John Pilger: A profile in courage for daring to tell the truth
By Mary MacElveen
November 28, 2007
As both of the Republican and Democratic primaries loom large on the horizon in which both parties will select their candidate to run for president of the
But, this column is not about these two men, but what has been done in our name by previous administrations and what has been done by the present one. I have always believed in the power of the vote and democracy itself and it makes me sick to know how we have overthrown foreign democracies for decades. This first came to my attention after viewing Sky Television’s Secrets of the CIA and wrote of it for VHeadline.com. I felt the need to speak out for those whose voices were snuffed out by our brute force. The snuffing out of those lives was either directly tied to our actions or a result of them. In both cases horror is the only word I can use to define these actions.
These actions that I do speak of have taken place under both Republican and Democratic administrations, so both parties are to be condemned for the taking of countless lives in which the only term that comes to mind is holocaust. Morally as we come upon the 2008 General Election, I question my participation in voting in it. Several candidates on both sides of the aisle have key endorsers in which some will pay attention to what these endorsers have to add to the mix: Yet who will listen to the names no longer present on this Earth? I do not even know their names, they are merely collateral damage snuffed out to advance our way of life.
In my last piece, I spoke of the journalistic ethics broken by Tucker Carlson of MSNBC, in this piece, I will herald the journalistic ethics of John Pilger who has covered these atrocities which I suppose would make many of the journalists presently on television recoil in revulsion. That is if some of them had a soul. The same atrocities have taken place in
John Pilger is to be commended for the body of work he has produced showing man’s inhumanity to man over the past several decades. As I have been researching him, most likely it was his piece, Year Zero which deals with the after affects of our bombing of Cambodia one must applaud his courage. In this documentary he chronicles how the
In viewing that piece, Year Zero, Pilger warned the viewing audience before watching it and I will as well. What you will see are indescribable horrors in which innocent people are starved to death, incur diseases as the west looked on and did nothing to alleviate their suffering. This suffering was caused by the
Rudy Giuliani often speaks of the horrors of 9/11 and in witnessing what this country has done over the decades makes 9/11 pail in comparison. No, this is not to dismiss the suffering of that day, but our actions took the lives of many more innocent people and we wonder why we are hated? I have often stated that the Iraqi people have suffered a 9/11 event on a daily basis for over four years now, but they are not the only ones to have suffered at our hands. Also let me be crystal clear, the Iraqis did suffer during the
When questioned by Sixty Minutes, Leslie Stahl this is what former Secretary of State, Madeline Albright had to say when asked, “We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in
The other night a writer for VHeadline.com sent me John Pilger’s production, The War on Democracy which highlights in great detail of our actions within
Pilger goes into great detail of how we took part in the coup that overthrew President Hugo Chavez, but showed the people’s resistance to take back their power and return their democratically elected president. Exactly what right do we think we have to overthrow other people’s democracies? Pilger says that President Chavez is a threat to U.S. domination and again Tucker Carlson shoots off his mouth by calling his government “criminal” If any government is criminal it is our own.
One thing as I watched this piece specifically was how ordinary citizens took back power to reclaim their own destiny. It makes me wonder why we can’t. I think the reason for that is, we are distracted in so many ways and these indigenous people live in the moment. No, they do not have cell phones for the most part or I Pods, but felt their own suppression.
As our presidential candidates speak of how they would deliver health care to all Americans, President Chavez has given all of his citizens’ free health care. It is funded by the oil profits made off of CITGO oil. Those profits are also used for free education, free food for the poorest of
People in this country were abhorred when they learned of the torture that took place at Abu Ghraib; well the same torture took place as we installed Augusto Pinochet when we overthrew that government as well. Another fine piece of work perpetrated by Henry Kissinger. It was hard to witness the words of a nun as she described her gang-rape within this piece. An American nun who only wished to do great works of compassion was the victim of her own country’s actions.
How I wish I could go into every point brought up in these many feeds embedded within this piece, but I cannot. That is your responsibility as you read this piece to sit down and actually pay attention to the voices that are no longer with us. Should you pay attention to Barbara Streisand, Oprah Winfrey, Pat Robertson, Chuck Norris or any other celebrity speaking out on behalf of the present crop of presidential candidates: Or do you listen to the voices who are no longer with us? We must bear witness to all of them who have suffered, died and who are still with us to this day in order to change the course of this country. That is if we can or are we too late?
As I condemned the actions of Tucker Carlson in my last piece, I herald the works of John Pilger who many may not know of but should. I do think if we had courageous journalists such as Pilger broadcasting every single day, this country would be the better for it. But, of course as Pilger relates in other feeds I have watched, the media is no longer the people’s but the corporations. With the corporations owning more and more of our airwaves, we shall never see the horrors done in our name. All of these horrors date back decades and one must ask: Do we have that right as a free nation to overthrow any other country’s right to be free and their desire for sovereignty? We do not.
I will leave you with this one quote by John Pilger, “No country has a right to go its own way unless it coincides with the interests of the
Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net