Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

One of the virtues the United States frequently prides itself on is the purported freedom of speech one enjoys within its borders. While the constitution guarantees this freedom, it finds little use in the mainstream of American politics and media. In fact, the freedom is only utilized when one’s views are in alignment with the reigning orthodoxy. If the same freedom is used to challenge the established views, one soon discovers that free speech has associated costs — meaning, it is not free. The following incident illustrates this well.

Chris Hedges is the Pulitzer prize winning war correspondent for the New York Times  who is one of the rare individuals who put principles before institutional or fraternal affiliations. On May 20, shortly after Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” stunt marking the “end” of the Iraq war, Hedges was invited to deliver the commencement speech at Rockford College. Hedges chose to devote his speech to the horrors unfolding in Iraq, bringing to bear his experiences from the more than fifty wars he has covered in different corners of the globe, to highlight its human cost and to warn against such military adventurism. Here is how the gathered crowd of parents and graduates responded:

Hedges is the author of War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning and Losing Moses on the Freeway – his latest book is American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America. You can hear an interview with him on his new book on yesterday’s Democracy Now!