American Apathy

As an American, I can understand a lot of the anger felt towards our country...but you have to understand, the level of ignorance in this nation is intense. I feel as though I am in a nation of followers who swallow whatever our media and politicians want to tell us. Just look at the recent Iraq war. Using the accusation of alleged WMD's in Iraq, we invaded, despite much of the world's disapproval. Our reason? "pre-eptive action" Bush said "we dont want the smoking gun to be in the form of a mushroom cloud". Gee, who was the only nation to ever use a nuke in any war? Oh yeah, it was us. Besides, using the arguement of "pre-emptive attack", one could justify nearly any attack concievable, if a seemingly credible excuse was fabricated. Using this logic, anyone with nukes fearing the United States could nuke us, becasue they may be afraid we may come for them next, and EVERYONE knows we have the damned things, we the only pricks to ever use em (people still try to justify the attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, which to me is absolutely disgusting...at least ADMIT we fucked up BIG TIME, it's the least we can do, I mean CHRIST. We killed over 10,000 people. As for Paul Gibbets, fuck him, and fuck every one on the Enola Gay, fuck Truman, fuck em all). I went to Washington and protested the Iraq war, as did thousands of others. But when it comes down to it, no one listened to us. The white house sure as fuck didn't, and as for the rest, most people seem as though they would much rather turn off their brains and enjoy the creature comforts of American suburban life. Sit around, watch Fox News, try not to think too hard. Many Americans like to brag about how powerful our nation is, yet I wonder how many have actually looked into how that power was acquired, and maybe given more than a moments thought to the attrocities committed in the name of "American interests" or "democracy" or "freedom"; the latter two always being open to varied interpretation, and thus consistantly exploited. Now, there are many Americans who are against American imperialism (no, not all of us are completely blind), in fact, most people I know are (luckily I can still freely associate, which is a great freedom that Bush no doubt will be after soon enough), so I get to chooose no to hang out with right wing nuts and gung ho war assholes. But what a lot of people don't seem to understand is the FEAR being pumped into the public at such a rate as people don't stop to question. If you stop and dissent about the actions being taken by the United States abroad, if you attack our foreign policy, our the current administration's tactics, you are always given the old "September 11th" rhetoric. "Well, what about Sept. 11th, should we have just NOT done anything?" Don't even TRY to point out that 9/11 has jack shit to do with most of what they've used it to justify...it's ironic also that while Bush's speach after the event was something like "if you stop buying things, the terrorists win, if you let the airline industry suffer, terrorists win, if you're not with us, you're against us" and on and on, yet the one justification for every war ever fought by this country, our "freedom", was one of the first things on the chopping block, with the introduction of the Patriot Act. Also, the arguement of "you're not supporting the troops" comes up a great deal. What many of my fellow citizens fail to realise is that the men who WANT these wars all stand to gain significantly from them, financially speaking, no to mention the rich and powerful who lobbied and cheated them into office in the first place., and they could give a fuck about the troops, or anyone, fot hat matter. I won't try to equate American foreign policy with high school "who's got the biggest dick" syndrome, but im sure theres an element of it there. But Bush and Cheney and all of the bastards, they never got near a combat zone, yet they pretend to be brave men making tough decisions, I call bullshit. They don't give a shit about American lives, they want the money...giving lucrative oil contracts to their own companies, building pipelines all over, expanding the defense department (which they happen to have a lot invested in, who would've ever suspected such a thing?), the LAST thing on their mind is the troops. They also have a tendency to switch justifications as soon as the old excuse is disproved. America has a history of exploiting anyone it can, but that is not the common American doing so. Or at least, not intentionally, most don't believe you when you tell them things that they didn't learn in high school or on the news. They really just think you're making shit up because you arent patriotic enough. If everyday Americans are guilty of anything, it is ignorance and apathy. If they don't see it, it ain't there, and they CHOOSE not to see it. It's preferable to pretend you're in the know, that you can trust your leaders, that they are always acting in your interests. But many of us are aware, and trying to open more Americans' eyes to how our "power" is being misused. Stalin once said something along the lines of "Capitalism should rightly be called Fascism, because Fascism is the merging of state and corporate interests" (and I think Stalin may have been in the know on that one). So, I can understand why many people the world over are sick to fucking death of America getting up everyone's ass and fucking everything up, but the people here just plain are asleep a the helm, and those in charge frankly have no problem exploiting that. That patriotic red white and blue garbage never fooled me, though, and I hope to god I'm not alone in that, because I'm about fucking ready to split to Canada. Remember kiddies, America is the #1 cause of cancer the world over. Seriously, think about it, depleted uranium ammunition, agent orange (and chemical weapons in general), the atomic bomb, all the industries that pollute that are based here, the pesticides we pray all over south america to kill their coca plants (oops, we didn't mean to give the children all those birth defects, but at least we killed a bunch of fucking plants too, huh?). America is a fucked up country with a fucked up past, and I won't try to justify what can't be justified. People here mean well, they just don't understand how complex involvement in world politics is, especially when those calling the shots have base motivations. That's why many are so quick to get defensive/offensive (the lines here are so blurred nowadays). They may truly think that we are trying to do good. The troops most likely all belive they are doing good. What, are the commanders gonna say "good job, troops, we got a few more oilfields for Haliburton today, thanks for risking your lives for Bush and co." Of course not! they say "you liberated the people of such-and-such, you did well, you served freedom, yada yada yada, arent we all so fucking great, let's have a circle jerk and cum on the flag." I wish America would use DIPLOMACY to resolve its conflicts, rather than instigate further violence. You know, words, discussion, freely exchanging dialogue and ideas, what ever happened to that? It has been replaced by the bomb and the gun. What a fucking country to live in. P.S. ALMOST ALL TERRORISM IN THE UNITED STATES IS OF THE DOMESTIC VARIETY!!!!