Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'"
"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument,'" Alice objected.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in a rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master -- that's all."
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again.
"They've a temper, some of them -- particularly verbs, they're the proudest -- adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs -- however, I can manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! That's what I say!"
(Lewis Carroll)
In America, the media refers to all in military uniform as heroes. Like Humpty Dumpty says, “Of course you don’t – till I tell you.” By saying it’s so, it is; then if you say counter to that, it’s you that are not patriotic and are blaspheming our heroes. You shall be suspected of traitorous intent and questioned as to whether your Chinese-made flag pin is genuine enough.
I had the good fortune of living in a heroic town and my neighbors, Charlie and Joe, were in the Air Force branch of heroic service. They were good guys, we watched football games together on the weekends. But that was in the old days when military service was merely noble; you had to actually perform heroic deeds to be considered a hero. Charlie was a painter and quite good at it. Those fancy logos that they paint in front of the headquarters buildings, Charlie painted a lot of those, and when he wasn’t heroically painting squadron logos, he worked at the recreation center where he heroically signed out basketballs.
Come five o’clock, in the face of great heat and perspiration, he was to pick up and count all the towels in the locker room. Charlie had it pretty easy compared to Joe; Charlie was a hero of a lesser order, Joe had dangerous duty. Joe was in a maintenance group, their shop had to keep in good repair lawnmowers, weed eaters and backpack blowers, and in the event a mower went down, it was Joe that had to go into the field and rescue it. Despite fire ants, yellow jackets and snakes, come what may Joe, in his air-conditioned truck, went into harm's way.
I mean no disrespect to the military or the men and women that wear the uniform, I’m only trying to show the ludicrous nature of the media in subverting the language. If I were to say that all Christians should aspire to sainthood but few will make it, only the lunatic fringe would view such a comment as an attack on Christianity or Christians as individuals. A statement of fact, few will reach sainthood just as few will become heroes and none will become heroes painting logos or by fixing lawnmowers.
The media does it to subvert the argument, to twist the meaning into whatever they say it means. It is easy enough to be against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but dare you speak against our heroes? You might not agree with the President about our prison at Guantanamo, but our heroes? Will you speak against our heroes? On TV I heard a Chaplain ask the Lord to protect our men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan, fighting to protect our freedom here at home. What?
The invasion of Iraq is the biggest policy disaster in US history and the media has the nerve to tell me that our heroes are protecting me at home? But you see, all the disqualified reasons about the invasion have been forgotten and we are working with a clean sheet of paper now; our heroes are defending the home hearth. They are liberating these people and granting them democracy, whether they want it or not.
The Afghans have established their democracy. A young Afghan, Sayed Pervez Kambakhsh, has been sentenced to death for printing out a Web page in which Muhammad is described as a misogynistic prophet. Kind of chokes you up when you think about it, our heroes made that possible. Under the Taliban he would have ruthlessly been taken out into the street and executed. But now, under the democratic principles that our heroes fought and died for, he was given a fair trail and found guilty and will be executed at the hands of a free people. But this story just didn’t get the media’s attention in the US. I wonder why? I guess that is just one of those unknowable things.
Just like why a two-year-old story about a found laptop with nose cone designs in Farsi is leaked to the press. Why the story about Israeli Prime Minister Olmert being under investigation for corruption is barely being mentioned. In point of fact, not one piece of credible evidence has ever been presented to the IAEA about an Iranian nuclear weapons program, yet night after night the American media present it to us as a proven fact.
The Iranians have signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty while India has not, nor has Pakistan, yet both have nuclear arsenals and the US, in its moral righteousness, says…nothing. Wolf Blitzer is spitting invectives because Jimmy Carter revealed the worst-kept nuclear secret in the world, that Israel has nuclear weapons. Blitzer is claiming Carter’s statement will encourage proliferation in the Middle East. Just more media nonsense, as if the Iranian mullahs were just waiting for Jimmy Carter to say something.
It is the American government that encourages proliferation, though the media won’t ever cover it. America’s message has been that if you are our friends then you may do whatever you like with your nuclear material and treaties be hanged. This duplicity encourages the likes of General Musharraf and A. Q. Kahn while the US threatens North Korea and Iran. The US wants to sell India nuclear fuel without full inspections of its facilities, making the US guilty of proliferation. Only through the jaundiced lens of the media are the good guys and bad guys to be determined.
The President of Columbia, Uribe, is our friend. George W. describes him as a steadfast ally in the war on drugs. Uribe was removed as head of Columbia’s Civil Aviation for providing pilot licenses to the Medellin drug cartel. As Mayor of Medellin he was forced to step down, once again because of his close connection to Pablo Escobar. Uribe’s own father was convicted of drug smuggling and served time in prison, but the media describes him to us as a good guy.
General Musharraf of Pakistan was called our staunchest ally in Bush’s crusade on terror. But since the Pakistani General cashiered the Supreme Court judges that ruled against him in his election bid, the media doesn’t talk about him much anymore. Let’s talk about the bad and the truly evil breed of leaders.
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