War-Pimping
With A Smile:
Of American Exceptionalism,
Apple Pie, And Moral Rot
By Jason Miller
14 May, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Biography
of Kathleen Parker excerpted from The Washington Post Writers Group
page:
Now one of America's most
popular opinion columnists, appearing in more than 350 newspapers, Parker
is at home both inside and outside the Washington Beltway. But she came
to column-writing the old-fashioned way, working her way up journalism’s
ladder from smaller papers to larger ones. "I never set out to
become a commentator – and do continue to resist the label 'pundit'
– but I found that keeping my opinion out of my writing was impossible,"
says Parker. "One can only stand watching from the sidelines for
so long without finally having to say, 'Um, excuse me, but you people
are nuts.'"
Despite myriad signs of the
waning power and impending collapse of the abomination known as the
American Empire or Pax Americana, there are those among us who insist
on perpetuating history’s greatest and deadliest charade. While
our nation inflicts tremendous misery and suffering upon the Earth and
its sentient inhabitants, our opulent class and their sycophantic apologists
dress the United States in a cloak of moral rectitude so pious that
one who sees the truth finds it difficult to refrain from vomiting.
History will afford us generous praise for our military prowess, economic
might, but most of all, for our capacity to project a false image, both
to ourselves and others.
Greedy, hubristic, gluttonous,
bellicose, and reactionary almost beyond belief, those who wield the
bulk of wealth and power in the United States maintain a phenomenal
illusion of America’s decency. Hollow pillars of noble ideals
merely serve as storage silos for the manure the cynical de facto aristocracy
perpetually feeds the masses to ensure that there are enough true believers
to man the bulwarks of a system riddled with contradictions and corruption.
Machiavellian moneyed elites
infest and dominate nearly every node of power in our maleficent socioeconomic
and political infrastructure, including Wall Street, the Pentagon, Congress,
the White House, and the Fourth Estate. America’s persistent efforts
to dominate the rest of the world serve their interests while significantly
diminishing the quality of life for the rest of us. Spending close to
a trillion dollars a year on “defense” and committing war
crimes with the casual ease of a man brushing his teeth enrich the military
industrial complex, financially starve initiatives that would benefit
humanity, and fuel a vicious cycle US military aggression, hatred, blowback,
and US retaliation.
While the crony capitalist
criminals have a multitude of means at their disposal with which to
beguile the masses into complicity in their egregious crimes against
humanity, their principal weapon is their army of propagandists. Possessing
“all-American” looks, exhibiting unwavering patriotism,
and fulfilling her self-designated role as spokesperson for “sane
adults,” Kathleen Parker is one of the establishment’s chief
proponents in the corporate media. As such, she provides relentless
cover for a class of criminals who put Al Capone and his associates
to shame.
Consider a dissection of
some of her work as it appeared on Jewish World Review.com:
In her 4/11/07, “Don
Imus’s Via Dolorosa”, Ms. Parker opined:
“What Imus said was not hateful, but it was thoughtlessly unkind
to young women who are not, in fact, ‘hos’…. Black
hip-hop artists have been denigrating the women of their families and
neighborhoods for years with terminology that reduces all women to receptacles
for men's pleasure.”
As she often does, Kathleen
slyly buttresses the white patriarchal power structure which continues
to dominate the United States, despite having suffered some significant
erosion. Note how she assures us that Imus’s remark was not “hateful”
and quickly identifies hip hop artists as the true villains.
While misogynistic song lyrics
are morally repugnant, they do not alleviate Imus of culpability for
his remark. When a dominant media figure, who happens to be a white
male in a society which is only several generations removed from chattel
slavery and Jim Crow, calls gifted black female athletes and scholars
“hos” from a platform which enables him to reach an audience
of millions, it is time for him to go.
Kathleen’s piece diverts
our attention from another important issue. Why did his corporate chieftains
fire Imus? Were they acting on the “moral duty” with which
Ms. Parker professes to be so enamored? No. Imus got the axe because
major advertising sponsors did not want to risk losing customers and
withdrew their monetary support of Imus’s show.
Which leads to another significant
point. Parker’s revulsion with hip-hop lyrics which denigrate
women is fully justified. Yet she fails to acknowledge the fact that
the bourgeoisie masters of the recording universe could end such abject
immorality tomorrow if they wished. But even hip-hop with degrading
lyrics sells. And profits rule, don’t they Kathleen? Did you forget
to whom you sold your soul?
