Ten years ago this month millions of Americans took to the streets to try to stop George W. Bush’s mad rush to invade a country that neither threatened us nor had anything to do with 911. Just in terms of national treasure wasted and the irreversible erosion of civil liberties the results were catastrophic. (Republicans wonder why they can’t win elections.) The Media, George W. Bush, the Neocons like Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz, and even end-times evangelicals beat their war drums and incited their flocks. Most Americans knew from alternative news sources that the chemical weapon’s truck was bogus. The aluminum tube papers were frauds. WMD inspectors found nothing and so on. Americans by the millions turned to the streets in outrage.
The Country Club Plaza by the horse fountains is Kansas City’s traditional demonstration site. In March, 2003 I decided to join the opposition to the war. At one point my estimate was that about 3,000 people attended in one day at the height of the Plaza protests. It was strange to rub shoulders with so many on the left, but the right was also well represented and I suspect that it was rule nationally. The Ladies in Black stood at 47th and Main. An anarchist with his red flag and pentagram ran around among the demonstrators while undercover agents mingled. Others, I suspected, had been bussed in by Freepers, a pro Bush Internet bulletin board, to target women protestors (because that’s who they picked on.) Pudgy clean shaven white men with short hair who looked like security guards were obvious among the crowd.
I remember the distorted reporting by the Media of the Plaza demonstrations. Sunday March 23, FOX TV characterizes the event as a “Pro-Troop Rally.” For instance, out of 3,000 protestors, I counted about 150 counter-demonstrators. When I went home to watch TV I saw only them huddled together on the street corner. FOX ran interviews with the VFW to characterize Kansas City as pro war. Kansas City Public Television ran shows that showed Saddam using chemical weapons against the Kurds – weapons the Iraqi’s did away with after Desert Storm. Headline: “Chemical Weapons Found Near Baghdad” turned out to be bogus. Channel 16 had a black preacher with a huge American flag behind him saying opposition to America is demonic. “Your job is not to picket or protest against your president.” “A Time for War” appeared on another channel. Reporter Betsy Webster finally acknowledges Plaza protestors outnumber pro-war demonstrators, but the polls show “overwhelming support” for the invasion. KCPT shows Neocon Richard Perle on July 11, 2002 saying removing Saddam will be “quick and easier than we think.” At the first “whiff of gun powder” Saddam will collapse just like a “deck of cards.” “An Army of One” enlistment commercial runs in dramatic slow motion to entice potential recruits. Notation from March 31, 2003. “Except for news at 5:30 and 10:00 PM, no news of protests at all.” “Media begins to attack protestors calling them fifth columnists and anti-patriotic.” April 6, 2003 Jerry Falwell says, "Until He’s on the throne, it’s “lock and Load.”
The fraud perpetrated by the Media, George W. Bush, and his host of Neocons was bold, consistent, and vicious and they all got away with it with no jail time. When I see the media commentators stumbling over themselves saying such a war couldn’t happen again, I see people with selectively short memories who protect their own behinds and offer no evidence to the contrary. Sorry Charlie, I find your vacuous assumptions ridiculous and highly suspect.
