To the Editor:
With action by the US military in Iraq seemingly more inevitable by the day, given the oft repeated hawkish rhetoric of this nation’s top leaders, I have been asking myself the same question over and over. Why has there been a reversal by this country’s population in their attitude towards the government? Prior to the Vietnam War the general public always wanted to believe, and for the most part did believe, that our government was always acting in the best interest for the people of the world. Woodrow Wilson ran for president on a platform of peace and helped instill in the voting public a deep-rooted faith in the U.S. government. However, during and after the Vietnam War the tide began to turn. The American public finally began to question if the information they were being told by the government was true. As was seen with the Watergate scandal, the public (and the media) began searching for lies told to us by our top officials. With the basic lies of US military history (the ‘Maine’ and Gulf of Tonkin) still somewhat fresh in our minds, why then has the trend reversed? Why are people buying what the government tells them without question?
The 2003 World Economic Forum’s slogan was “Building Trust”. This slogan was chosen because the economic institutions and leaders of the world realize they have lost this recently among the peoples of the world. To foster this “Trust” the WEF ’03 sponsored a worldwide survey to find out what institutions people actually do trust. Not surprisingly, the U.S. government was the least trusted institution with only a 27 percent approval rating. These results are in striking contrast to recent poll results stating 68 percent of the US public believe and trust Colin Powell whenever he speaks. And Powell is, of course one of the most influential pro-war figures in the Bush administration.
So why the discrepancy? Don’t we as intelligent, patriotic citizens watch the news and stay informed? Yes, but a media that reports from a certain bias is tantamount to a propaganda mechanism itself. When CNN becomes “America Strikes Back” and Fox, of all channels, claims to be America’s “Fair and Unbiased” news source, it becomes difficult for even the most hardened conservative to find evidence of a “liberal bias” in the media, whatever. Yet, it is not about liberal versus conservative, but humanitarian versus destructionist.
As one who is actively involved in the Anti-war movement and disgusted daily by the U.S. news coverage, I appeal to the students of this university to become more informed.
Find out what humanitarians and political theorists are saying, instead of taking the constant stream of rhetoric and lies that are being force-fed down your throats from an institution that arrogantly thinks you will believe whatever they tell you.
Sincerely,
Christopher Cronin ’03
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