Writing in “The Mother
of All Blunders” on 4/6/07, Parker gave us this gem:
“On any given day,
one isn't likely to find common cause with Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad. He's a dangerous, lying, Holocaust-denying, Jew-hating
cutthroat thug — not to put too fine a point on it.”
This presents an excellent
example of the rabid belligerence and paranoia our corporate-controlled
media works so hard to engender in the hoi polloi. While his government
certainly has exhibited a tendency towards internal repression, to whom
is Ahmadinejad a danger outside of Iraq? To the world’s lone superpower,
which is equipped with the most lethal killing machine in the history
of humanity? To Israel, a nation with a potent military, a nuclear arsenal
and the unconditional support of the US? Whom has Iran invaded lately?
What is it that Ahmadinejad has lied about? Is Holocaust denial now
a violation of international law? What of the world’s denial of
the genocide Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinians?
Thankfully, in March of this
year, Ms. Parker was there to remind us of “America’s Clear
and Present Danger”:
“Simply put, the present
danger is a worldwide threat from radical Islamist terrorism that has
a strong state sponsorship component, an overt and covert military component,
and an ‘insidious peaceful component’ that is now present
in the United States.
That is to say, peacefully
and without much notice, Islamists are trying to use our laws of tolerance
against us to carve out exceptions for themselves. The radical Islamist
faction that has infiltrated and intimidated Europe has found a home
in our polite denial.”
To justify its outrageous
military spending and perpetual wars, the United States needs enemies.
When the Soviet Union disbanded and the US became the world’s
only hegemon, policy makers needed a replacement for Communism to justify
their “Realpolitik” interventions around the globe. Capitalism’s
imperative is to expand or die.
How convenient for them that
the “Islamofascists” have emerged. Former US allies like
Saddam Hussein, CIA-trained guerilla fighters in Afghanistan, and millions
of justifiably enraged victims of direct or indirect US oppression represent
the ideal foe. Violently resistant to our exploitation, numbering over
a billion, nearly ubiquitous, often dark-skinned (meaning they are easily
dehumanized by our exquisite propagandists like Ms. Parker), and (by
virtue of geographic good fortune) in possession of much of “our
oil,” Islamic people are readily portrayed to US Americans as
“a worldwide threat” which has now reached our shores as
an ‘insidious peaceful component.’
If so many of our fellow
citizens were not so easily persuaded to believe Kathleen’s absurd
perversion of reality, it would be comical. We are the threat. Islamic
violence is a reaction to years of invasion, genocide, theft of resources,
toppling of governments, support of despots, and destruction of infrastructure.
Imagine what we would do if we were in their place. But then again,
empathizing with the “other” is akin to providing comfort
to the enemy, isn’t it, Ms. Parker?
Musing about the state-sponsored
murder of Saddam with “We Are All Executioners Now,” in
January of this year Ms. Parker penned:
“Where we've seen it
before was in the horror movies Islamist terrorists staged when they
butchered hostages such as Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl, knowing that
the world would watch.
The differences are obvious,
of course. Berg and Pearl were innocents, and Saddam was a lawless monster
indicted, tried and convicted under a civilized code of jurisprudence.
If anyone deserved ultimate justice for crimes against humanity, Saddam
did. In death, he joins that foul fraternity of other torturers and
murderers for whom death was tardy.”
Again Kathleen presents us
with an emotionally charged intellectual hand-job intended to create
sympathy for “our people”, demonize the “other”,
and legitimize the United States’ utter disregard for the law,
let alone justice.
While the gruesome deaths of Berg and Pearl were tragic, where is her
concern for the millions upon millions of victims of our imperial wars
and occupations since the end of World War II?
Kathleen also conveniently “memory-holed” the fact that
the ‘lawless monster,’ Saddam, was our ally when he was
at war with Iran during the Reagan era.
Amnesty International characterized
Hussein’s trial and conviction as ‘deeply flawed and unfair,’
despite Parker’s assurance that it was conducted ‘under
a civilized code of jurisprudence.’
And if ‘in death’
Saddam joined ‘that foul fraternity of other torturers and murderers
for whom death was tardy,’ when do we schedule the executions
of Kissinger, Bush 41 and Bush 43, Clinton, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and a
host of other US leaders? Their crimes are as well-documented as Saddam’s
and are of equal or greater magnitude.
