by Mike Whitney

Moral legitimacy is the cornerstone of democratic government. Without it the ruling body cannot claim the consent of the people. This simple fact is of no concern to the Bush administration, but it should be to those of us who are alarmed by steady decline of our basic institutions. The administration operates entirely according to the expedients of deception and brute force, the antithesis of our government’s original design. It garners its dwindling support through lies, public relations antics and jingoism. Even so, the public has seen through the fog of propaganda and is rejecting the administration’s most cherished project: the occupation of Iraq. (Latest polls show that 6 of 10 Americans no longer believe the war was worthwhile) This fact attests to the innate ability of the majority to see through the fabrications of the state and recognize the basic injustice of the current policy; no mean task given the astonishing efforts of the corporate media to distort the news from Iraq....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb05/Whitney0207.htm