(I wonder if one day his people will be able to write about him being a hero, released from some evil place far, far away?)
Give me a fucking break... The good ol' American "Contractors" the press speak about so endearingly work for Northrop Grumman, a US-funded (by the way that means 13.5 Billion of your tax dollars funded) "defense" company. The third largest US "defense" company, after Lockheed Martin and Boeing. They make B-2 stealth bombers, F-14 fighters, unmanned Global Hawks, assault ships... and on and on and on. They sure as hell aren't dairy farmers.
But then who are these men? What were they doing in Columbia? And to those questions, I have no idea... I've been looking around for about an hour now and not one "credible" news source mentions the 3 Americans intentions for being in the region. Isn't that kind-of important information?
When I come home from work and see that my dog, Choco, has taken a shit on the 3rd floor, the first thing I think, the first thing I yell, is "What the hell where you doing up here Choco!?!" ... Of course he never answers me. Usually his tail will slow it's frantic pace, the one that it gets from the shear excitement of my homecoming. A common, "I'm home!" dog owner/dog ritual, and as it moves down into his crotch, he throws me this look... this look like, "Geez, I... I, never thought you'd look up here, um..." After a second or two of silence I pick up the poop and I call him an "asshole!" (he has adopted this as his tough-love nickname), that's when his tail picks up it's pre-investigation speed, and we go for a walk.
The funny thing about all of this is, the role words play in sculpting thoughts and feelings. Not only do you not get the whole story from the press, but in the part of the story you do get, words, titles, and phrases are so altered, and so buffed, to give as specific a feeling as possible. So that, for instance, instead of "27 soldiers killed this month in Iraq", we get "27 troops killed". The word troop is less individual, less human than soldier. (Not to mention that we don't see any coffins coming into Delaware Air Force Base, like we have in every other war, or a single funeral services for that matter.)
Calling the 3 American men "Contractors", as opposed to "US-Funded Defense Something-Or-Others", makes the men sound like they were laying asphault on old dirt roads, or building new computer labs in underprivladged schools. It sends a distict image of good ol' American boys helpin' out 'em other poorer countries. Well maybe, that's as much as they want you to think, "3 American Heros Saved From Evil Kidnappers In A Far, Far Away Land."
And why is it that every "credible" news source is calling them "Contractors", or just simply "3 Americans", when really they are closer to US military agents? Is it a coincidence? Why do they all use the same rhetoric?
My fellow Americans, I have a feeling someone's been shitting on the 3rd floor... And we need a hell of a lot more than the US press admitting, "Oh, yeah... I, I never thought you'd look up there... Um... Oh, did we mention California is on fire?"
Written by Conrad Benner
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