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January 28, 2008

New From Tomdispatch

link

"Reality Is Totally Different"
Iraqis on "Success" and "Progress" in Their Country

By: Dahr Jamail

This March 19 will be the fifth anniversary of the shock-and-awe air assault on Baghdad that signaled the opening of the invasion of Iraq, and when it comes to the American occupation of that country, no end is yet in sight. If Republican presidential candidate John McCain has anything to say about it, the occupation may never end. On January 7th, he assured reporters that he was more than fine with the idea of the U.S. military remaining in Iraq for 100 years. "We've been in Japan for 60 years. We've been in South Korea 50 years or so… As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. That's fine with me."

He said nothing, of course, about Iraqis "injured or harmed or wounded or killed." In fact, amid the flurries of words, accusations, and "debates" which have filled the airways and add up to the primary-season presidential campaign, there has been a near thunderous silence on Iraq lately -- and especially on Iraqis...

Once again, with rare exceptions, that media has had a hand in erasing the catastrophe of Iraq from the American landscape, if not the collective consciousness of the public. What, it occurred to me recently, do my friends and acquaintances back in Iraq (where I covered the occupation for eight months during the years 2003-2005) think not just about their lives and the fate of their country, but about our attitudes toward them? What do they think about the "success" -- and the silence -- in America?

The rest.

Posted at January 28, 2008 10:44 AM
Comments

This is a good example why objective truth and objective history is a myth; but I don't really ever expect to win that argument.

Posted by: Ted at January 28, 2008 11:23 AM
An interesting conclusion...How convenient...

Meh. I can either conclude that I'm one of the enablers of evil, or that you misunderstood me.

Conveniently, I'm going to choose that you misunderstood me here, although I do know and strongly feel that that I'm an enabler. I get chastised whenever I say we're the enablers of evil, so I'll shoulder the responsibility to avoid the nagging.

Just for the record though, I'd like to hear your views on the objectivity of history, because that's a subject that annoys me on a personal level, and I want to get a take on it from others whenever I can.

The Bush administration puts forward an outrageous campaign of lies and propaganda...

Not to defend the Bush administration (because they're actually pretty bad at it, and so it becomes really, really obvious), but are you implying that the previous administrations weren't purveyors of outrageous lies and propaganda? Oh, for example about Israeli-Palestinian relations, middle east meddling, south American meddling, corporatism, militarism, etc.

I was just thinking that when propaganda and lies becomes the norm -- as has been the case nearly my entire life -- that ought to toss your conception of objective truth out the window -- since it hasn't existed in my lifetime as far as I can tell except as an ideal.

However, like any religious zealot I'll take it on faith that some day the objectivity of truth and history will become self evident and without the customary reliance on force. It may not be in my lifetime, but someday it surely will come because it's such a sweet notion. To think otherwise would be cynical and wrong headed.

Posted by: Ted at January 28, 2008 05:13 PM

are you implying that the previous administrations weren't purveyors of outrageous lies and propaganda?

No.

I was just thinking that when propaganda and lies becomes the norm -- as has been the case nearly my entire life -- that ought to toss your conception of objective truth out the window -- since it hasn't existed in my lifetime as far as I can tell except as an ideal.

So because some people are compulsive liars, that tosses the very idea of truth "out the window"? Sorry, but I don't get that at all. I've seen my share of lies in my lifetime, but I still think I have some idea what the truth is. You don't?

Posted by: SteveB at January 28, 2008 06:13 PM

Oh, and this:
when propaganda and lies becomes the norm...

Of the hundreds or even thousands of statements you make to other humans every day, what percentage are lies? More than half?

Most people are not habitual liars. Most people in power are. Seems like a useful distinction.

Posted by: SteveB at January 28, 2008 06:19 PM

Ted, when politicians say, "The American people are the greatest," it is not necessarially a lie, anymore than when I say "my Mom is the best Mom in the world." That can still be "objective" since the only way to measure the "best" or the "greatest" is inherently subjective. Thus, there is an objective truth intrinsic to a subjective statement.

You've provided nothing that supports the notion that it is impossible to state an objective truth. (A notion whose implications include concluding that 2+2=! 4 at least someplace in the universe.) The existance of propaganda does not undermine the notion of objective truth; hell, the ability to identify flaws in said propaganda is pretty good evidence that there is objective truth to tap into.

Of course, this is neither here nor there, ultimately. Ob/sub-jective truth has nothing to do with this issue (or it has so much to do with absolutely everything it's still not really pertinent).

On topic, I wonder how much our citz would care about the Iraqis if our aristocracy actually talked about them. Our society might be compassionate on this score: we just can't tell because the media isn't. I'm rarely positive when it comes to human nature, but there really isn't a way to see our reflection in the souless abyss the media uses to mirror ourselves.

Posted by: No One of Consequence at January 29, 2008 11:25 AM