Charles Mercieca, Ph.D.
President, International Association of Educators for World Peace
Dedicated to United Nations Goals of Peace Education,
Environmental Protection, Human Rights & Disarmament
Professor Emeritus, Alabama A&M University

Although historians are not fully sure as to the exact year Prophet Mohammad was born, there seems to be a general consensus that he was born on April 20, 570 and died on June 8, 632 when he was 56 years old. This was not an ordinary man by all means. He was deeply spiritual and often communicated with God, like a good son communicates with a beloved father. Initially, he was a shepherd and later became a merchant. He spent each Ramadan fasting and praying outside Mecca, in a cave on Mount Hira.

Initiation of the Qur’an

Both Iraqis and Americans were stunned by the audacity of Sen. John McCain's heavily publicized (and heavily armed) excursion through Baghdad's Shorja market last weekend. There was the leading proponent of the war on Capitol Hill, setting out to confirm his recent claim that the escalation of U.S. forces is greatly improving conditions on the ground, accompanied by a handful of Congressional colleagues. He seemed to think nobody would notice that their little shopping trip included a platoon of soldiers, three Black Hawk choppers and two Apache gunships.

            Neither the Iraqi merchants used as props in this strange exercise nor the American voters who were its intended targets could have been deceived by such a charade. So the question that inevitably arises is whether McCain and company are still attempting to dupe us -- or whether they have finally duped themselves.

It's become a TV ritual: Every year on April 4, as Americans commemorate Martin Luther King's death, we get perfunctory network news reports about "the slain civil rights leader."

The remarkable thing about these reviews of King's life is that several years - his last years - are totally missing, as if flushed down a memory hole.

What TV viewers see is a closed loop of familiar file footage: King battling desegregation in Birmingham (1963); reciting his dream of racial harmony at the rally in Washington (1963); marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama (1965); and finally, lying dead on the motel balcony in Memphis (1968).

An alert viewer might notice that the chronology jumps from 1965 to 1968. Yet King didn't take a sabbatical near the end of his life. In fact, he was speaking and organizing as diligently as ever.

Almost all of those speeches were filmed or taped. But they're not shown today on TV.

Why?

It's because national news media have never come to terms with what Martin Luther King Jr. stood for during his final years.

The media spectacle that John McCain made of himself in Baghdad on April 1 was yet another reprise of a ghastly ritual. Senator McCain expressed “very cautious optimism” and told reporters that the latest version of the U.S. war effort in Iraq is “making progress.”

Three years ago, in early April 2004, when an insurrection exploded in numerous Iraqi cities, U.S. occupation spokesman Dan Senor informed journalists: “We have isolated pockets where we are encountering problems.” Nine days later, President Bush declared: “It's not a popular uprising. Most of Iraq is relatively stable.”

For government officials committed to a war based on lies, such claims are in the wiring.

When Defense Secretary Robert McNamara visited Vietnam for the first time, in May 1962, he came back saying that he’d seen “nothing but progress and hopeful indications of further progress in the future.”

In October 1966, when McNamara held a press conference at Andrews Air Force Base after returning from a trip to Vietnam, he spoke of the progress he’d seen there. Daniel Ellsberg recalls that McNamara made that

Model perfect, pro athlete Pat Tillman was the poster boy for military recruitment. He gave up a lucrative NFL career to enlist in the Army and avenge the Sept. 11 Massacre.

            In a 2002 Wall Street Journal column, Reaganite Peggy Noonan compared the Army Ranger to "Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable and Tyrone Power in World War II." "It is good to see their style return," she gushed. "Markets rise and fall, politicians come and go, but that we still make Tillmans is headline news."

            Making Tillmans is still Page One news. But Noonan probably meant creation the old-fashioned way, through procreation and passing along family values.

            Yet, the Pentagon makes Tillmans, too. Actually, it reinvents them.

            When Cpl. Tillman was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, the Army resurrected him as a mythical hero. Tall tales were told of how Tillman went out in a blaze of glory against Taliban fighters April 22, 2004.