We all come to understand what is true or what is not as a process of trusting sources around us as we mature.
It is not the fault of a young child who steadfastly and whole heatedly argues the evidence that supports the existence of Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny that the certainty is rooted in the full faith and trust of others.
This is not to debate the merits of those childhood myths, but to illustrate that it is faith in the sources who convey this myth that create the certainty and those sources mislead based on a justification for serving a higher aim.
As we broaden our world view and expand our sources of information we are better able to weigh the information we get from our trusted sources. We can factor in the motivations they have for shaping our beliefs and their general voracity and accuracy as a basis for trusting them.
As adults we may believe we are better able to differentiate truth from fiction, but for many issues we are as easily manipulated as we were as children because it is impossible to know with certainty where the evidence presented to us, like packages under the Christmas tree, disconnect the tale that we put faith in from the reality of how that evidence came to be there.
But at some point there are clues we can look to if we open our minds enough to question our faith in our sources and look beyond the security of a simple answer and blissful ignorance of blind acceptance.
Surrendering our innocence is a painful process, but holding on to it comes with its own cost when we are not talking about Santa and the Easter Bunny but a vast Military Industrial Complex that has the power to unleash death and destruction and destroy our basic rights.
Anyone who has been paying attention to world events based on the evidence rather than the American mainstream sources knows by now that there never was any connection between Iraq and September 11 events and the justification for war was based on contorting flawed information from what was known to be a single, highly unreliable informant known as Curveball.
We know that aggressive military action by the United States is done in the name of protecting our freedoms and promoting Democracy around the globe. But we see that the leaders who act in our name as America, including bipartisan Members of Congres and POTUS Bush and Obama, have ignored war crimes and torture and waged war on the whistleblowers who believe truth is a core value of a free people.
As we come up on yet another anniversary of September 11 and another election, those of us who have moved beyond faith in American media for its defense contractor owned self interest in perpetuating the myths of open government, free media and justice see a ghastly picture painted by the truth and ask ourselves what will it take for those who are tuned in to the paid pundits and idiot box propaganda to look beyond the Santa Clause view of America and look in the mirror using actions and evidence to stop the lies.
When we allow those in power to continue unquestioned and unaccountable for a long list of lies that led to war and recognize a media that ignores Bradley Manning's torture and prolonged detainment detainment without charge, we are not only guilty of perpetuating the tyranny we are putting ourselves and our families and future at risk of discovering that our Constitutional government has no more than Santa to deliver on its promise to us Americans.
If we don't value the truth what we have is nothing more than a comfortable myth that can never be sustainable.
Wikileaks has obtained and decrypted this previously unreleased video footage from a US Apache helicopter in 2007. It shows Reuters journalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, driver Saeed Chmagh, and several others as the Apache shoots and kills them in a public square in Eastern Baghdad. They are apparently assumed to be insurgents. After the initial shooting, an unarmed group of adults and children in a minivan arrives on the scene and attempts to transport the wounded. They are fired upon as well. The official statement on this incident initially listed all adults as insurgents and claimed the US military did not know how the deaths ocurred. Wikileaks released this video with transcripts and a package of supporting documents on April 5th 2010 on http://collateralmurder.com
The UK Guardian carried news of UN Investigators findings of torture of Bradley Manning by US Military and please note it is ongoing and still missing from news reports in USA, but hardly a suprise for a country at war that never showed coffins of the fallen or reported on the civilian casualty statistics & treat war as a side note to news headliners like the Kardashians. The motive for US torture of Manning is to stop WikiLeaks and founder Julian Assange who leaked the video of US war crimes supposedly sourced by Bradley Manning.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/12/bradley-manning-cruel-inhuman-treatment-un
What is MSM selling Americans when they report information as news? Are politicians little more than actors and actresses who depend on the public to trust blindly and not pay careful attention to the facts? Well pay attention...
Mother Jones has a list of the lie by lie timeline leading to the Curveball war launched against Iraq.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/12/leadup-iraq-war-timeline
The DeClassified Archives at GWU have a special section of Curveball related documents that focus on the value of false intelligence.
xhttp://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB234/index.htm
Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice tells Congressman Wexler she did not have intelligence that cast doubt on her claims of Iraq having WMD. Please see the Declassified Archives that show this to be a bold faced lie.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB234/index.htm
