Anybody who quotes lyrics from album liner notes as the bedrock of their geo-political philosphy is a dunce

Nothing bring out the nutcases like a good conspiracy. Roswell and JFK have generated crackpot theories for decades, some of which are actually amusing. Lately, I have gotten a lot of email regarding the the US-led coalition to disarm / decapitate Iraq. While I know I regress with this piece, I wanted to share some thoughts about one e-mail I received supporting the growing anti-war movement in our country (which is really an anti-George Bush movement in a peacenik's clothing). While normally I simply hit the delete key to clear this sort of stupidity from my desktop, I received one that was a 54K bit of vitriol, complete with quotes Frank Zappa and liner notes from a Rush album. Always the sign of a real heavyweight in action.

I couldn't resist. I had to respond. It was raining in Paris and I needed somthing to do.

Indulge me. I am listing only the major points of the screed in order to provide a frame for my responses. In all honestly, they seem to be standard Chomsky-esque boilerplate "no-War" rhetoric, often associated with know-nothing Hollywood types (think Susan Saradon or Sean Penn) or musician types (think Sheryl Crow or Dave Mathews) types that had been steeped in a foul brew of Roswell and JFK conspiracies. These points are:

A) The "truths" our government present to us are propaganda are therefor always false. The fact that propaganda is being used by them to promote a particular viewpoint necessarily means that the view being promoted cannot stand by it's own merits.

B) The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 were instigated, planned, and directed by the very people -- The Bush Administration -- who now claim to be saving us from the new enemy, namely Iraq. And they're using the same basic scheme they've routinely used in the past. Their scheme goes as follows:

Step 1: [Bush finds] a likely enemy.
Step 2: [The government] covertly or overtly sponsors, funds, and trains a "new enemy", essentially becoming their become business sponsor.
Step 3: From within his organization, Bush et al. direct this new enemy to perform the desired atrocity, or simply do it yourself and then blame him.
Step 4: The administration demonizes the new enemy with a massive propaganda campaign.
Step 5: The administration sends U.S. forces to neutralize the new enemy but stop short of completing the task, just in case they need him again later.
Step 6: The administration uses the resulting fear and anger to enable tighter control over the U.S. population.

C) Norad was ordered to stand down to let the hijackers hit the twin towers on 9/11.
D) Osama Bin Lama is really a CIA operative.
E) Attorney General John Ashcroft switched to private government planes on 9/11 to avoid public transportation.
F) Murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearlwas not a U.S. citizen; that he was, in fact, an Israeli.
G) Bush is the anti-Christ.
H) The public are just sheep being lied to by everything in print and on T.V.

Dear nutcase dudes and dudettes: you need to get out more, and read some international newspapers. And stop getting your geo-politcal cosmology from liner notes on album covers.

While you certainly deserve an A on your mid-term for emotion, your technical writing skills merit a D. There are no credits for the information presented. Where is the bibliography? Links? I want to thank the intrepid emailer for his/her quotes, but they seem to be engineered only provoke emotion. They did not present any facts. And I'm left wondering, "this is somehpw different from the government�s right to spin it's story?"

So, to pursue an adult discussion, do me a favor, and please credit the sources:

"NORAD's decisions to take a day off because of WalMart sale in Colorado Springs";
"Ashcroft's travel on military aircraft" (but why wouldn't he - all the congressmen do);
"Osama Bin Laden (OBL) being a member of the CIA�s �Boot strap� program";
"OBL's family leaving America on 9/11 because frequent flyer miles no good on 9/12"

Also, please submit:
Bush's link with evil (all references). Use separate hard drive if necessary.
Substancial proof of Danny Pearl's citizenship. I could find no reference to buttress your point that he was really an Israeli citizen. Published sources I found list him as having been born in Los Angeles with American citizenship.

Ok, start with those, but do me another favor: do not credits from crackpot web sites; use only those that are a reputable source of verifiable information. "Colonel Smith" of the "Mountain Militia" does not count as a credible source.

And enough with the liner notes. You can't be a sophomore your entire life.

Everyone knows there is a lot wrong with the world. Nobody I know in or out of the military thinks that the election stuff in Florida was 100 percent straight up. How many elections are? Nobody I know thinks that the war is just about weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Perhaps it's also about starting to clean up that region of the world. Or consolidating Western Power. Or both. Throw in globalization as well so the rest of the world comes on line with capitalism.

Yes, that necessarily means that business interests will benefit. And yes, the people in power are usually plugged into business interests. It's always been that way, since the snake gave Eve the apple as a free sample to promote his upcoming lingerie sale. And, of course, the nature of man will never change.

But a fundamental truth of business is that investors do not like instability. So the argument that the power regime is always in it for war does not stand on it's merits. More money is made from trade than military hardware sales.

Look it up. I did.

"Exports increased to $83.2 billion in November from $82.3 billion in October. Goods were $58.0 billion in November, up from $57.4 billion in October, and services were $25.2 billion in November, up from $24.9 billion in October." Deductions from Export figures: "U.S. military sales contracts - This deduction of U.S. military sales contracts is made because the U.S. Census Bureau has included these contracts in the goods data, but BEA (Bureau of Economic Analysis) includes them in the service category "Transfers Under U.S. Military Sales Contracts." ("Information on Goods and Services", Foreign Trade division, U.S. Census Bureau, 2002.)

The Buddha is credited with saying, "Life is hard because it's full of nature." And Jesus said "render unto Caesar the dressing which is Newman's Own, er, I mean, Caesar�s". And I say if you can't reach it from where you're sitting, it's not worth having. We all have sayings and they�re all true � to us. Some are just more silly than others.

Maybe its true that most people just want to be led around. Remember, life is hard. They just want to earn a living and go home to their families. Not everyone wants to be a leader of a country. But can you imagine the problems associated with the infrastructure of a country with 100 million people? 200 million? 300 million? A billion? Even if one was a fascist leader, to stay in power you have to feed, and protect those people. And in our society we have an unprecedented, never before seen in the history of the world, level of comfort that extends to the majority of our 300 million citizens. So something is being done right, even if hypocrisy still exists.

Maybe we live in a sort of benevolent fascism. If one can see that most people are sheep, then one is smart enough to get with the program of the capitalistic democratic republic in which we live. We are born into a contractarian society. We had no choice. Now, which way to go: right-wing wacko or left-wing commie pinko? For writer of my 54K missive, maybe the spot in the middle � a sophomoric wacko who gets their handle on political philosophy from liner notes.