JOHN KASS AND CHICAGO TRIBUNE PRETEND THERE ARE NO CONSEQUENCES
John Kass' column criticizing Julian Assange and Wikileaks for publishing classified US documents on our foreign policy and wars of choice would better have been titled: Tribune and Kass pretend there are no consequences.
As a concerned citizen bogged down by work and family obligations in 2002, I still found time to study the US rhetoric and buildup to the Iraq war and concluded early on that the fix was in for a senseless, and therefore criminal war, and began opposing it even before it started. I didn't get that accurate analysis from Kass or the Tribune, who were busy currying favor with the Administration or at the very least not willing to risk their opprobrium by revealing the truth they certainly knew. Had the Tribune and Kass done their journalistic duty back in 2002-2003, we wouldn't need the Julian Assanges of the world to provide the most vital function of a free press: keeping all governments from committing war crimes.
Assange is simply filling the void left by a totally bankrupt mainstream media just like Dan Ellsberg did in 1971 when he revealed the truth behind our utterly unwinnable and self destructive Vietnam War. The same tired arguments about possible casualties and harm to America's interests used against Ellsberg have been trotted out of storage to be used against Assange. Alas, the Tribune failed us then and they have failed us now. The consequences then were over two million Vietnamese killed as well as 58,000 Americans. The consequences now are over a million dead in the Middle East and over 5,500 Americans, including those killed in our never ending war to conquer Afghanistan. Our Middle East ventures are much worse than Vietnam because they are recruiting new terrorists every minute as they lead us to bankruptcy. The ghost of long dead Osama bin Laden is surely prancing with glee over our folly.
Maybe some of Kass' angst directed against Assange stems from his need to discredit the most visible symbol of his profession's enormous failure as a bulwark against government misfeasance and malfeasance as its tramples around on the world stage. Give Assange a Pulitzer and give Kass and the Trib a big bowl of raspberries.
As a concerned citizen bogged down by work and family obligations in 2002, I still found time to study the US rhetoric and buildup to the Iraq war and concluded early on that the fix was in for a senseless, and therefore criminal war, and began opposing it even before it started. I didn't get that accurate analysis from Kass or the Tribune, who were busy currying favor with the Administration or at the very least not willing to risk their opprobrium by revealing the truth they certainly knew. Had the Tribune and Kass done their journalistic duty back in 2002-2003, we wouldn't need the Julian Assanges of the world to provide the most vital function of a free press: keeping all governments from committing war crimes.
Assange is simply filling the void left by a totally bankrupt mainstream media just like Dan Ellsberg did in 1971 when he revealed the truth behind our utterly unwinnable and self destructive Vietnam War. The same tired arguments about possible casualties and harm to America's interests used against Ellsberg have been trotted out of storage to be used against Assange. Alas, the Tribune failed us then and they have failed us now. The consequences then were over two million Vietnamese killed as well as 58,000 Americans. The consequences now are over a million dead in the Middle East and over 5,500 Americans, including those killed in our never ending war to conquer Afghanistan. Our Middle East ventures are much worse than Vietnam because they are recruiting new terrorists every minute as they lead us to bankruptcy. The ghost of long dead Osama bin Laden is surely prancing with glee over our folly.
Maybe some of Kass' angst directed against Assange stems from his need to discredit the most visible symbol of his profession's enormous failure as a bulwark against government misfeasance and malfeasance as its tramples around on the world stage. Give Assange a Pulitzer and give Kass and the Trib a big bowl of raspberries.
posted by Walt Zlotow at 6:59 PM
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