How Lazy Mainstream Media The Bad Economy And Internet Social Networks Provide The Military With Cannon Fodder

Lies Exposed

Since June of 2010, the mainstream media has reported on the leaks of secret documents that the U.S. military and government has referred to as the largest unauthorized disclosure of classified documents in U.S. history. Among the leak of documents was a video of an Apache attack helicopter that killed a dozen civilians, including 2 Rueters journalists, and wounded 2 children. Shortly after the incident involving the video, the U.S. military claimed that the deaths were all anti-Iraqi insurgents and they didn't know how the children were wounded.

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In the two years following this incident, the Rueters request for access to the Apache video was stonewalled. The undeniable facts didn't come to light until the video was leaked to the website, Wikileaks.com. Following the video, Wikileaks released more than 75,000 documents relating to the Afghanistan war up to 2009, withholding about 15,000 that might contain names, or could reference current operations.

These 75,000 documents proved what was suspected, but denied as rumors by the government and military. Among the disclosures:

• Pakistan is funneling money and weapons to the Taliban.

• Afghanistan military troops are untrustworthy and lie about engagements with the enemy.

• Civilians casualties not reported, under reported, or later referred to as Taliban.

• The use of Stinger Missiles by the Taliban. One which brought down a U.S. helicopter, but told to the public as being the result of a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG), because the Talibans possession of Stinger missiles was always denied.

There are other embarrassing disclosures about the military. Surprisingly, none of this was previously reported by "embedded" journalists in the field of operations in Afghanistan. Either they knowingly suppressed honest reporting from the war, or rarely ventured outside the wire of the Forward Operating Base (FOB) to witness the truth of what is a common occurrence, if the documents are an indication of what is happening in Afghanistan.

How was the truth revealed? Not by a hard nose fact finding mission by any mainstream media group, intent on exposing our newest Vietnam of lies. It was allegedly exposed by a lowly private, SPC Bradley Manning, who worked as an army analyst in Iraq. Dan Ellsberg, who exposed the lies of Vietnam when he leaked the now famous "Pentagon Papers" has called SPC Bradley Manning a hero. The government views it as you would expect - an act of treason. More specifically, they claim "hundreds of lives are in jeopardy" due to the leak. On the other hand, both the military and government also state that the documents contain nothing of significance and don't disclose anything "new." It seems to depend on the question they are asked and the spin they wish to produce, on how important the leaked documents are.

Bradley Manning has been arrested and has been transferred to a holding facility in Quantico, VA, facing charges that could land him 52 years in jail if convicted of leaking the video. The case against him regarding the Afghanistan documents is still being investigated. Currently, it hasn't been determined if a prosecution will proceed, but some of the American public has woken up to the fact that the real story isn't that a Pfc. transferred documents, but rather a repeat of Vietnam is taking place through deception of the American public - and support has grown to free Bradley Manning for having the courage to bring the truth to light.

The Failure of The Media

Forgetting the fact that mainstream media never reported the lies being told to the American public (if they even knew about them), they are now failing to report the true issue of the lies discovered by the release of the documents.

Not only do the major news media find such things as "Michael Jackson Fans Break Thriller Dance Record" and other "news" stories as their top headlines for the nightly news, they only bring up Wikileaks and the documents as a report of how the military is reacting to the leak. They seem to be only a parrot for the government and military leaders who barrage the airwaves with how the leaks are putting lives in jeopardy.

A recent interview by well-known ABC correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, with Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, was little more than a soft touch open microphone for Gates to reiterate how "mortified" he was that the documents were leaked.

In a missed opportunity, Gates' own statement that the Taliban did not have Stinger missiles, as reported in the DoD's own documents, was never pressed, or followed up by Amanpour. Instead, Gates was given time to promote the war effort and go on about our Afghanistan objectives. The simplest mind, if they wanted more information would have asked why a chopper was said to be downed by an RPG when it was, in fact, hit by a Stinger. So much opportunity availed itself to dig out some truth, but Christiane apparently is only an investigative journalist when it comes to atrocities by the Taliban against Afghanistan women. It's likely she doesn't want the truth to interfere with her own agenda of ensuring there is no support for a growing anti-war movement now taking place because of the U.S. deception exposed by the release of the documents. Something the Pentagon Papers was instrumental in doing by putting the last nails in the Vietnam Conflict coffin.

And it isn't only ABC to blame. NBC, CBS, AP, FOX, CNN and others all follow the same line, with only slight variations for their respective political spin against liberals or conservatives.

