Politics

[varjohaltia]

So, on Sunday night I'm listening to the news and there's a story about Dick Cheney not wanting to close down Quantanamo Bay, and stating, "The important thing here to understand is that the people that are at Guantanamo are bad people."

How, exactly, do we know this? Have the detainees at Gitmo been given a trial? Have they been given a tribunal? Don't any of them get released because it turns out they were not active participants in Al-Qaeda or the Taliban regime?

That this level of idiocy comes out of the mouth of the vice president of the United States, or that the media doesn't go into a feeding frenzy over it, or that the citizens of the US don't get upset about this all make me pretty mad and depressed.

On the same token, I'm listening to a country song defending the war in Iraq, saying it was worth it because of 9/11 and Bin Laden. I guess it really is the case that what the leaders of the country tell its citizens doesn't have to have anything with the truth. Where, exactly, does this leave democracy, when the citizens are so ignorant that they're willing to start wars on premises that don't have any truth to them whatsoever.

End of rant.

Comments

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I do not have to tell you, of course, that I disagree with you. But I did want to remind you that people do, and that they're not necessarily "ignorant citizens."

[varjohaltia.livejournal.com]

Not sure if you want to get into this -- but I am curious just where you disagree, and why.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

You're right, I don't want to get into it--I had this fight over and over and over again around the election, and the notion of re-visiting it seems like a waste of time. But you can attempt to talk to me about it in person if you remain curious when you see me next.