Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Mobocratic Left


Until recently, the overpowering issue in politics for the past couple election cycles have been the Iraq War. The left wing pushed the idea that "Bush lied" and the majority of the mainstream media followed. In fact, much of the independent base of voters even accepted the idea that there was no good reason to be in Iraq. This is a great example of a "mobocracy", or in latin, mobile vulgus, meaning "the easily moveable crowd"; also referred to as "a mob". Remind you of a certain campaign going on right now?

Looking at nightly news footage of large groups of people holding signs reading, "Bush Lied", spitting on soldiers, vandalizing public monuments, one could see how the word and definition of "mobocracy" or "mob" could fit this scenario. The more footage shown to the general public, the more the mob grew, or better yet, the mob ruled. Facts, or results of interviews with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, were never taken into account with these mobs. The mobocracy had began, and like a snowball rolling down a mountain, it would pick up more willing participants.

In the postmodern world we live in today, image is stronger then the word. And even if there is no truth in image, the image can take on truth in time. The news media expected to see a pile of missiles with American soldiers posing in front of them. Americans, along with the rest of the world, decided that if there were no photos of a "stockpile" of missiles, then there were no WMDs. But this is where the divide in our country happened. Again, we are visual people today; we expected photos presented to us of a great pile of WMDs . Here is the Wikipedia definition for WMD:

"A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a weapon which can kill large numbers of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures..."

The problem is, there are WMDs that can fit into a briefcase. In fact, a few viles or test tubes can carry specimens to create biological weapons to kill hundreds of thousands of people- or more. Sadaam Hussein used chemical weapons to kill thousands of his own people- just to make a point. And he did, in fact, have traditional WMDs which he later admitted to destroying to throw off U.N. investigators. FBI Special Agent George Piro had the job of interrogator to Saddam after his capture. He became so close to the former Iraqi dictator, that important unknown facts about Iraq's weapons programs finally came to surface.

Special Agent Piro answered some questions with Scott Pelley of CBS program "60 Minutes" (Jan. 27, 2008) and explained how Saddam Hussein had not expected U.S. troops to actually invade Iraq, but rather expected some air strikes leaving it at that. Not having its large arsenal of WMDs that it did, Hussein intended to produce WMDs again. From the CBS interview:

(CBS) In fact, Piro says Saddam intended to produce weapons of mass destruction again, some day. "The folks that he needed to reconstitute his program are still there," Piro says. "And that was his intention?" Pelley asks. "Yes," Piro says. "What weapons of mass destruction did he intend to pursue again once he had the opportunity?" Pelley asks. "He wanted to pursue all of WMD. So he wanted to reconstitute his entire WMD program," says Piro. "Chemical, biological, even nuclear," Pelley asks. "Yes," Piro says.

Keep in mind that all of these interviews (with Sadaam Hussein) are on record and are not disputed by anyone in congress. Yet our politicians will still go on record to say they believe they were lied to. So next time you see a sign that says "Bush Lied", or hear a politician rant about being in Iraq for the wrong reason, or have a friend who has joined the "mob", be reminded that if Saddam Hussein would have been left untouched in Iraq, he would be pursuing and reconstituting an Iraqi WMD program. And that is a fact. Still, one of our biggest mobs, is the Obama campaign and its followers, turning their head from truth and turning their noses up at the American people.

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