As reported at the website, Backstabber Report, all constantly rehash the statements of Adrian Loma, a convicted hacker who befriended Manning and told Manning he was a "journalist" who protected his sources. Loma then ran to another convicted hacker, Poulson, founder of the website, "Wired," who printed the story of the leak. Poulson is also constantly quoted by the media, about why he is cooperating with the FBI and CIA, who seem to be on a manhunt for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Lamo, a known publicity hound among the hacker community, who claims to have Aspergers Syndrome, an affliction that doesn't allow empathy for others, claims to have found some sort of patriotism. He turned in Bradley Manning. It isn't known if his patriotism was rewarded by the feds, since Loma was still in debt to The NY Times for his previous hacking conviction. Loma has now followed up his first report to the feds by informing them that two MIT students are also involved, by assisting Manning in the transfer of information to Wikileaks. It seems Loma and Poulsen believe that secrecy is acceptable - when they are the hackers, or can't find a way for the secrets to benefit them. Otherwise, they'll turn in their mother for some publicity.

The Bad Economy Helps The Military

Unlike Vietnam, which needed a draft to conscript young Americans to the war effort, our economy doesn't require the need for a draft. Purely a volunteer service, the military finds willing young men and women because they are jobless, hope to learn a trade, and some, because of video war games and the lack of knowing the real cost of war, are only too willing to enlist. These young people hope that when they return to civilian life something better will await them than what they have available to them now. The vast majority don't realize that being a grunt with expertise in handling weapons doesn't afford much opportunity. Law enforcement is laying off veteran officers due to the economy and security guards are a dime a dozen.

For those with better training, such as computers, electronics, aeronautics, and other skilled fields, they too, will find few opportunities await them, as the major industries are all in dire circumstances and there are plenty of the unemployed already waiting in line for any job opening that might appear.

At the moment there is little need for a draft and the government is unlikely to start one, even if it needed to do so. Nothing would galvanize the now silent, who may object to the U.S. operations and conduct, than telling them or their parents, that they will be put in harms way - no matter their economic status.

Internet Social Networks Keep Youth Ignorant

During Vietnam, older high school and college students took a close look at the value of that conflict, the dead returning home, and the acute awareness that they might have their number called. It was an age where you spoke directly with your friends and neighbors. You saw your friend's brother in another room with only one leg, or disfigured. You knew, personally the friend or relative of a friend that was killed or wounded. You spoke with those who returned and told you the truth. You couldn't help but have it conveyed to you, directly, that the military and government were feeding the American public a load of crap.

Those conveyances, in speaking directly with those that served, are far different than reading it on a chat, Facebook, or Myspace posting. It doesn't have the same influence without hearing it from the person trying to re-tell their stories. The written word needs so much more than the spoken, in order to convey a person's real feelings and veterans aren't prone to chatting about it on the Internet.

Youth today spend their time on computers, visiting the most ignorant websites involving Paris Hilton, Big Brother, The Bachelor, or the next hot singer with a good PR manager. They have little interest in any current event unless some young celebrity with a hot body takes an interest. Politics and war is at the bottom of that priority list from a generation that 50% are reportedly unable to identify the continent of Asia when they graduate high school.

A Perfect Storm

After 911 a significant change took place in our country. People were willing to give up their rights to privacy in order for our nations' security. The Patriot Act has made mince meat of those rights, going far further than most might realize. Warrantless searches, invasion of privacy, confiscation of property, being held without charges, or refusing access to an attorney can all be imposed if you are arrested and they invoke the Patriot Act against you. Speak out against the government's policies and you will likely find yourself on a government watch list that will have you restricted from flying on an airline, or at the very least, "randomly" selected for a special screening and search at a U.S. airport.

American anger after 911 also allowed George W. Bush to convince the American public that Iraq had WMD's. A falsehood that the media did finally tell us after Iraq 2 was well under way. The invasion of Iraq allowed us to follow through to Afghanistan for a second time, after leaving to support the Iraq effort. Everything we gained in Afghanistan the first time was lost after our departure. Now that Iraq is said to be "stabilized" we are again increasing troops in Afghanistan, unsuccessfully trying to cope with a stronger force of Taliban than was there originally and trying to win back the ground lost and more, during our absence. President Obama has simply taken on George Dubbya's legacy as his own.

Now that the mainstream media is willing to follow the government's line of "exposing the truth will jeopardize lives," the economy being in the sewer with no shortage of young men and women looking for work, and an out-of-touch, inactive populace concerned only with the pretty lights and sounds produced from the latest technical gadget, or the latest celebrity to land in jail, the perfect storm has come together.

The storm is centered on the American public who have unwittingly become "tools" - fools played by a government whose war machine makes a selective group of people a lot of money. Americans uninterested in the changes that have occurred around them, often so slowly, as not to be noticed as it would have been if it occurred in one swell swoop. Americans who, understandably involved with the daily task of keeping jobs they might have, or keeping their homes they might lose, are on self-survival mode.

They just don't have time to be concerned that they have been deceived.

For additional information about the war in Afghanistan go to Antiwar.com

To support Pfc. Bradley Manning visit HERE for links to a support petition now garnering signatures.