Ignorance, a National Failing

The zeal of former officials in defending bad behavior, whether it be torture or errant policies, is an embarrassment to us all. Even worse, however, is the tortured logic used by deceivers in the media and apologists who define failure as success and turn commonly understood terminology into meaningless Orwellian chatter.  We found it absurd that in Orwell's 1984, a government claimed that "war is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength." Yet former VP Cheney and others tell us invading Iraq "saved lives." Acceptance of such unlikely rationales ensures that we will continue to be plagued by ignorance, our most pernicious national failing.

With respect to Iraq, despite untold numbers of dead and displaced Iraqis and thousands in our own military who sacrificed their lives, their health or their sanity, Cheney and others insist the war was "the right thing to do." We are expected to repress any feelings of discomfort regarding the fiction that premised our invasion, the destruction and attendant civil unrest that followed, and focus instead on the 'flowering of democracy' in the Middle East. Fears that 'progress' in the region will require an ongoing American presence and that many ordinary Iraqis are seen as the enemy by our occupying forces are things about which we aren't to be overly concerned.

The tendency of partisans to deny responsibility for bad results undermines our sense of morality although we are instructed to believe the opposite. The war may be costly and the disruption of lives tragic, yet it is often described as a just expression of our democratic values that must be pursued whatever the cost. Prospective candidates for office often express that view and insist that more must be spent for weapon systems of every description whether or not they have been proven effective or necessary to defend the country. If they look good on paper and sound good on the campaign trail they become a rallying cry, especially for those on the right, as well as an opportunity to call any who oppose them weak.

But while no expense is to be spared in the cultivation of war materiel, government-sponsored health care is said to be too expensive. Adequate medical plans may be out of reach for many, yet profit remains the raison d'être for the insurance industry in a Capitalist society; moving past this concept could lead to Socialism and the "rationing" of health care it is said. In practice care is already rationed by restrictive policies dictated by insurers. And we all end up paying when people without insurance use hospital emergency rooms for their primary medical care.

There is this terribly twisted approach by elected officials and many in the media who deliberately misinform the public. Everything the president suggests is met with a wall of obstruction by those who try to derive political advantage from a negative assessment of paths they choose not to take. Senator Lindsey Graham wonders aloud if Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor understands "what America is all about" though this is the country of her birth and her home-grown success. Without resorting to the name-calling of some in his party he manages to communicate similar disdain for this accomplished woman.

And Republican issues often find expression at Fox News where an anchor criticized the president for commenting on the shooting of Dr. Tiller and not on the shootings, one deadly, of two soldiers at a recruitment center by a recent Muslim convert. It suits the purposes of Fox to focus on an isolated military incident and downplay ongoing attacks on abortion providers by the Tiller suspect, Roeder, who is known to have engaged in a series of illegal activities - - gluing clinic doors shut and threatening providers. No act of violence should be ignored, but the fact that the president spoke specifically about the Tiller murder and that the Justice Department dispatched security details to clinics is a reaction to lethal attacks on abortion providers, the violent actions by radical pro-life advocates and the inflammatory rhetoric of their media provocateurs.

We mustn't allow ourselves to be lulled into the dead end of seemingly easy answers to profound problems. And we need to beware of the tendency by some to wrap themselves in a cloak of seeming righteousness that only serves to disguise the repellent content of their message. False prophets from within are not only a national security threat, they are an affront to us as a people and represent a betrayal of our most cherished institutions.