Shortly after Hugo Chavez
spoke at the UN in September of 2006, Parker fired off, “The Axis
of Oil and Nuts”:
“Chavez would be a
hoot if he weren't so dangerous. As the leader of America's fourth-largest
foreign oil supplier, he has undeserved power, both in the world and
over the U.S. When he's feeling grumpy, he threatens to cut us off.
Wouldn't we love not to have to entertain his mood shifts?”
Ms. Parker has a knack for
defying reason while appearing to inundate us with irrefutable folksy
wisdom. Admittedly, Chavez is over the top with his rhetoric and tends
to make a caricature of himself. However, as with Ahmadinejad, to whom
is Chavez a danger? Venezuela has not initiated a war or invasion under
his leadership. There is no documented evidence that Chavez has killed
(or ordered the killing) of a soul.
Chavez’s power to damage
the US economically is far more limited than Kathleen implies. Venezuela
accounts for about 15% of US oil imports. While it would certainly render
a blow to the United States if Chavez stopped selling us his petroleum,
we would manage.
In reality, the danger that
Chavez poses is to US hegemony. As a shameless apologist for the US
ruling elite, Ms. Parker is duty-bound to attack leaders like Chavez,
who assert what “undeserved power” they have to protect
their nation’s sovereignty and to challenge US global dominance.
Displaying rare form in April of 2006, Kathleen scribbled, “The
Christianists are Coming, the Christianists are Coming”:
“For those who do not
spend their days pulling imaginary bugs out of their eye sockets, ‘Christianist’
is a relatively new term that roughly refers to a virulent strain of
right-wing political Christianity that, supposedly, parallels Islamist
lunacy.
Although both groups may
be ‘true believers,’ those who try to connect the dots of
Christian belief, specifically evangelical Christianity, to Islamism
seem willing to overlook the fact that Islamists praise Allah and fly
airplanes into buildings while Christianists praise Jesus and pass the
mustard.”
Thank you, Kathleen, for
again reminding those who pull “imaginary bugs out of their eye
sockets” that you are their Virgil in this mad, Hellish world.
Ms. Parker commits several
sins of omission in her sweeping portrayal of Western religious fanatics
as innocuous picnickers relative to the “monsters” who have
the audacity to worship Allah.
Aside from passing the mustard,
“Christianists” provide undying political, social, financial,
and moral support for the genocidal acts of both the US and Israeli
governments in the Holy Land. They don’t need to commit acts of
terrorism abroad; they have the US military, the CIA, the IDF, and Mossad
to do that for them. Therefore, they can focus their efforts on domestic
terrorism as they bomb abortion clinics, gay night clubs, and Olympic
events.
In “Hezbollah’s
Twilight Zone” (2/06), Ms. Parker wove a tale that would have
left Rod Serling green with envy:
“Why some residents
of Qana didn't leave given fair warning is a point of speculation, but
Hezbollah reportedly has blocked residents from evacuating other areas.
Proportionality is a trickier question, but let's be clear on the issue
of moral equivalence. There is none. Hezbollah aims to kill civilians;
Israel aims not to. But by firing rockets from civilian areas, Hezbollah
forces Israel to return fire, thus inciting the condemnation of civilized
nations and fueling the reliable outrage of the Arab street.
The fog of war may prevent
absolute clarity, but this much seems certain: Those dead women and
children are casualties of Hezbollah, not Israel. As in the case of
Susan Smith, we mourn the deaths of the children, but have no sympathy
for the responsible party.”
Let’s pause for a moment
to applaud Kathleen for a nearly superhuman feat of mental gymnastics.
If we are to accept her cleverly constructed argument, we must blame
the defenders of the victims of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon while
embracing the idiotic conclusion that Western shells, cluster bombs,
and missiles are manufactured in such a way that they only kill the
“bad guys”, and when civilians die, it is an aberration
for which we are immediately forgiven.
Incidentally, Israel killed
1200 Lebanese civilians while Hezbollah claimed 43 Israeli civilian
victims. If, as Ms. Parker claims, “Hezbollah aims to kill civilians;
Israel aims not to,” both sides need to engage in some serious
re-training of their forces.
Rewinding to 2004, let’s
consider some of Kathleen’s “wisdom” from “You
Say Fallujah, I Say Rambo!”:
“I suppose it would
be considered lacking in nuance to nuke the Sunni Triangle….
…But so goes the unanimous
vote around my household - and I'm betting millions of others - in the
aftermath of what forevermore will be remembered simply as ‘Fallujah.’
