Liar, Liar, House on Fire

I don’t watch Meet the Press with David Gregory because I think Gregory is a shill and a hack. This hardly makes Gregory unique in the US media universe. With Iraq imploding US mainstream media outlets like NBC and CNN are in overdrive, returning the architects of the disastrous 2003 invasion and occupation to the airwaves. There’s Paul Wolfowitz on Meet the Press (sponsored in part by Boeing), one member of a “panel of experts.” Uncle Dick Cheney is everywhere, criticizing President Obama as if it was Obama who made the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, and muttering darkly that immediate US military intervention is needed to save Iraq. Throw in Douglas Feith and a host of former generals and you have a perfect storm of misinformation, spin, and mendacity. 

The hands of the US drip with Iraqi blood.

This is how history is revised, how facts are obscured, and monumental failure made to look like noble success. Millions of people the world over understood that the US invasion of Iraq was a war of choice, tucked conveniently beneath the umbrella of the “War on Terror,” that marvelous catchall for imperialist designs. Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz told whopping lies about Saddam Hussein’s connection to al-Qaeda, 9/11, and his stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. They lied out of their asses. For the most part, the US media swallowed these fictions wholesale and acted as cheerleaders for the Shock & Awe invasion, the deadly effectiveness of US munitions, and the bravery of the soldiers who were delivering “democracy” to the long suffering Iraqi people.

The current coverage focuses excessively on US interests, our collective sacrifice in dead and wounded warriors, and stupendous amounts of money. Rarely, if ever, do the “Panels of Experts” on Iraq include an Iraqi; little mention, if any, is made of the Iraqi dead, wounded or displaced. With straight faces the “experts” and generals and politicians like John McCain demand renewed military action, airstrikes and even troop deployment. There’s a total lack of humility and remorse for what was, and remains, an indefensible blunder. But don’t expect David Gregory or Wolf Blitzer or Brian Williams to make such an admission: they owe their huge salaries to playing nice with the powerful, and treating war criminals like Uncle Dick Cheney with deference.  

Why are people in high places so cowardly, so afraid of the truth? The United States had no reason to invade Iraq in 2003, none; the country had been crippled by economic sanctions, Saddam was contained, and Iraq wasn’t an epicenter of terrorist activity. Look at Iraq today, trace the causes back, up Pennsylvania Avenue, through the front door of the White House and into the Oval Office where sat one of the dumbest men to ever hold the office of president. Bush lied. Cheney lied. Wolfowitz lied. Condoleeza Rice lied. The tragedy is that all of them are still walking around free, and repeating their lies.

Unintended Consequences and the War on Teachers

Two stories this week caught my attention. Although I think I’m better informed about world events than most Americans – admittedly not a very high bar – I can’t make sense out of what is happening in Iraq. The nation the US invaded and occupied is disintegrating, that much is clear, and when the dust settles there will be winners and losers; from a geopolitical and regional point of view, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the US and Israel all have skin in this game. America counts Saudi Arabia among its allies and turns a blind eye when the Saudis funnel money or arms to religious fanatics whose interests don’t exactly dovetail with ours. Oil trumps morality. Average Iraqi’s will lose big, of course, as they did during the American occupation. The artificial borders established after World War I by European powers may be scrambled or erased altogether. If it hasn’t happened already, weaponry and equipment left behind by the Americans will fall into the wrong hands. Hawkish American politicians like John McCain are already roaring that President Obama is to blame for everything and should grow a spine and launch the warplanes. The petty tyrant the US backed to run the new Iraq will probably flee the country – unless he is hung from a lamppost first. It’s a colossal mess. The US may find itself on Iran’s side before long which will be very awkward since elements in the government and Israel have been thumping the war drum against Iran for years now.

During the occupation, as I recall, much was made of how the Americans were training Iraqis to protect themselves and hold the nation together. Didn’t work out.

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The second story that got my attention was the recent ruling in a Los Angeles court that job protections for public school teachers are unconstitutional. This is the latest battle in the long war on public education. Teachers have proved reliable scapegoats for well- organized and funded interests seeking to dismantle the public education system in favor of for-profit models, charter schools and whatnot. We don’t demonize firefighters or police officers (even when they shoot innocent people) or stage actors or any other unionized workers the way we do teachers. The issue isn’t teachers themselves as much as it is the political strength of the unions that represent them. Neoliberals freak out when workers have any power at all.

Do incompetent teachers exist? Yes, of course, I wouldn’t argue otherwise. In every profession and walk of life, you find great performers, average performers, and bad performers. I would guess that in any public school district, ten to twenty percent of teachers have no business being in the trade. In economically distressed cities and towns the number is likely higher. My own children have had teachers whose competence I questioned, but these are a distinct minority. The fact is that most teachers I know are dedicated to their profession and desperate for students to learn; they don’t like standardized testing or cookie-cutter, dumbed down textbooks, or other formulas that are forced on them by bureaucrats. They care about kids and want the best for them.

Public education is one of the most successful American ideas ever hatched and deserves to be strengthened rather than starved, supported rather than vilified and blamed for social ills caused by four decades of misguided neoliberal economic policies. The root problem isn’t pedagogy – it’s poverty.

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Finally, on this Father’s Day, I tip my glass of Guinness toward my father, Pete, who died in 1990 at the age of 57. Pete was a good guy, but he drank and smoked too much, abused himself and paid the price. He missed out on seeing his grandchildren. I think he would get a kick out of them.