flights of fancy

between 1995 and 2001, the u.s has admitted to shooting down 15 civilian airliners in peru as part of the "war on drugs." they didn't stop doing this until they shot down a jet that was carrying an american missionary and her child. as long as you kill innocent peruvians, there is no crime. it doesn't make the papers. no one hears about it. no one protests. what right does our government have to shoot down peruvian jets? if this is a just way to combat the drug trade, shouldn't we then bomb civilian aircraft that are flying over american cities? in fact, what our government does is instill terror into the hearts of the people of the world in the name of combating a variety of causes, such as the war on drugs. and what the hell is the war on drugs? think about it; what sense does that concept make? haven't most americans used drugs at some point in their lives? should we just kill them all? what of the smokers, the coffee drinkers, and the users of alcohol? should we down each plane that serves wine? should we round up all the smokers among us?

of course, in latin america, the war on drugs is a cover for the american power structure to fund right wing death squads, and to further a corporatist agenda which acts to oppress the masses of poor latinos. this is why evo morales has fought so hard against it, championing the right of coca growing farmers. funny how the u.s government never fought a war on drugs on cuba when the mob and various american corporations ran the corrupt nation in its pre-fidel days. the drug trade was in full swing in cuba during those days. one of the first things fidel did was get rid of these capitalist crooks. ironically, every mediocre crime show and film under the sun now has some guy dealing drugs out of cuba. reality has nothing to do with it. as someone in the bush administration recently stated "we make our own reality." and that's nothing new. the american power elite has no concern for reality and truth. its sole concern is furthering its own political, economic, and military power. if reality can assist in this endeavor, it will utilize it as a weapon, but if reality is a hindrance in the exercise of said power, it will be ignored. so, the fact that saddam hussein is an authoritarian ruler who has killed many will be trumpeted, but the fact that saddam was for years an asset of the cia, and that his government received millions of dollars in military aid, will be ignored. furthermore, the fact that u.s bombings have killed many times more people than saddam ever did will also be ignored. they tell us that saddam gassed "his own people." this is considered particularly heinous. well, what does it matter
"whose" people were killed? in fact, hussein was accused of killing up to 5,000 kurds, a minority within iraq. this is surely a horrific crime on his part, although it may do us well to remember that he received the gas from the u.s. furthermore, it is confirmed that at least 5,000 black americans were lynched in the u.s. certainly this is an example of us killing "our own people," but i have never heard it used as a reason to bomb american cities. and why is it worse to kill your "own people?" is hussein killing 5,000 kurds worse than the u.s killing 3 million people in southeast asia? is killing millions of "someone else's people" better than killing thousands of "your own people?" are we to think better of hitler that he did not kill austrians and aryian germans, but only "other people?" and didn't 600,000 americans die during the civil war? is this not an example of us "killing our own people?" funny, but i have never heard lincoln or jefferson davis spoken of in ways comparable to how we speak of hussein. but, what are we to make of the fact that for every 1000 people gassed by saddam, 120,000 died in the civil war? i am not saying that pacifism would have been a better response in the face of southern secession, but the numbers are the numbers.

so, in truth, we are not concerned with reality at all times. we are only concerned with it when it serves our purposes. when it doesn't, we discard it, we ignore it, and we actively combat it with lies, half truths, and distortions. fidel, an authoritarian who punishes dissent? yes. right wing death squads in guatemala in el salvador that we funded, and which killed thousands? brave soldiers in the battle against the international communist conspiracy. this is how they look at it. they don't care that the cuban revolution has ended illiteracy. they don't care that the cuban health care system is the best in latin america. they don't care that cuba has a fine system of education. none of this matters. in fact, to the extent that it empowers the masses, and shows that an alternative to capitalism can exist, such successes are actively opposed and resented. every cent that is spent on the poor is one less cent for the corporations. how a country spends its money is watched closely by the elites in washington. how the leaders of a country speak, who they attack and who they support, how independent they are, all of this is watched closely. if they don't accept the dictates of international finance, if they don't accept the placement of military bases on their land, if they don't privatize their industries, if they don't smash their labor unions, if they don't blindly support every american war and occupation, than all of this is noted and acted upon by a vengeful and reactionary american political establishment.

in essense, reality is radical. to look at things truthfully and honestly creates in the person doing a looking a radical sensibility. hence, the authorities twist reality. they create an alternative reality through their papers, their films, their tv shows, their educational establishments, their churches, their shopping malls. therefore, only a few people can see things as they really are. the others are trapped, only able to glimpse reality in bits and pieces. when they do get a look at the truth, it is out of context. the oj verdict shows the injustice of the court system, not the systemic jailings and murders of hundreds of thousands of poor black men. saddam is a brutal dictator for killing kurds, but we are bravely attempting to build a democracy in iraq as we murder many more than were ever killed by hussein. black athletes are wildly overpaid, but bill gates is a humane philanthropist. welfare mothers take our hard earned tax dollars, but we pay tribute to those who fight the wars which take much more of our tax dollars. legislators in the south want to put the ten commandments on their court house steps as they practice the death penalty. a country that uses scientific knowledge to construct deadly weapons of war doesn't want to teach evolution in its schools. a country that is horrified by terrorism supports bombing people.

truths half seen, distorted, people unable to connect the dots. bits of disconnected information. white supremacy, class bias, and patriotism, combining to further reactionary agendas. people lost in issues of identity, as others starve.

as i, and naomi wolf, soldier on.