The Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court Senate confirmation hearings reminds me a lot of another congressional hearing in the early 1990s. No, I’m not talking about Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill. I’m thinking of the testimony by the 15-year-old Nayirah al-Ṣabaḥ in 1990, just prior to the United States first war in Iraq. To understand this comparison, we need to recall the lead up to it and the many lies that were told to start that war.
Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 after accusing them of stealing their oil. Kuwait had been using advanced horizontal drilling techniques that allowed them to drill billions of dollars’ worth from Iraq’s oil fields near their shared boarder.
At first, the US had no position in the war, as it had no valid reason to protect Kuwait. Really, the US even supported Iraq’s invasion.
President George H.W. Bush wanted higher oil prices because Kuwaiti’s drilling was keeping the price suppressed and devastating profits of the Texas oil companies. At that time, the US even worked to suppress accusations that Iraq was committing atrocities within its country. It flat out encouraged Iraq to invade in its private conversations so that they could stop Kuwait from drilling. After taking supportive queues from the US State Department, Iraq overstepped, seeking to annex the whole country.
The US quickly took a 180, assuming its typical pro-active propaganda posture, releasing damning information in such a way as to create reinforcing narratives, eventually resulting in an insatiable demand for war.
US diplomats reportedly showed Prince Bandar, then the inexperienced Saudi Ambassador to the United States, fake documents that indicated Hussein had planned to invade Saudi Arabia after he was finished with Kuwait, an unlikely, but not impossible proposition at the time, given that Saudi Arabia had no significant military power. Bandar quickly pushed for US troops to become involved.
It was a trivial matter to get Europe and the UN to support the first Gulf War since they wanted the entire middle east disarmed at that time (except of course for Israel). They knew this could only be accomplished by a war.
Within the US, opposition to intervention was split. Enter al-Ṣabaḥ, a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl who spoke perfect English. She testified before the House of Representatives that she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers ransacking occupied Kuwaiti hospitals, throwing newborn babies on the floor to die. State Department officials immediately commented to the papers that this was genocide and could be used to justify foreign military intervention.
Only after the war was her last name revealed, allegedly out of fear of reprisal. Only then did it become known that she was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador and had been given direction, including acting lessons, from the massive PR firm, Hill and Knowlton. The firm had been hired by Kuwait to drum up support for US intervention.
It may seem far off now, but al-Sabah’s hearing set new precedent for how far power players would go to start a war. It was just a small part of what at that time may have been the largest, most coordinated method of mass-mind-control ever attempted.
At the head of the project was Bush’s former Chief of Staff, Craig L. Fuller. In addition to training al-Sabah, he along with other Bush loyalists at the firm, organized a massive campaign to propagandize support for the coming war. They created video tapes, printed tens of thousands of bumper stickers and t-shirts, and coordinated with newspaper editors across the country. They created a National Prayer Day for Kuwait and printed books like The Rape of Kuwait, roughly 200,000 of which were distributed to US troops. But al-Sabah’s testimony about murdered babies was the hook and was repeated ad nauseam by administration officials and the press. Amnesty International corroborated the story (only to retract it much later).
Subsequent investigations proved that the entire testimony was fabricated. Kuwait had only a few incubators in the entire country, rather than hundreds reported by al-Sabah. The Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch reports that even the Kuwaiti’s own investigators agreed the testimony was a hoax. However, none of this was known at the time and al-Sabah’s testimony was enough to swing a narrow vote in favor of war, back when congress still conducted such votes.
Hill and Knowlton went on to advocate for the softer, gentler side of war, promoting the careful use of ‘Smart Bombs’ in the wars of the Clinton administration, to which TV pundits gushed over their fiery beauty.
So what does this have to do with Kavanaugh? Directly, nothing. But considering the power of this media circus, I can’t help but draw comparisons.
It’s useful to remind readers how totally political and unconcerned with morality our so-called representatives are. At best, a few are hopelessly ignorant of reality. But not all are so innocent. Many are completely Machiavellian in their pursuit of power and wealth.
Allegations of sexual abuse by members of congress are so common it might as well be seen as a prerequisite to hold the office. Consider that the US Congress was recently headed by a convicted serial child molester, Dennis Hassert (R), who for a decade was 2nd in line for the presidency. Or that one of its most esteemed members, Barney Frank (D), allegedly ran an underage prostitution ring out of his own home. All that can be forgiven, or at least ignored, so long as you remain a steadfast servant of power.
Whether by design by a shadowy group looking to control the public face of government or some kind of social accident, the government contains some of the most vile, corrupt people in the country. It’s vulgar to have it conduct any sort of trial to determine the moral stature of its own servants.
It’s also naive to think the Kavanaugh hearing is anything less than a totally political power play. The idea that this committee could come to a just conclusion, except by accident, is laughable. And yet, we’re all forced by the magic of mass media, to play out our parts in this reality show, with our biases telling us exactly who to believe, where the truth doesn’t matter and in the end, the biggest loser is the public.
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