Brainwashed?

We met a friend who has a French girlfriend at a party last week. Soon, the conversation turned to the situation in Lebanon and Israel, and this girl had pretty strong opinions.

"I watch CNN and I think all of you are brain washed", she said gathering steam. "Your government doesn't tell you the truth and neither does your media", she added.

I consider myself an independent, and when someone makes such extreme statements, I tend to reflexively balk.

Here are my thoughts on the war.

First off, I have real problems with the way this adminstration has conducted itself recently. Bush lacks the skill to make a coherent argument and it is often irritating listening to him struggle to put a sentence together. The obdurate Cheney continues to insist we are winning in Iraq, even though the situation on the ground in Iraq belies it. Tell the truth, buddy! In my eyes, he has no credibility. Donald Rumsfeld issues statements that are an embarrasment and a joke; there are times when someone has outlived his or her usefulness and I think that is the case with him. I shudder to think that a nations future rests in the hands of a bunch of jokers.

That said, I must admit, that when the Bush adminstration made the case for the war in 2003, I hemmed and hawed, before I eventually ended up supporting it. Colin Powell's presentation to the United Nations clinched it for me. I didn't believe their spin that it would be a quick war - wars are never quick, and it would have been foolish to believe a war in that complex region of the world would be quick; i believed instead that it would take at least 10 years or more for us to see the results. I believed, however, their intelligence vis-a-vis the WMD's. I believed that Saddam was a bad guy, who had every intention of hurting the U.S. and it allies, sooner or later, and that it was better to get rid of him and give the Iraqi people the chance to start afresh. I also believed that the Iraqi people would be grateful, and once the dictator had fallen, would embrace democracy.

I hadn't bargained for the embarrasing intelligence collapse that failed to turn up WMD's. I think, had the intelligence proven right, the American people and indeed the rest of the world would have come to accept this war, for what it was first advertised to be. The Shia-Sunni split and the danger that democracy posed in weakening one sect or the other and the fierce battles this would engender was something I had not anticipated. One of democracy's virtues is equal representation, and the resentment this would cause in a society where one sect has historically dominated the other is something I had not anticipated either.

In hindsight, this was an ill-advised adventure. The WMD fiasco bummed me out; moreover the frequent mis-steps (by their own admission) of a bungling adminstration over the course of three years has left me with little hope that things will improve. The same players continue to be influential today, and without drastic change, I see no reason for hope.

On a gloomy afternoon, in a reflective mood, I am sure that Bush himself has his doubts; but admitting as much would be admitting defeat. Moreover, it would be an admission that the brave U.S. soldiers - all 3000 and counting - who have perished in this war, died for nothing. I don't expect this adminstration to ever admit that this war is a failure, today, tomorrow or ever.

Brainwashed? I don't think so.