12/12/2003

Don't Worry - We're Not Going To Pretend To Care:
We here in the hinterlands of the "democratic" populace of the country won't notice a goddamn thing. We are blind to all things but those we are commanded by our TVs to see. We are shopping, drinking, shitting, reality show watching zombies. So don't make us pay attention to anything that might break through our deep, heartfelt apathy.

Like the decision by the Iraqi Health Ministry to stop counting civilian casualties in that country, a move that, no matter how loud the denials by the Coalition Provisional Authority, had to have the CPA imprimatur in order to take place. Remember who runs every fuckin' thing in Iraq? No governmental agent takes a piss without our okay. So that's it. It won't matter if we kill 100,000 civilians in our demented attempt to transform Iraq into a great experiment in a nation run by corporations. Fuck, it won't matter if Halliburton kills a couple of thou to maintain its contracts. We won't know. Oh, sure, whiny villagers will always assert that this toddler or that teenager was gunned down, but, c'mon, prove it. Or, even better, prove America wrong.

Like the "battle" of Samarra, where the United States allegedly killed 54 guerilla fighters. Except that's just what we claimed. Except no one could find the bodies. Except the only casualties in hospitals were civilians. What the hell happened? Does the military now clean up after itself? And if there was a body clean-up crew, was it a subsidiary of Halliburton? And how much did they overcharge the U.S. to dispose of the bullet-riddled bodies of the "guerillas"? The Rude Pundit digresses. The military said it was 54 and for most Americans that was good enough. Because thank god we're fighting an enemy that doesn't look white. Otherwise, we might give a rat's ass about their fate.

Like the Arab-American waiter who was prevented from working a function that our President attended in Baltimore. Like the 170,000 or so people from Muslim and Arab countries who were forced to register with the government, none of whom has been charged as a terrorist. Like whoever the hell is being held in Guantanamo. Like the Human Rights Watch report that says American cluster bombs have killed over 1000 civilians, although, fuck, we won't know about that anymore.

Remember: America doesn't care. Apathy is the foundation of the right-wing agenda. Apathy of the majority of the population. The blinders of religion for another big segment. And the warm, warm light of rage for the rest of us. So when the President treats our "allies" with contempt and bullying, we can sit in front of our flickering TV light, watch our newsbreaks, and then wonder if we'll be able to see Paris Hilton fuck her ex-boyfriend again on the Internet. And around the water cooler, we won't talk about how our country is a viscous miasma of hate and pettiness. We'll talk about Paris's tits. Those sweet little rich white tits at whose nipple suckles the conscience of a lost nation.