|
Its Time For Americans To 'Turn It Off.'
Posted: Friday, August 1, 2003
by Ben Roberts
Yes, its time for Americans to turn off the constantly running faucet of lies, greed, deception, and of doing harm to others. Its high time! I am a die hard fan of the band Boston. There’s no better rock and roll band on the planet. Period! Here is what they say on their latest album from the track titled, 'Turn It Off:'
'I'm conscious of liars that cross my path
The sinners ambitious to rule this land
The gardens are dead and the walls have bled
People betrayed in a silent rage...
Turn it off, somebody show a better way.'
Can you connect the dots and pray tell what Boston is singing about? I'm not a spokesman for the band vocalists Tom Scholz, Anthony Cosmo, or Fran Cosmo, and I don't want to put words in their mouth or pretend I'm their interpreter. That said I must say that, for me, this par excellence band is talking about the Bush Administration. Listen to the album and decide for yourself. I'm not a musician, could never be the multitalented instrument player and musical genius of a Tom Scholz, and I couldn't carry a tune if my life depended on it. But there's a lot to be said for musicians. They are like canaries in a coal mine. An early warning system of danger, of something not being right. Their profession demands this. They have to know when a tune is off key and when chords are in disharmony.
I don't possess a single album by the Dixie Chicks, but take a look at Natalie Maines face the next chance you get. Besides being beautiful, her face says to me that she is good at seeing bull from a mile away. No wonder her comments about Bush. Same thing with Merle Haggard. Look at the guy. His persona says that he's just about seen it all, so don't even try to play him for a sucker. No wonder his hot off the press album, taking the media to task. Recall the night of September 11, when Bush addressed us all, in a state of shock, grief, and mourning. He tried hard to look somber for the occasion, but what I saw was a man ready to burst out laughing, as if he couldn't believe his luck. Especially when he said, 'we're the good guys here.' I wish the networks would do a rerun, so Americans could see what I am talking about. Nothing in recent memory has given me the creeps like the look on George Bush's face that night. Maybe Natalie Maines saw the same thing. These musicians are saying 'Turn it Off!' And now the American public are waking up and saying, 'Turn It Off.'
But what do they want turned off? Some of the things they want turned off are: The bogus never ending war on terror, along with its accompanying lies. The bogus war in Iraq with our soldiers being killed daily. The insane rhetoric and wild eyed ideas coming from those elected and appointed to govern our lives. The constant sapping of our Constitutional rights due to the low grade martial law environment produced by the Patriot Act(s). Our leaders constantly hiding behind the shield of national security, September 11, and patriotism, to push their agendas down our throats. Their government's reckless foreign policy that is draining away their country's respectability, making them despised among nations. The continued hemorrhaging of their nation's economy that is leaving many of them unemployed and facing unprecedented financial hardship.
Take the so called war on terror. It is infinite, because we have no idea when it will end. It comes without a price tag. Our healthy surplus has evaporated as Bush has driven this country into the ground economically. Rumsfeld declared that we are spending money at a 'burn rate' of $4 billion dollars a month to be in Iraq. That 'burn rate' would surely send America into financial ruin. The war's success cannot be measured. Bush crows that we have 'broken the back of terrorism,' and before the words are out of his mouth the Saudi bomb blast kills a number of American citizens. Now just yesterday in a press conference as rare as gold Bush declared that we were facing a terror threat to our airlines. It was vague. No idea where or when, but it was definite. How can it be that we were in danger of terrorism before the war which has been so effective, and today Bush tells us we are in danger of terrorist attack? The clincher evidence supposedly came from an interrogated prisoner. Really? If you interrogated me I would admit to being the King of Spain if that was what you wanted to hear. Remember, the last time we moved to an ORANGE alert it was because of information from an interrogated prisoner at Guantanamo Bay. Then a polygraph test revealed the guy had been lying. See why we need to turn off this war on terror crap?
While our soldiers are being killed daily in the drudgery and heat of Iraq we have our well groomed leaders in Washington spouting out all kinds of cuckoo ideas and revelations. Bush claimed the sixteen words about Iraqi 'nukular' materials from Niger was his fault. Then he breezed on about success in Iraq. What? Did Karl rove sit him down and say 'Now see here Georgie Porgie I know you are not used to owning up to anything and you said you are the President and don't have to answer to anyone, but we got a problem here. Our poll ratings are sliding into the basement. Having Tenet take the rap didn't work. Having the British, the French, the Italians, the Nigerian diplomat, Condeleeza, or Hadley take the rap didn't work. If you don't go out there before the class and 'fess up this party's over.' Was that how it went down? Then we had Wolfowitz say US forces moving out of Saudi Arabia was a good thing because our troops in the kingdom did not sit well with Osama bin Laden. That is true. Can we conclude that our American government is now kowtowing to terror groups? They claim this is anathema to them. If that weren't enough, at the Pentagon this week John Poindexter floated implementing a policy of trading in futures on the varying possibilities of terrorist incidents. Would someone turn off this madness now? America can do without it.
Our leaders constantly hide behind the barriers of national security, September 11, and claims of patriotism as they deceive us into war, hide public information from us, and relieve us of our Constitutional rights and civil liberties. They expose us to ever increasing danger by engaging in a reckless foreign policy of threatening some nations, propping up some that brutalize their citizens, and even torturing and killing citizens in other countries. An American recently observed that everytime he takes a trip abroad he looks at his passport, aware that it is a liability, identifying him as a target. This is a far cry from when an American passport proffered anywhere in the world generated admiration, envy, and a wish to be so fortunate. It is somewhat baffling and odd that in the news this week the Saudis are demanding that the Bush Administration declassify information in the September 11 report referring to their country, that has been blanked out. Our nation has blasted Saudi Arabia, accusing them of being heavily involved in September 11, being secretive and disingenuous, and collusion with terrorist. Now the Saudis are insisting that Bush and Co. release this information so that they can defend themselves against their accusers, since they have nothing to hide. Bush is refusing to do so in the name of national security. Whose national security? Surely not the security of American citizens. What a spectacle? Now we get to see what our government is all about, as the Saudis are calling their bluff. Now who is looking secretive and disingenuous? Here in America we can do without such chicanery. It is high time we turn it off.
Ben Roberts is a newsletter editor, freelance writer and published author. His book, Jackals of Samarra, was published in January 2001.
 Send page by E-Mail
|
|
