by Robert Parry

As historians ponder George W. Bush’s disastrous presidency, they may wonder how Republicans perfected a propaganda system that could fool tens of millions of Americans, intimidate Democrats, and transform the vaunted Washington press corps from watchdogs to lapdogs.

To understand this extraordinary development, historians might want to look back at the 1980s and examine the Iran-Contra scandal’s “lost chapter,” a narrative describing how Ronald Reagan’s administration brought CIA tactics to bear domestically to reshape the way Americans perceived the world.

CUBA has demanded the US return Guantanamo Bay to the island nation and denounced the "war on terror" prison, where six detainees could face the death penalty.

Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque claimed today that suspects held in the US naval base in the southeastern tip of Cuba have been subjected to torture and face unfair legal treatment.

Cuba rejects "the violation of human rights, unjust incarceration of prisoners held there without charges, and their appearance in courts without guarantees and in which they are convicted in advance,'' he told reporters.

October 17 was doubly heinous as George Bush also quietly and privately signed into law a revision to the 1807 Insurrection Act. It was hidden in Sections 1076 and 333 of the John Warner Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007. Two hundred years of tradition along with the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act prohibit using federal and National Guard troops for law enforcement inside the country except as allowed by the Constitution or authorized by Congress in times of a national emergency like an insurrection. Under the new law, the chief executive can claim a public emergency, effectively declare martial law and send federal and National Guard troops to the nation's streets to suppress whatever he calls public disorder that may include peaceful demonstrations against wars of aggression and rightful demands for restoration of our constitutional rights now abandoned.

Lori Brim cradled her son in her arms for three months before he died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Dustin Brim, a 22-year-old Army specialist had collapsed three years ago in Iraq from a very aggressive cancer that attacked his kidney, caused a mass to grow over his esophagus and collapsed a lung

The problems she saw during her time at Walter Reed, including her son screaming in pain while doctors argued over medications, had nothing to do with mold and shabby conditions documented in recent news reports. What this mother saw was an unexplainable illness consuming her son.

And what she has learned since her son’s death is that his was not an isolated case.

Lori Brim has joined other parents, hundreds of other sick soldiers, legislators, research scientists and environmental activists who say the cause of their problems results from exposure to depleted uranium, a radioactive metal used in the manufacture of U.S. tank armor and weapon casings.

Health and environmental effects of depleted uranium are at the heart of scientific studies, a lawsuit in the New York courts and legislative bills in more than a dozen states (although not in Florida).

News stories claiming negative signs of depleted uranium’s impact, including death and birth defects, are surfacing from Australia to England to the Far East. The controversy rages within government bodies and underlies the theme of TV shows like a recent episode of the medical series "House."

Over the past six years, some 22,500 soldiers have been discharged on grounds of “personality disorder” --- a condition that can be alleged to have existed prior to their tour of duty --- thus absolving the Pentagon of its obligation to provide their medical care and pay their benefits.

Specialist Jon Town, of Findlay, Ohio, was separated on a “personality disorder” diagnosis even though in October, 2004, a 107-millimeter rocket struck two feet over his head as he stood in the doorway of his battalion’s headquarters in Ramadi, Iraq. Town’s ears were leaking blood from the blast and rocket shrapnel was removed from his neck. The blast caused substantial deafness, and he suffers from memory failure and depression as well. Inexplicably, doctors at Fort Carson, Colo., diagnosed Town with “personality disorder”, depriving him of disability and medical benefits.

Young people need REAL alternatives to going to war

What emerged from the film was a complex portrait of many different sources of incentives and pressures which, in combination, lead some Palestinians to become suicide bombers. Starting from a young age, Palestinian children are exposed to entertainment that glorifies the suicide bombers as “martyrs.” Their education system does the same thing. The martyrs and their families are elevated in social status, and the families may also receive some financial support.

Some religious leaders provide theological support by promising that all martyrs will go straight to Paradise. Of course, the ongoing oppression and humiliation of Palestinians by Israel provides additional incentives. There is also a well-funded infrastructure for recruiting, training and equipping willing bombers.

What really struck me about this portrait was the number of parallels with the incentives and pressures that lead to enlistment in the military in the United States.

At a young age, children in the United States are exposed to cartoons, action figures, toys and other sources of entertainment which glorify military service. Our schools present a sanitized version of history which presents the United States as always being the good guys, and which leaves out all of the bad things which we have done. Our schools also emphasize patriotism and devotion to the flag, and give military recruiters almost unlimited access to the students.

We also encourage military service by providing elevated social status to those who enlist. We call them heroes and put on parades and other ostentatious displays of adoration. We give them economic support in the form of special “veterans rates” and “military discounts.” Military service is also presented as the only possible route to higher educational opportunities and other benefits for many young people.

We too have religious leaders who provide theological support for war. They talk about duty to God and country, bless the troops, and pray for victory over our enemies. Some of our churches also glorify and venerate military heroes as “martyrs.”

When I joined I took an oath. In that oath I swore to protect the Constitution of the United States. I didn't swear to build democracies in countries on the other side of the world under the guise of "national security." I didn't join the military to be part of an Orwellian ("1984") war machine that is in an obligatory war against whoever the state deems the enemy to be so that the populace can be controlled and riled up in a pro-nationalistic frenzy to support any new and oppressive law that will be the key to destroying the enemy. Example given – the Patriot Act. So aptly named, and totally against all that the constitution stands for.