Conspiracy theory

Here we have the battle of "Of course the demonstration was peaceful and we were all unarmed!" versus "Of course we didn't shoot first at those demonstrators!" I want to believe the military. Honest, I do. I watch the coverage on CNN and read about it in America's newspapers and I nod my head. I remember the edict that the U.S. started the war with: for cryin' out loud don't kill any civilians, it won't play on teevee!

But then I think about Vietnam. Well, I don't actually remember Vietnam myself, but I studied what happened there, and I do remember what passes as the whole story creeping out over the last 30 or so years. So I can't help but ask myself the question: have we, the United States of America, learned nothing?

At the same time I know that the Bush adnimistration is trying to weaken a global treaty that would prevent tobacco companies from advertising abroad quite so much. One hopes this would make of smoking in other countries what smoking is in the U.S. But since it's bad for Big Tobacco, apparently it's bad for the Bush administration.

Or had you missed that story because of the goings on in Iraq?

In any case, I can't see how I could be completely conservative on one hand and utterly distrustful of the administration's agenda on the other. That doesn't make sense.

before - after