Pogo was right!
"We has met the enemy--and he is us!" declared that loveable Okefenokee icon of the 1950s. Pogo and his creator, Walt Kelly, apparently got it right--while Daniel Ellsberg, who released The Pentagon Papers, got it wrong. The government lies--but the American people, Ellsberg reckons, if armed with the facts of the situation, would put paid to the deception and punish the perpetrators.
But what if the information is freely available and people ignore it? That's pretty much the pessimistic Okefenokee vision of the universe. The old what did he know and when did he know it question pales in comparison with these ominous questions: Does anybody care? Is anybody listening? Is anybody home?
During the runup to Operation Iraqi Freedom, Ellsberg allowed that he should have blown the whistle on the LBJ administration sooner rather than later--thereby shortening the Vietnam war. He urged today's security officials and others privy to secret information to blow the whistle on Bush and the Neocons.
Actually, there were a few early naysayers who counseled against invading Iraq, and lately, a number of formerly dumbstruck reporters, Democrats and even Republican members of Congress are starting to ask tough questions. As for the American public in general, sadly that's a different story.
1:49:47 PM 
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