@izzythepush,
Quote: I think an arms dealer living in a tax haven is more to blame for the Iraq war than Joe Public USA.
I couldn't agree with you more, Izzy - except they don't exist in a vacuum. But the arms dealers couldn't survive without the assistance of the US government. The US government creates the arms dealers and they create the conditions so that the arms dealers can flourish.
I haven't blamed Joe Public, save for their lack of honesty. But that lack of honesty has come largely because of a lifetime of propaganda.
At the outset, many people just outright denied that the US has committed war crimes, that it constantly, daily, engages in terrorist actions. Gracie didn't believe it - she said that her history teacher, her damn history teacher knew nothing of this. Her own father, a well educated man, was also unaware.
Even Cycloptichorn, a fella well versed in the facts, tried to deny that the US government committed terrorist actions. You wouldn't believe the lame argument he put forward, and of course he refused to even discuss it because he knew he was dead wrong.
Note that now, there is no one denying the facts, except for a few wingnuts like Okie, even Mysteryman knows of the truth. All we've seen is Plan B shoot the messenger.
It's the same tactic used with anyone who lays out the facts. Noam Chomsky uses US government source material. The few honest CIA guys do the same. They'd be in jail if they used secret information from their careers. They use government information that clearly illustrates that successive US governments have committed heinous war crimes and acts of terrorism, all the while duping their citizenry and a large chunk of the world.
The problem I have with the Joe Publics are those who get on their high horse about the US being the white knight, the hypocrites who rail against the very dictators that their governments have put in place.
