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"The conflict in the Middle East is getting
cloudier by the minute. As America continues to unilaterally
support Israel's offensive, they are also deploying a variety
of smokescreens in order to justify this war. We are seeing
a trend of politicians who are trying to paint an environment
of moral superiority over the rest of the world, while opening
wounds from 9/11, and finally creating a Nazi-like image for
their purported enemies. The average person who is relatively
ignorant about world-affairs is the most susceptible to fall
victim to these distractions. While it is their hope to gain
unconditional support from the world by creating these smokescreens,
we must do our best to avoid these temptations. Rather than
just being deferent to the politicians and pundits, we must question
the status quo. Listed below are three of the main smokescreens
that have been employed to further justify this war:
The
Smokescreen of Moral Superiority
A constant theme that has been adopted by the U.S. and Israel
during their various offensives is the argument of "moral
equivalency." This tactic has been used very often, with
regard to actions which the rest of the world views as disproportionate.
For example, one soldier is kidnapped in Gaza and Israel proceeds
to invade, kill scores of civilians, while displacing tens of
thousands. Similarly, two soldiers are captured by Hezbollah
and Israel razes the entire sovereign nation of Lebanon. During
a recent interview, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton was asked if
this aggression was disproportionate. He replies to the interviewer:
"This is not a case of moral equivalency," which seems
to highlight the fact that America, Britain and Israel constitute
the world's collective moral conscience. Bolton was just the
latest American political figure to allude to the fact that it's
ok to kill people, if it is based within the current regime's
definition of morality. Republican politicians such as John
McCain consistently declare that there is no moral equivalence
between the Palestinians and Israelis---he even goes on-record
his website (U.S. Senator
John McCain).
As this latest conflict in Lebanon has piled up nearly a thousand
civilian deaths, we are hearing IDF spokespersons alluding to
this same superiority. A great example of the IDF's "moral
superiority" was displayed in its use of the infamous "helmet-game"
when detaining Palestinian men. This was where they would take
a soldier's helmet, and drop in slits of paper with various types
of bodily harm written on them. Rather than just choosing to
break the civilian's hand or leg, they would allow him to reach
into the helmet and pull out his ultimate punishment. Neo-conservative
apologists will denounce this as propaganda, however they fail
to remember that this was reported in the national media, and
was subject to the IDF's own internal investigation. America's
case for moral superiority takes a hit when we think of the massacre
of civilians at Haditha, the flushing of the Quran at Guantanamo,
or those constantly emerging snapshots from Abu Ghraib. Isolated
incidents as these may be, it just goes to show that it is absurd
to boast moral superiority over another group of people. When
it comes to civilian deaths, there is no such thing as moral
superiority, contrary to what the aforementioned politicians
are trying to sell.
The
Smokescreen to Remind us of 9/11
With America's foreign
policy being questioned now, more than ever, you will see President
Bush bringing out the 9/11 card much more often. In a recent
Fox News interview with Bush he justified Israel's actions by
stating that the critics have "seemed to have forgotten
what happened on 9/11." This is President Bush's version
of a Control+Alt+Delete, when a line of questioning doesn't go
his way. If he's backed into a corner, just press that "9/11
button" and everything will be reset. There have been at
least four instances where he has invoked 9/11 when speaking
of the conflict between Lebanon and Israel. Additionally, when
speaking at the World Affairs Council in Los Angeles, Prime Minister
Tony Blair used the same tactic when pushing for the globalization
of the Muslim world. As if he and Bush are using the same Cliff's
Notes version on public speaking, he also was insistent on how
we American's have forgotten about 9/11. Now we're supposed
to blame Hezbollah, Iran and the Palestinians for 9/11? It already
has been established that the Iraqi-connection with the attacks
were completely fabricated. But in order to further the cause
of a burgeoning Iranian war, it seems as though they are reaching
for any correlation between Hezbollah/Syria/Iran and 9/11. It
is a reach of absurd proportions, but then again, so was the
case against Iraq. The thought process that is being used by
Bush and Co. is clear. The best way to keep American's from
recovering from that day is to keep the wound open.
