Weapons of Mass Delusion

This morning I attended my UUC (Unitarian-Universalist Congregation) service in Norwich to help me keep my sanity intact. During the week I try to keep myself informed about the current war in Iraq using the site Antiwar.com, but there are times when my outrage and sorrow and despair get the better of my normally sunny disposition and I need a broader perspective. Hence the UUC. Today the sermon and the service compared the mythical idea of war to the reality of war. The myth abstracts and generalizes about war, both in a particular conflict and as a tool that a culture uses as a means to an end. The reality is what actually is occuring and what war really is like. For instance, War as Myth could be that we have gone into Iraq to establish democracy and save the Iraqis from Saddam Hussein. War as Reality could be the reading of the names of the American soldiers killed in this conflict by Ted Koppel.

Another myth is that we went into Iraq to prevent Saddam from using those WMD's (Weapons of Mass Destruction), although at the time, it was presented to the American public as grim reality. The Real Grim Reality is that the only WMD's are the Weapons of Mass Delusion that are being used by the Bush Administration to keep us, the American Public, from seeing that the rationale(s) behind the war, the planning of the war and post-war and their current plans for "democracy" are all illusory and delusional. See the excellent article, dated May 25, 2004 and entitled "Mr. President, What Planet Are You On?" by Ivan Eland in his columnThe Emperor Has No Clothes for a more thorough treatment of this. Thank god for a free press and a free pulpit!