• Iran temporarily sacrificed its legal right to enrich uranium and accepted ‘additional protocols’ because it trusted the EU-3 (Germany, France and England) who, it turns out, were simply acting as Washington’s agents.
• Iran has an ‘inalienable right’ to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes unless it can factually established that it has not complied with the terms of its agreement.
********** The Founding Fathers believed the press was important enough to give it special protection in the Constitution. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black (1886-1971) explained why:
• “The Government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.”
Unfortunately, the press is not doing its “duty”. Instead, the press is collaborating with the Bush Administration to manipulate public opinion to further the interests of corporate America. If a few soldiers and marines have to die in the process; it is just too bad.
If the press had done its job, America would not have gone to war in Iraq, with 70% of its citizens mistakenly believing Saddam Hussein was involved with the attacks on September 11, 2001. Even more reprehensible—a recent poll found that 80% of the troops currently in Iraq still believe Iraq attacked America on September 11, 2001. It is not true. It never was.
• “It’s one thing to fight for what you believe in, another thing to fight for what others believe in.” --James Wolcott, Vanity Fair, March 2005
Americans have the technology to be the best-informed people in history; but Corporate America does not want us to be informed. The less we know the better—for them. Wars can be very profitable for those who do not fight them, but if everyone knew the truth—who would fight their wars?
The truth is still available; but we can’t depend on the mainstream media to report it to us. Watch Democracy Now . Watch foreign news programs. Check out Mosaic on LinkTV—it is a collection of news reports from Mid Eastern countries. You’ll see what happens on the ground when we bomb a “suspected insurgent hideout” in Baghdad (Mosaic doesn’t mind showing pictures of dead Iraqis, which we call collateral damage).
If you have an internet connection, sign up for BuzzFlash Alerts and TomPaine.com headlines. Learn how to use Google to check out what the mainstream media is telling you. Spend a month, finding out what’s really going on—then watch the evening news. It is our shame.
Mick Youther is an American citizen, an independent voter, a veteran, a parent, a Christian, a scientist, a writer, and all-around nice guy who has been aroused from a comfortable apathy by the high crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush Administration.
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