The
Smokescreen of Islamic-Fascism:
This is the du jour label that the news outlets such as Fox and
CNN have been throwing around at the behest of Israeli and America's
right-wing hawks. The term fascist is most often used as a parallel
for what the Nazis did in Germany during the Holocaust. Fascism
summons images of Stalin, Mussolini, or Franco---individual ideologues
whose ultimate goal was not rooted in faith, but power alone.
Coupling the word Islam, with the word fascist is a clear attempt
to embed seeds of hatred towards Muslims worldwide. The use
of the terms Islam and fascist together is a deliberate attempt
to incite hate towards the religion of Islam as a whole. The
implication is that the religion teaches fascist ideas, and that
a fundamental following of Islam equates into a fascist ideology.
How can a religion that has been around over 1400 years be labeled
as a precursor to fascist behavior? Now if you are going to
give a laundry list of totalitarian Muslim countries that have
committed atrocities, be prepared to recite an equally long list
of fascist theocracies based in Judeo-Christian beliefs. How
can such an irresponsible term be used, when the actual fascist
tactics are being used on the other side of the equation? In
present day society, there is only one country that is building
walls between religious groups, forbidding entry and development
of religious groups creating refugee populations based on ethnic
demographics---that country is Israel.
The term "Islamic-Fascism" itself, has been created
and put into play by right-wing talking heads such as Rush Limbaugh,
Sean Hannity and the rest of the Fox News crew---unacceptable,
but expected verbiage coming from these guys. But when you hear
CNN's "golden," or should I say "Platinum-boy"
Anderson Cooper using the term loosely, you know the term is
getting out of control. During a recent interview with Israel's
U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman, Cooper refers to the speech given
by Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah as "something that Hitler very
well could've said." Cooper then utters "it sounds
like Islamic-fascism to me." Gillerman just smiles and
nods in agreement, thinking to himself "that's my boy."
Even though CNN has shown degradation in quality and an increase
in editorialization of is reporting, this display is a clear
example of the desperation to keep up with the Fox News crowd.
Israeli representatives continue
to receive an open forum to express their views and to call for
the destruction of Lebanon, Syria and eventually Iran. Please
watch carefully when they have a Lebanese diplomat or representative
in-studio. The interviews will be in two-minute kamikaze intervals,
where the interviewer will constantly press the representative
to denounce Hezbollah. No interview with a Lebanese official
has progressed beyond this point to date. The bottom line is
that "Islamic-Fascism" is an unacceptable, racist term.
In an era when the Muslims are in dire need of possitive PR,
leave it ot the chief political spin-doctors to create such a
loathesome term, loaded with a racially prejudiced agenda.
As this war pushes onward,
smokescreens will continue to play an integral role in order
to influence the public. Pay attention, as these tactics will
increasingly be employed on a daily basis. Wars should not be
fought on the premise of "moral superiority."
It is not up to an elite few
to decide who is moral in the world and who is not. As the war-cries
start to call for Iran, look for an increase of appealing to
the tragedy of 9/11. Look for verbiage such as "Islamic-fascism"
to be emplyed more often, in an attempt to strike fear into the
hearts and minds of the world. In order to catalyze their offensive,
the framers of this war are making a concerted effort to market
a Nazi-like entity that can be used as the hated-enemy. They
want you to hold fast to the fear that this morally-inferior
enemy can attack you at any given moment.
It is time to look beyond the
smokescreens, however. Just as these regimes have previously
distorted the truth when it came to the selling of conflicts
like Iraq, they are once again using the art of PR to sway world
opinion. Before this war escalates any further, it is our job
to ignore the smoke, and to find the real truth.
Imraan Siddiqi is a freelance journalist, who lives in
Phoenix, AZ. He has been published in many national newspapers
and online publications on the topic of civil rights, politics,
and comparitive religion. He can be reached at upbhavan@aol.com
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