Colin Todhunter: Political Opportunism. The Boston Marathon Tragedy

used as a pretext to extend the Global War on Terrorism. In a 2011 interview for an Australian TV channel, US Republican Senator John McCain talked about Islamic extremism, spreading if left unchecked by military intervention in Afghanistan and elsewhere. In the same interview, he spoke of the US having held fast in Iraq, and having succeeded there. He stated that we must do the same in Afghanistan, because we are succeeding there too. In the warped world of neo-con mouthpieces like McCain, the ongoing carnage and turmoil that US led criminality has caused in the two countries in question, equates with success. Given the problems at home, it comes as little surprise that US public support for militarism abroad has been waning for some time. McCain is fully aware of this. His comments were little more than an attempt to hoodwink the public into continuing to support the US war of global terror, because he knows that people have other things in their minds, such as housing foreclosures, the outsourcing of jobs and livelihoods, increasing impoverishment, the crackdown on civil liberties, and the slaughter of often poor men who fight wars that have no end in sight. The public is also becoming increasingly aware, that over half of government spending goes to the military, when it could be better spent in other areas. In 2006, former US military commander and CIA boss General Petraeus said the US strategy is to conduct a war of perceptions continuously through the news media. People like McCain are the foot soldiers in such a war, and hope that the public mindset can be manipulated with propaganda about US national security interests, perceived military successes, and fear about Islamic extremism. No doubt both Petraeus and McCain have taken their cue from US commentator Walter Lippmann, who in the 1920s said that responsible men make decisions, and had to be protected from the bewildering herd of the public. Lippman believed that the public should be subdued, obedient, and distracted from what is really happening, and should be admiring with awe the leaders, who save them from destruction from what is really happening, and should be admiring with awe the leaders, who save them from destruction and provide peace. The words of Lippman might have been ringing loud and clear in the minds of many observers, as people came onto the streets of Boston to celebrate and chant USA, USA, after the authorities had suspended civil liberties, and effectively implemented Martial Law in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon explosions. Saved from destruction and admiring their leaders with awe!