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The Silence of the Lambs
Many Europeans, from John Le Carre to the pundits for Le Monde
and Der Spiegel , believe that the war is far more popular
among Americans than it really is. Not by accident, because domestic
opposition to the war movement is spectacularly and suspiciously
under-reported by our media. For instance, Le Carre quotes polls
that show 50% do think Saddam is involved with terrorism but
seems unaware that polls also show that only 26% think we should
attack Iraq without international consenat and support and that
the majority favor non-military means of dealing with Iraq when
alternatives are presented.
Over the January Martin Luther King weekend
we had protests from the truly massive in Washington, New York,
and London to the significantly arresting in San Francisco, Boston,
Tokyo, Sydney, and lots of other places. The BBC duly noted most
of these. But the American media have either ignored or marginalized
this very serious and real opposition, which has remarkably broad
coalitional support. Ignoring the usual suspects like FOX
News and the NY Post whose bloodcurdling jingoism
is always on parade, a look at the New York Times front
page notes a color picture above the fold on Sunday January 19,
2003 of Washington protest - but no story, except for a roundup
of Iraq war debate at page 17. The photo caption refers to "tens
of thousands." Worldwide or even just stateside? Of course
active protesters number in the hundreds of thousands and the
more passive protests from signers of petitions and church congregations
and campus demonstrations worldwide are in the millions! If the
real numbers of these protesters had been in favor of Sharon's
policies, or against Venezuela's president, or even about Olympic
corruption, what would have been the coverage? The Times
led with a New York State budget story and the Michigan affirmative
action case. News judgment? This is the real scary part - the
media muffle - and so those who oppose the true madness think
of themselves as a tiny minority. Not true, but in the media-world
perception is reality.
Nobody knows the future, but up to now the
Bush public rhetoric is characterized by immediate macho bluster
followed by slow and surly backpedaling.
We don't hear Osama dead or alive anymore,
we don't hear that Korea is too evil to talk to, we no longer
hear that January 27th is the deadline; suddenly the UN inspectors
are important and the Security Council consists of "our
friends." And even Rumsfeld offers folksy hopes that there
are possible alternatives to war.
But oh! what a distraction the prospect of
Operation Desert Storm Part Two has been from discussion of the
Homeland Security farce, the Accounting Oversight Board fiasco,
the collapse of the Karzai puppet regime, the arrogant return
of Afghan Warlords now on our payroll, the ruinous Missile Defense
fraud, taxpayer supported privatization of military incursions
in Columbia and the Philippines, sweetheart contracts to Halliburton
and Wackenhut to build bases and run security from Saudi to Turkmenistan,
the very alarming incompetence of the FBI and CIA - to say nothing
of Ashcroft's moves to overturn state referenda and laws on medical
marijuana and assisted suicide. These duplicities will come home
to roost but we hope it is not too late to restore democracy
here as well as elsewhere, lest freedom be reduced to just one
more PR slogan.
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