Undecided

Earlier in the week, Mr. Cheney mentioned something about the Iraq insurgency being in its "last throes" (as I'm sure many have heard).

Then today there was this snarky little headline (as I'm sure many have heard):

"Rumsfeld: Iraq insurgency could last years"

Well then...

Which one is it? Are we winning, losing, or somewhere in the middle? More often than not, it would appear that somehow we are all of those at the same time -- which could only mean one of a couple things: nobody knows what the hell we are doing or where the hell we are at in this war -- OR -- certain "folks" know exactly what's going on and make it their life's mission to confuse anybody with the slightest intention of staying informed. I would guess that (a)the public has no idea what is really happening in Iraq, (except that people are blowing things up on a daily basis and freedom is on the march) AND (b) certain "folks" aren't stupid by any means and know exactly what is happening in Iraq. If (b) is true, then we reach the inevitable conclusion that "folks" have absolutely no moral quandaries when it comes to vomiting catch-phrases and unbelievably contradictory statements for the purpose of shaping public opinion. Of course this could mean that (b) isn't true, and if (b) isn't true... then we've definitely got some problems.

If a government is supposed to be representative of its people, should that same government be representative of the ideas that it has manufactured by itself? Saying that the people are represented assumes that the people have an inkling of knowledge about what is involved in any given policy-making decision. Top administration officials and ranking republican and democratic senators consistently say a whole lot about nothing, i.e., terra, freedom, terra, Schiavo, fillibuster, social security, terra, up or down votes, terra, danger, danger... and the news further picks up on this nothingness (on a daily basis). We are sold ideas, though more often than not, we aren't the ones selling ideas. Of course, we have representatives that are there to support the will of the people, but rarely do they get to focus on their constituents in the middle of an expensive war with the senate being called to floor on a late Sunday evening to debate over the life of someone who's been in a vegatative state for over ten years while 18 billion is cut from Medicaid that would save lives of people in the same situations while we fight a war with an indefinite end. Then what exactly do the people know, and what exactly is being represented? Nothing. I'm sure there are plenty who would disagree with me, but consider how much some of these "folks" say the same thing over and over and still manage to gain a strange twilight-zone kind of acceptance from the people that voted for them. There really is nothing being said -- it's the same thing over and over; democracy, liberty, freedom, and justice for all... yet we hear nothing but superficial one-liners that make any thinking person question the credibility of anything they hear or see in the news. We're ousting dictators because they have weapons that don't exist and negotiating with the ones that do, for reasons that the public may never come to know or understand.

But hey, we can feel informed and comforted when the chief says something like this:

"I think about Iraq every day, every single day"... on the surface a seemingly compassionate and determined statement, not to mention thoughtful; underneath a gaping black chasm of goddamn nothing. Don't worry honey, he's thinking about it... every day. OMFG.