Wouldn't it be lovely were
justice so available and so simple? If we were but creatures like those
zoo animals we witnessed gleefully jumping up and down after stomping,
dragging, dismembering and hanging the charred remains of American civilians
whose only crime was to try to help them.
These are the times that
try Americans' souls….
...It is hard at such times to keep one's head, to remain calm, to rise
above the impulse to exact immediate revenge. Or to cut and run, as
we did under similar circumstances in Somalia not so long ago. But keep
our heads we must. Calmly we must transcend the primitive lust that
compels ignorant others to mug idiotically for cameras.
Our revenge will be in facing
down enemies who, though unworthy adversaries, impede the worthy goal
of stabilizing a country whose future may predict our own….
….Americans have the
appealing if self-defeating habit of projecting their values onto others
who haven't enjoyed centuries of self-enlightenment. But we learn and
mean well.
What we know, and what we
tell the rest of the world by our steadfastness, is that we will help
even the unworthy; we will not back down from a just cause even when
appalled and afraid; we mean what we say. “
What an artful display of
war-pimping! In response to the death of four Blackwater mercenaries,
at the hands of people whose nation WE invaded, she writes of nuking
the Sunni Triangle and laments that “justice” against “zoo
animals” is not so “available and so simple.”
Invoking the spirit of the
American Revolution with her reference to Thomas Paine and the times
trying our souls, she reminds us of our “moral superiority”
and the need to “rise above the impulse to exact immediate revenge.”
(Ultimately, we did indeed demonstrate our “civility and restraint”
by allowing some time to pass before avenging the deaths of four guns-for-hire
by leveling the city of Fallujah—we were so fortunate to have
Kathleen as a moral compass).
Proudly waving the banner
of American Exceptionalism, she reminds us that those attempting to
end our occupation of their country are “unworthy”, yet
tempered as we are by “centuries of self-enlightenment”,
we will continue to “help” them.
Let’s hope that our
“unworthy adversaries” who are maimed, dying, or who have
lost family members realize that we US Americans “learn and mean
well.”
Some place their faith in
a deity, but as evidenced by Ms. Parker’s June 2006 column, “In
Marines We Trust,” that trend may be changing:
“Not only do we not
know what happened in Haditha, but we've failed to communicate effectively
to the rest of the world what we do know: that our Marines always deserve
the benefit of the doubt. And that if something did go terribly wrong
in Haditha, it was a rare exception to the rule.
Instead of launching an aggressive
PR campaign to debunk the growing impression that such incidents, if
true, are par for American forces, we get a presumption of guilt and
an ethics course to fix a problem that isn't a problem. The failure
to communicate responsibly and strategically in this case, coupled with
the rush to judgment in the international court of public opinion, has
hurt not only the Marines under investigation, but also all our military
men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Here Ms. Parker implies that
the vanguard forces of a morally reprehensible imperialistic superpower
that slaughtered three million in Vietnam and has annihilated hundreds
of thousands in Iraq since the Gulf War do their killing “innocently”
and “ethically.” While there is certainly a distinction
between individual soldiers killing unarmed civilians and a group of
service personnel taking lives in the course of carrying out a military
objective, one can also successfully argue that each death the US military
causes in Iraq is a war crime because the United States launched a war
of aggression, an offense for which several principals of the Third
Reich were hanged. Besides, the evidence against the Marines in Haditha
is quite damning and the Haditha’s and My Lai’s are not
as isolated as the corporate media would have us believe.
Recruiting young people who
are economically susceptible to their bribes and psychologically vulnerable
to their brain-washing while mobilizing public support for unprovoked
invasions and “interventions,” the tangled web of corporate
entities, war profiteers, “elected officials”, plutocrats,
upper echelon military careerists, and their handsomely rewarded propagandists,
like Ms. Parker, ultimately bears the responsibility for a deepening
sea of blood and a growing mound of dismembered corpses.
Kathleen Parker may project
an “apple pie” image, but her ardent moral and intellectual
defense of the wholesale liquidation of human beings, her dehumanization
of Islamic people to fuel the fraudulent “War on Terror”,
and her pathological nationalism reveal that she is morally rotten to
the core.
Jason Miller
is a wage slave of the American Empire who has freed himself intellectually
and spiritually. He is Cyrano's Journal Online's associate editor (http://www.bestcyrano.org/)
and publishes Thomas Paine's Corner within Cyrano's at http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/.
He welcomes constructive correspondence at [email protected].
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