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Bert Robbins
 
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Default Thoughts of a Recovering NeoCon

Poor guy got hit with the stupid stick.


"Harry.Krause" wrote in message
...
I Used To Be a Neocon
by Drew O'Neill



Two years ago I was a neocon. I supported Bush’s war on Iraq and I called
everyone who didn’t a liberal Kool-aid drinker. I voted for Bush in 2000
and I listened to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and just about any
right-winger on the radio that I could get a four-word talking point from
to use against liberals. I would say things such as "liberals won’t defend
America," "shut up and sing," "freedom is on the march," and "you’re a
great American." I supported the war at first because I bought into the
lies and propaganda.

I no longer do. I’m a recovering neocon.

The fact is, the neocon movement is a lot like a cult. I don’t remember
how I got so involved and the details are hazy on how I got out. I just
woke up one day and said "WTF!" and then ran outside to rip the "bring it
on" sticker off of my car bumper. What pulled me in to the neocon cult
however was a combination of American nationalism and group mentality. It
was a time when questioning the government’s response to Iraq divided you
between being with your country and government at a time of need, or
against them. I wanted to be with them.

So this cult took me in and I watched Fox News, I bought Factor Gear and I
was brainwashed into common reflexes for liberals and dissenters. When I
heard dissent in the media over Iraq I’d call it liberal bias. If someone
presented me any website that mentioned a "war for oil" or the phrase
"illegal war" I would blow the site off as conspiracy hogwash. When
someone would talk ill of the President and his march to war, I would call
them a liberal and anti-American. When someone would say that Saddam was
not a threat after I was done calling them part of the liberal "hate
America" crowd, I would launch into a diatribe that Saddam was Hitler-like
and hell bent on world domination. If someone persisted I would take out
my wild card:

"Saddam believes he’s the reincarnation of King Nebuchadnezzar, and he’s
harboring Al Queda!"

I couldn’t believe these liberals. I was outraged. The audacity of them to
question our President during a time of war! I listened to similar
sentiments on right wing radio while driving to work to reinforce my
belief.

Little did I know at the time, but I was an important part of the neocon
movement. I was but a tiny wheel in the machine of neoconservatism, but
the survival of the neocon agenda depends on millions of us tiny wheels,
or it cannot go anywhere. Most of all the neocon agenda depends on a much
bigger wheel, the media. For the neocon machine to roll, the big wheel of
the media must pull the millions of tiny wheels without the tiny wheels
knowing they are being pulled.

This is a difficult trick that requires the media to be an active
participant in government deception. To imply that they do so knowingly
would be too conspiratorial, and it would be too grand an operation to be
plausible. In truth, the mainstream media doesn’t believe they are
participating in lies.

During the build-up to the war they were being pulled without knowing it,
by the engine of the U. S. government. This swarm of nationalism begat a
pro-American media, a complacent media, a lapdog media and a corporate
media that to this day will not inform the American public.

When the Bush Administration was found to be creating fake news propaganda
for public consumption the media did not inform the public. When the Bush
administration marched towards pre-emptive war with Iraq the media was a
lapdog instead of a watchdog. When the Bush administration described the
assault on the Iraqi public as Shock and Awe, the media used that phrase
to scroll alongside the words "War on Terror" without questioning if the
assault on Iraq had anything to do with terrorism. When the Bush
Administration tore into the U. S. Constitution with the Patriot Act,
causing the illegal imprisonment of American citizens while denying them
counsel, the media acted more like a timid cocker spaniel than an
aggressive Doberman pincher, and failed to defend a sacred American
document. When the UK’s Downing Street memo implicated the Bush
Administration as being hell bent on a pre-emptive invasion on Iraq before
even going to the UN, the American media was silent and once again failed
to inform the public.

But the tiny wheels still want to call the media liberal. The tiny wheels
still want to say the media isn’t reporting the good things happening in
Iraq. Most of all the tiny wheels do not know about the big wheel that’s
pulling them. But now I do. That’s why I am an ex-neocon and I am in
recovery. It’s more clear to me now than ever that the most American thing
one can do is speak out against the actions of their country because it
means you love your country.

And in the end it doesn’t matter if we are liberals or conservatives
because all that matters is that we are on the side of the U.S.
Constitution and of international law. Both of which have been thrown into
the toilet by this administration. At least the Qur’an has company.

May 26, 2005

Drew O’Neill [graduated from Cal State Northridge and works at an internet
marketing company in San Diego, California.



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