. And, as it becomes clear how little time the
Bush administration spent planning for the postwar occupation, people are
increasingly concerned about the ongoing suffering of the Iraqi people and the
risks faced by U.S. military personnel.
People want - and have a right to expect - the President to come
clean about the lies and distortions used to lead the country to war, and an
explanation for the post-invasion failures. Instead, we got more evasion,
invention and obfuscation. Bush refused even to acknowledge people's legitimate
questions and papered over the political and military failures with increasingly
stale rhetoric and rationalizations that ignored the key question.
Bush mentioned weapons of mass destruction only twice Sunday, both
in vague ways that apparently referred to what Iraq possessed before the Gulf
War. As the Blair government in Britain faces a crisis of legitimacy over its
role in these lies, the Bush administration seems to think it can avoid
accountability for manufacturing a pretext for war.
The first move in Bush's shell game to send the weapons issue down
the memory hole was the focus on the liberation of Iraq. That seemed like a
promising propaganda ploy, and Bush is still trying to sell it; Sunday he used
the terms freedom or free 21 times. But four months after the end
of major combat operations, it's hard not to notice that many Iraqis - and not
just the "Baath party remnants" - apparently are not so happy with
U.S. plans for their freedom.
That's why Bush moved the shells again to focus on terrorism, his
ace in the hole since 9/11. On Sunday night he used the terms terror,
terrorist or terrorism 28 times. Bush administration officials have
been smart enough never to directly claim they had proof the Hussein regime was
involved in 9/11. But their insinuation and innuendo have worked: According to a
recent poll, 69 percent of respondents believe it likely there was some link.
Now, however, Bush has shifted the focus to the current situation
on the ground in Iraq - that's where the terrorism threat exists.
No one knows the exact composition of the forces resisting the U.S.
occupation. Certainly, it includes former members of the Hussein regime and
military, along with Iraqis who were anti-Saddam. It's also plausible that some
non-Iraqis, perhaps including al-Qaeda members, are entering the country to
fight the U.S. military. Some of the attacks have been on nonmilitary targets.
Bush's emphasis on this threat, however, begs an obvious question:
If Iraq is now a magnet for terrorists, how did that come to be? Before the U.S.
invasion, there not only was no evidence of a link between Hussein and al-Qaeda,
but also no evidence of an al-Qaeda presence in the areas of Iraq that Hussein
controlled. The administration claims that organization is in more than 60
countries. Finding perhaps the only Arab country with no demonstrable al-Qaeda
presence and making it a hotbed for recruitment is a remarkable achievement.
Bush and his spinmeisters desperately want us not to understand
this simple fact: The Iraq war has made U.S. citizens less safe. The invasion
increased not only the risks for U.S. soldiers on the ground in Iraq, but for us
all.
Bush got one thing right: Terrorists do thrive on "the
resentments of oppressed peoples." He should think about that. The
resentment of Iraqis under the occupation adds to the existing unrest in the
region: the resentment of Palestinians under the U.S.-supported Israeli
occupation; the resentment of Saudis under their U.S.- supported feudal
monarchy; the resentment of Egyptians under their U.S.-supported dictatorship;
not to mention the resentment of Iranians subjected for 26 years to a brutal
police state supported by the United States.
As any street hustler knows, shell games work only as long as
people don't understand the con. Apparently, Bush and his campaign advisers
think we'll never catch on. The only way to stop the deception is for the public
to demand accountability.
Robert Jensen, a
professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, is the author of
the forthcoming “Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity”
(City Lights Books). He can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.