Apr. 30, 2003 - 20:32 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Wise Whys

Guess some people might say that a person's choice of columnists are the ones who say what that "some people" want to hear. In some cases that might be true, but I don't think that is always so. In my case it might be a columnist that seems to be aware of what is going on in our country or world and is taking a good look at the state of affairs.

I read the news and think in such a manner as to read what is printed and also ask what is not said and why. Between the lines one might say. One of the Columnists I do read when he appears in our Rocky Mountain News is Paul Krugman of The New York Times. His column in the news of April 30, 2003 is titled, "We should ask ourselves some hard questions." I think he is right and that we we should.

Mr. Krugman says, "We were not lying," a Bush administration official told ABC News. "But it was just a matter of emphasis." The official was referring to the way the administration hyped the threat that Saddam Hussein posed to the United States. According to the ABC report, the real reason for the war was that the administration "wanted to make a statement." And why Iraq ? "officials acknowledge that Saddam had all the requirements to make him, from their standpoint, the perfect target."

Further on down Mr. Krugman asks, "Does it matter that we were misled into the war ? Some people say that it doesn't: We won, and the Iraqi people have been freed."

Then Mr. Krugman asks some whys, "First, why is our compassion so selective ? In 2001 the World Health Organization -- the same organization we now count on to protect us from SARS -- called for a program to fight infectious diseases in poor countries, arguing that it would save the lives of millions of people every year." Mr. Krugman says, "The U.S. share of the expenses would have been about $10 billion per year -- a small fraction of what we will spend on war and occupation. Yet the Bush administration ----- dismissed the proposal." Mr. Krugman states that to send U.N. peacekeepers to Ivory Coast to enforce a truce in a vicious civil war met with U.S. complaints that it will cost too much.

Mr. Krugman further says, "Meanwhile, aren't the leaders of a democratic nation supposed to tell their citizens the truth ?" He goes on to say, "------ wonders whether most of the public will ever learn that the original case for war has turned out to be false. In fact, my guess is that most Americans believe that we have have found WMD's. Each potential find gets blaring coverage on TV; how many people catch the later announcement -- if it is ever announced -- that it was a false alarm ?

He makes the point, "It's a pattern of misinformation that recapitulates the way the war was sold in the first place. Each administration charge against Iraq received prominent coverage; the subsequent debunking did not."

One further paragraph from him, "Thanks to this pattern of loud assertions and muted or suppressed retractions, the American public probably believes that we went to war to avert an immediate threat -- just as it belives that Saddam had something to do with Sept. 11.

His last paragraph is telling, "Now it's true that the war removed an evil tryant. But a democracy's decisions right or wrong, are supposed to take place with the informed consent of its citizens. That didn't happen this time. And we are a democracy -- aren't we ?"

So much for Mr. Krugman's column. I keep thinking of the TV coverage of the recent past, "Operation Iraqi Freedom" for instance -- everything seemed to have to have a slogan, a title, and as Mr. Krugman says that the reality was not admitted with the blare of trumpets as the suspicion was, but muted or not even there. Often the media give incomplete information, and they also go on what they are told by the movers and shakers. How many times I have seen articles saying that xx number of people die in our country every year of zzz, big blather trying to create a panic, when compared to our population it really is a micro percentage of our population compared to those who die from other causes here.

What is news ? How fairly is it presented ? Some of it seems to me to be hyped up because it was a slow news day. Am I so jaded and cynical that I am totally wrong ? Campaign promises never seem to be kept -- fact of life. But to my mind the federal government should get out of the bull puckey business and openly and honestly give us the truth.

As far as I am concerned, today there are a plethora of Wise Whys . . . . . . . .

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