What’s a red herring? It’s when you take something most people don’t remember and throw it into the mix to distract people from the original intent. Apparently, the Defense Department has enlisted the help of country music superstar Clint Black to help link the war in Iraq and the events of September 11, 2001, once again.
It’s being labeled by Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense as “the perfect marriage of both sentiments: commemorating September 11 and the importance of our freedom." Pentagon officials are hoping that the walk – which will be performed only by DOD prescreened walkers – preferably ones that don’t mind walking along a route for a free t-shirt and metal pin as long as it gets you a free concert and flag to wave at the end of it – will be emulated in all fifty states.
At some point it became classy to link the war in Iraq to 9/11, but the reality is, most Americans who believe Saddam Hussein had ANYTHING to do with the war in Iraq also believe that Wal-Mart is really looking out for the best interests of their customers; that McDonald’s hamburgers are part of a normal, healthy diet; that gastrointestinal bypass surgery is harmless, and that there’s bridge for sale in Brooklyn. The supporters of this theory also seem to overwhelmingly support Bush “no matter what”, and the continued dependence on foreign oil is driven by their SUVs – still purchased in record numbers.
And they’re also most likely to buy Barber’s story that while the people who organized and built the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon hope to raise a bit more money for the fund, it’s going to be somehow un-American to protest the policies of the administration during this walk…because “supporting the troops” comes first on the agenda.
According to Barber, protesting the walk would be tantamount to "protesting the events of September 11 or protesting our veterans."
Yeah okay sure. This is from the same person whose chain of command said that domestic criticism of the administration’s policies by the news media inflames the insurgency in Iraq. This is from the same chain of command that sent Marines, Army boys, and plenty of civilians to die in rattletrap Humvees armored with the military equivalent of tinfoil. This is from the same chain of command that recommended a light invasion, that Iraqis would gleefully open up and shift over a new leaf.
It’s from the same chain of command that still seems to be trying to link 9/11 and the war in Iraq together – to justify a military quagmire that will, in the short and long term, destroy the economic and political power the United States has had in the world. One fudged assertion, one Downing Street memo proving unequivocably that George wanted to invade Iraq, one psychotic little boy with the power to annihilate anyone he felt like at his fingertips…
…no wonder people hate the United States. In a nation where a “Free Speech Zone” is topped with barbed wire and surrounded by chain link fencing; where speeches by public officials are interrupted by people demanding to know the truth; where the word freedom is stated so often it could possibly pass for “nonfreedom”...
Well, I want the freedom from the $3,500 every man, woman, and child in America owes for Bush’s folly. I want freedom from the increase in terrorist acts. I want freedom from the infringement of my personal liberties by the United States government. I want freedom from the rule of a tyrant. I want freedom from an oil industry gone mad with wealth and power. I want freedom from Halliburton and Bush and Cheney.
Make no mistake, this is not a freedom walk. It will be attended by pork-bellied pigs in too-tight t-shirts with men and women overfed to bursting by their fast food nation. This event will be carefully scripted and attended by the right kinds of people. There will be the right kinds of speeches made, the right kind of songs sung. This event is NOT American.
This “freedom walk” celebrates everything unholy about this president. This freedom walk continues to try to link 9/11 and Saddam Hussein. This freedom walk, in other words, is perhaps as far from “freedom” as you can get.
I love my country. I hate the terrorists who run it.
