Pentagon intervening in civilian politics to stage a pro-Iraq War march

The Pentagon has scheduled an event this coming Sunday, Sept. 11, ostensibly to commemorate the losses of the 9/11 attacks four years ago:  9/11 hoedown: Pentagon plans sanitized Freedom Walk by Vicki Haddock San Francisco Chonicle 09/04/05. The official Web site for this event is Freedom Walk.  Steve Gilliard has some comments on this, as well: Is he [Cheney]ing kidding? 08/10/05.

In this post, I'm focusing only on the Pentagon's prowar rally.  As Haddock describes it:

Thus next Sunday's commemoration is being organized by the Defense Department Pentagon and underwritten by corporate benefactors such as major military contractor Lockheed Martin. Our multitasking Pentagon isn't just for executing battles anymore - it now also handles the nation's event-planning and concert promotion.

A semi-cynic might discern a subtext to next Sunday's fete and its deliberate co-mingling of two distinct, disparate issues: the historic attacks of Sept. 11 and the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq. The thinking seems to be that no battle for the streets of Iraq would be complete without a battle for the hearts and minds of the fickle American public.

I'm sure her line about a "semi-cynic" was meant to be ironic.  You would have to be real sucker to believe it was anything else.  Of course, there were lots of good loyal Republicans who allowed themseves to be convinced that there were "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, too.

Country singer Clint Black is giving a concert as the culminating event in this militaristic farce.  But this isn't exactly a "y'all come" kind of event.

In the past, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Allison Barber told reporters, "people rang bells, lit candles and held vigils. ... But as a nation, we didn't have a unified way to commemorate Sept. 11."

The Pentagon's solution is a huge "America Supports You Freedom Walk" - in which citizens duly screened and registered are free to participate. (The Pentagon says that's so marchers can get the free T-shirts with the official event logo - early-bird registrants also get lapel pins.) Participants will gather before 10 a.m. in the Pentagon parking lot and begin a 2-mile trek through Arlington National Cemetery and over the Potomac River, winding up around the reflecting pool on the National Mall. (my emphasis)

In other words, it will be like Bush "town hall" meetings and campaign rallies.  Only carefully screened Bush supporters and war fans will be allowed to attend.  Yes, I"m reading between the lines to say that; but in this case, the "between-the-lines" text is pretty clear.

If you're planning to sneak in and shout out antiwar slogans, don't go in a car with a John Kerry bumper sticker.  Or any bumper sticker that might suggest you have anything less than total allegiance to Dear Leader Bush on all issues.

Haddock gives us an example of another way in which the Pentagon is "honoring the troops" - by using their gravestones as political propaganda:

The march will pass through Arlington National Cemetery, where -- in a departure from precedent -- nearly all gravestones for troops killed in Iraq are inscribed with the name the Pentagon selected to promote public support for the conflict: Operation Iraqi Freedom. The government is providing the extra engraving free of charge.

At Vermont's Granite Industries, which has made Arlington's headstones for nearly two decades, owner Jeff Martell finds the change troubling. As he told the Associated Press: "It just seems a little brazen that that's put on the stones. It seems like it might be connected to politics."

But the Veterans Affairs Department denies any public relations purpose, just as the Pentagon denies politics will play any role as the Freedom Walk wends its way through Washington Sept. 11.

And how could any red-blooded American think otherwise?

I suppose for a war sold on a Potemkin premise of non-existing WMDs, a Potemkin prowar march is somehow appropriate.

But this is not a rally to "honor the soldiers" or "support the troops."  This is government-sponsored political propaganda - no, military-sponsored political propaganda - aimed at promoting a particular political line to the civilian population.  This is a totally inappropriate activity in a democracy.

A government that tried to pull something like this is a healthy democracy would probably fall over it.  If not hours.  I doubt if even that disgraceful warmonger poodle Tony Blair could get away with something like this.

Yes, trolls, comment away and tell how this is just like 500 things that Bill Clinton and every other Democratic President have done.  I don't give a [expletive deleted].  This is Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon blantantly politicizing the military and using taxpayers dollars to stage a crassly poltical rally.

And it's not as if there are plenty of well-funded rightwing groups that would be more than happy to sponsor such a rally.  The Christian Right's ecumenical partners the Moonies would probably put one on any time that James Dobson asked.  The Moonie Times did step in as a sponsor for the cherr-for-Dear-Leader "Freedom Walk", after the Washington Post was shamed into withdrawing its sponsorship.

Speaking of sponsors, it won't surprise me in the least to find out one day that the sponsors were being reimbursed in some way by taxpayer dollars for their sponsorship.  Again, I'm reading between the lines here; but we've seen this script before.

No, the purpose of this is to use the military and the prestige that attaches to them (as a nonpartisan institution) to promote the failed policies of Rummy and his bosses (Bush and Cheney) on the Iraq War, torture in the Bush gulag, subverting Venezula and various and sundry other things.

It's just plain disgraceful.  And Clint Black is showing himself to be a real chump for agreeing to be the main attraction for this photo pro-war rally.

A University of Texas student paper just ran this editorial: Sept. 11 party a travesty by Joshua Huck Daily Texan 09/02/05 (8/11edition):

Clint Black, as Salon.com notes, is the voice behind the jingoistic "I Raq and Roll," a song that connects Saddam Hussein to Sept. 11, tucked in between couplets of jingoistic chest-beating.

Intended to boost support for America's troops in Iraq (and transparently enough, the Bush administration's unpopular policies), the planned festivities should instead boost America's anger against a blatant attempt to manipulate our opinions through our emotions. In order to reinforce the false, but aggravatingly popular belief that Saddam Hussein and the Iraq War are somehow linked to that morning in September, the Bush administration is exploiting both the tragedy of thousands of innocent deaths here at home, and our country's capacity to empathize with our fallen comrades abroad. ...

For the good of the country, anything but Rumsfield and the Pentagon's Orwell-in-a-cowboy-hat Sept. 11 tailgate party.