All in the name of America

When did the bad guys realize they were the bad guys? Did the Japanese or the Germans realize they were the evil ones during WWII? Is it like the movies when the antagonist knows he/she is the bad one? When the Romans were conquering the world as they knew it did they think they were evil? With the American military based in over 180 countries throughout the world I am beginning to wonder who the bad guy really is? When I was a kid it was easy. The Soviets were the bad guys and we were the good guys. The cowboys were the good guys and the Indians were the bad guys. Now as I learn more about propaganda and how it really works and as I study the history of the defeated as well as the victors I'm beginning to finally see the light. The Indians were not the bad guys and the Soviets were convinced we were the bad guys. I remember after the fall of the USSR I was watching some cable news and a former Soviet who was in charge of propaganda came on and said something to the effect that his country was really proficient at administering propaganda on their people but that the US was the king of propaganda. He said in the USSR the people had some idea of the propaganda being used against them but the US had the ability to completely fool their people. In other words, the US citizens were convinced that propaganda was for other people in other countries and that somehow they were immune to it. That was/is the genius of the US version of propaganda.

Maybe just maybe we are the bad guys. We have more nuclear weapons than all other countries combined. We critique and punish other countries for trying to obtain nuclear weapons when we continue to develop new and improved weapon systems. We are the only country to use the bomb...TWICE. We created are own rules for what is considered torture and ignore international law. We use the UN when it's convenient for us and ignore it and criticize it when we don't agree with it. We have suspended Habeas Corpus when it's inconvenient. We claim to be spreading freedom and democracy when so many people in our own country feel slighted. We speak out against genocide but wiped out the Native people of this land and claimed this continent as our own. We gained a vast amount of wealth by participating in slavery for 350 years on this continent and scoff at the idea of reparations. We claim there is equality in this land but our prisons are full of minorities, our women were shot down when trying to pass an equal rights amendment, and we're STILL arguing whether or not beating/killing a homosexual is actually a hate crime. We invaded a country who was not only a very weak country in it's own region but never actually threatened us or attempted to attack us. We treated our own people in one of our proudest American cities like enemies of the state when they were at their weakest moment...and people are still waiting to return to their homes. Finally, we claim to take the sick, poor, and unwanted unless they don't look like us and they come from south of the border.

We have lost our way or maybe we were never on our way, somebody just told us that and we bought it. I can already hear the love it or leave crowed piping up so I'll finish by saying my peace. I love the idea of America and what we all claim it to be. I hate what we actually have become but to leave would be easy for you "patriots." I'm staying because if I leave and others who actually question our motives leave all of you will not only fuck up the US but with your logic you will fuck up the rest of the planet as well.

Quit drinking the Kool Aid and start reading authors other than Rush, Sean, or Bill.