Here we go again. Is there no limit to the willful ignorance that manifests itself on these pages? If the writers who routinely berate Charley Reese for his studied sympathies ever stop scouring the Internet for imaginary jihads, we’ll all be better off. Do us a big favor and stick to researching dubious medical remedies; a malodorous hint of racism lingers over the tortured logic of your rants about Muslims and the perils of tolerance.
Neocon shills like Yossef Bodansky, Walid Shoebat, Georges Sada, and Roberts Spencer and Morey are a dime a dozen. They are hardly unbiased purveyors of unadulterated truth. What they have in common is that they all emote an irrational, exuberant hatred for Islam and Arabs. They’re all professional witnesses for the prosecution; Faux News darlings who selectively sanitize illegal wars while hawking silly “left behind” Apocalypse fantasies and a nutty paranoia that sees Al Qaeda everywhere and in every thing, even in natural calamities.
Yes, there were “Muslim” riots in Amsterdam last month. A schizophrenic young man with a long history of mental problems attacked two police officers. He was shot dead and some local punks used the incident as an excuse to riot. Sound familiar? The same thing happened a few years ago in Los Angeles, sparked by Rodney King’s televised beating. Does anyone recall whether our very own all-American riots ever prompted generalized castigations of Christianity? Were there disparaging headlines about “Christo-Anarchists” running amuck in our City of Angels?
Of course not, but it’s perfectly acceptable these days to whip up a quick batch of anti-Muslim bigotry. If an isolated event in the Netherlands (it was barely newsworthy in Europe) doesn’t do the job, mix in a couple of random comments and claim they accurately reflect the thinking of a billion Muslims scattered across the planet; it always helps to tap into our latent xenophobia by using names that lack that familiar Anglo-Saxon ring. Stir in an illogical fear of a nonexistent menace (like WMDs) and pepper to taste with constant suggestions that it’s all somehow connected to September 11.
If ignorance is the type of bliss you seek, then by all means eschew Charley Reese. Limit yourselves to a bland, highly-redacted diet of Faux News and other cleansed propaganda. Do not investigate the agendas behind the men who write the books you love to cite. Do not question who funds the foundations and think tanks and web sites that are unending sources of intentional misinformation. Show your patriotism by pinning yourself with an American Flag made in China. Above all, never ever allow a contrary point of view into the prisons of your whitewashed worlds; it might just be the truth that sets you free.
Here’s what truth looks like. Once upon a time Iraq did have WMDs. We should know: they were purchased from us back when Saddam was our BFF du jour. Our petro-pals in Saudi Arabia even helped pay for them. Rather embarrassing that our expert doubters and on-the-scene weapons inspectors were right; the WMDs were gone long before we showed up to save the Iraqis from themselves. Now that the illusion of imminent threat in Iraq has faded into the bloody oblivion of a very real quagmire, what’s next for our ghouls of war and their outsourced sycophants? Will our fiddling Nero seek out new Muslim scapegoats while Rome still burns?
Will Iran be the next oil-rich sacrifice we offer to the meat-grinder Moloch of our American empire? We’ve been meddling in Iranian affairs for at least half a century, but that inconvenient truth will soon be forgotten as we’re blitzed with elaborate justifications for yet another Crusade against Islam. Once more, we’ll be assured that it will be easy and cheap and quick. After all, surely by now they’ve gotten over our CIA-crafted overthrow of their democracy in 1953. Surely they’ve forgiven us for helping Saddam’s Iraq kill a million Iranians during the 1980s.
Maybe they won’t even resent being demonized by hypocrites who blind themselves to the plain truth that Israel’s behavior resembles apartheid and Nazi fascism more than the Christian imperatives of peace and justice.
America, oh my America, sleep well if you can!
Signed, accidental Arabist but Baptist by choice