Priarie Home Companion

Lies, lies in my history books
Lies, lies like they teach in class,
--Lies, Rolling Stones

You'll have to dig beneath the ground
You'll have to unearth every stone
That kept you on your own
And simply put them down
--Look Around, Blues Traveler
________________

Radio Free Europe (RFE) was created in 1949 to broadcast behind the Iron Curtain, and was based upon the adversarial role of the U.S. vis-a-vis the U.S.S.R. Europe is now free of Soviet troops and dominance. RFE has combined with Radio Liberty (RL), and continues the airwave onslaught. U.S. troops remain, and for what reason?

Since the U.S.S.R. is defunct, why do we still have need of a propaganda tool in Europe?

Waving the flag as usual, conservative columnist Kathleen Parker recently ballyhooed the cause of Jefferey Gedmin, president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). She quoted FRE/RL president Jefferey Gedmin thusly: "Give me the equivalent of six Apaches and we'd probably change the world (Mightier Than the Sword.)" They need to look around -- the world has changed, and it is leaving the U.S. behind.

What would our RFE broadcast? Would it champion preventive wars, invasions, Muslim heads in sandbags lying prostrate at the feet of U.S. soldiers? Perhaps Abu Ghraib, seceret prisons, torture and Gitmo?

The concept of RFE demands a modicum of morality and law which could be demonstrated to the intended audience. Parker explains the driver for RFE is "millions of people without access to information that isn't state-controlled." Whose state are we talking about?

The idea of RFE-type broadcast in the Middle East and South Central Asia sure sounds good, but who is writing the scripts? People like Mr. Gedmin, who urged President Bill Clinton to overthrow Saddam? Would it be a scrubbed version of the idyllic pablum that is The Prairie Home Companion? (Apologies to our Norwegian readers.)

When the U.S. still occupied a moral high ground, RFE still had a purpose. Today, which program will the people believe: the Hellfire missiles dropping out of the sky, or the benign words of a propaganda-peddling broadcaster?

The heartwarming example provided by Parker/Gedmin is actually a saddening indictment of the futility of the U.S. enterprise in the Middle East:

A couple of months ago when a young girl was raped -- a common and underreported event -- President Hamid Karzai heard about it on Radio Free Afghanistan and instructed his staff to get details. As a result, the girl and her family were provided assistance, and the government demonstrated a strong position against the all-too-common trend of older men raping girls with impunity.

What is clear is that if it takes a radio broadcast of a discrete but fairly typical abuse to get some redress, Karzai's government does not benefit the average Afghan, and the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Ranger rejects the idea of broadcasting bravura when the U.S. is currently occupying a weak and shaky moral position in the world. If these guy's idea is to spread the truth about The Land of the Free, let's rain down some Howard Stern or Don Imus on them, with a side of Rush Limbaugh. That, along with our crusading, should give them all they need to know about this experiment in democracy.

One message RFE can transmit without fear of being wrong: Just stand by -- U.S. jobs are coming your way.