The Whitwashing of America

The Whitewashing of America continues with the Pentagon’s newly released “investigation” of the torture at Abu Gharib, Guantuanamo, and Afghanistan, with the committee finding that no one was culpable for the incidents save for a few low ranking soldiers. Unanswered questions that were never addressed in the “thorough investigation” need to be posed. Both Major General Taguba and Brig General Janice Karpinski in earlier testimony, referred to “foreign agents” being present while the torture was taking place. These comments were casually and slyly dismissed by the “investigators” and surprisingly when General Taguba let the cat out of the bag, while testifying before Congress, not one Congressman pressed him on what country those agents came from. Even more surprisingly, not one member of the media ever bothered to ask what foreign nation those agents represented, and why were they present?

Many Americans now buy into the administrations line that “torture” was confined to a few “bad apples”. Most of us have forgotten however that when the infamous “torture” pictures surfaced, over 1,000 of the “worst” were kept secret by the US Congress, who decided that the remaining pictures were so horrible they would not be released, for fear of their consequences in the Arab world. These pictures were never mentioned nor discussed in the "thorough investigation” by the Pentagon. Do the American people have a right to see what was done in their name, and with their money? How can the public make an informed decision regarding torture, without being allowed to see the evidence? Can a jury accurately decide guilt or innocence without seeing the evidence?

So now we have the closing of another “thorough investigation” by a government agency with an all too familiar conclusion. The last three major investigations: 1)the 9/11 investigation which tragically cost almost 3,000 American lives, 2)the “bad intelligence” investigation which lead the nation into a needless war causing over 1500 great Americans lives and 100,000 innocent Iraqis, 3) and now the torture “investigation, have closed with the same results. No one is to blame. Not one person has been fired because of 9/11 failures, not one person has been fired because of the “bad intelligence” that caused a war, and now, not one person has been fired when “torture” is rampant.

Not only are the “investigating committees” to be ridiculed for their whitewashing of the American public but more serious is the complicit media who faithfully looks the other way and never “investigates” the investigations. Media never questions the babble put forth to the American people by such committees, but merely echoes whatever the government put forward. This is truly frightening and it explains why so many Americans have abandoned major media as their source for news, and surf the web for their own truth.

The American public is left in the dark with respect to the major issues of today, but we are all experts and extremely well informed on such trivial issues as the Michael Jackson and the Lacy Peterson trials. One must ask, is this media attention to the mundane and insignificant an intentional diversion from the real issues of the day by a complicit press? Is the American public aware that all media outlets in this nation are now controlled by seven giant corporate conglomerates?

Perhaps before attempting to make the “world” more democratic, we might concentrate on making our own nation more democratic. Concepts such as a “free and uncontrolled” press, and the right of the people to “know”, are essential for the survival of democracy. Secrecy and government cover-ups are incongruous with the concept of “Democracy”, and when secrecy prevails, democracy fails. This nation is at its most critical point in its history and our fear should not be focused on the external “terrorists”, but on the “terrorists” from within.