Back in the Prairie

I've returned to the States, and now to my blog as well, after weeks of very happy travel through Europe. It's weird to be back, especially because so little has changed.

Today I read through Kevin Drum that a new Harris Poll shows US Americans more likely than a year ago to believe in the Pres-o-dent's rationales for the War in Iraq. How interesting. Drum's comment:

Amazing, isn't it? As the prewar facts become clearer and Iraq spirals further into civil war, the American public becomes ever more withdrawn from reality. Even if complaints from us shrill liberal bloggers are dismissed, surely poll results like this should get the media pondering the question of whether they're doing a very good job of reporting what's really going on.

Or more likely it's something in the water. No, seriously. The problem isn't in the news media's messages on Iraq, on WMD, or on Al Qaeda. It's in the water. Why did US Americans ever think that Saddam had ties to Al Qaeda in the first place? Because he was an Arab. I mean, an Ay-Rab. So why would the attitudes of the US public have shifted again toward the delusional? Because their tv screens have been filled with uppity Ay-Rabs again. In other words, the problem isn't misinformation. It's racism. What is to be done about that? First, call it by its name. Then, wait a hundred years. Racists don't so much change their minds as, well, die.

But the racism of the public isn't the CAUSE of the War in Iraq. It's at best one of several enabling conditions. The cause of the War rests in tangible actions by elected and unelected officials who should all be in jail by now. Why is that unimaginable?