I think this is one of the best documentaries I’ve ever watched.

It is a must see for anyone who questions media and war.

War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.

The movie ends with an audio track of a speech given by Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City. I want to share with you the beginning of it.

I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: “A time comes when silence is betrayal.” That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.

The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government’s policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one’s own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.

Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation’s history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movement well and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.

The speech can be read in its entirety here.

I watched a fantastic documentary today. It was made by the BBC about 4 years ago.

The never ending cycle of hypocrisy continues….

EDIT:

Just watched another really good look at the Israel/Palestinian conflict.

Today, Amy Goodman of Democracynow! spends the hour with Julian Assange.

The White House continues their dismissal strategy, saying there’s nothing new.   But my own thoughts, which were echoed by Julian this morning, is how this is about more than a few specific incidents of horror. It’s about the vast amount of abuses evident over the six years of data.   It’s concrete evidence that this war is inflicting terrorism on the every day lives of the Afghanistan people.   And if the WH is willing to admit there’s nothing new in here, than what the hell are we, the people, waiting for? Let’s end this war!

What I find really interesting, is how on the one hand, the WH goes on about how it’s old news, nothing new.  But on the other hand, they’re saying how irresponsible this was and how it could endanger the lives of the soldiers on the ground.  Which one is it then?

One interesting thing Julian specifies in his interview, is how they’re not anti-war activists, they’re “Transparency Activists”.  The idea being, transparent governments leads to just governments.  And I can agree with that,  but that depends on the people using this transparency and holding the government accountable.  And that’s where the rub is, because then we’re back to figuring out how to make people care.

On a last unrelated note, I was just reading about the Congo the other day… Over 5 million “excess deaths” in the last 10 years. “Excess”  meaning an amount outside the acceptable amount during a conflict.  The weapons used are horrific, most prominently being massive sexual violence…

Another world is possible… it echoes in my head.

Another world is necessary… burned into my heart.

I’m going to write a more detailed post on the situation in the Congo, but I’m not done researching it.