In the past few months, against all odds, Bush has scored two incredible victories in Iraq.
They are, of course, over his favorite enemies, the media and the American public.
Now, at last, the enemy in Iraq is being called Al Qaeda!
It doesn't matter who they are, if we're fighting them, they're called Al Qaeda on CNN, NPR, NBC, Fox News, everywhere! Why, it's as if we're actually fighting the people who attacked us on 9/11! Instead of a wide variety of groups and gangs and who knows what.
The victory runs deep. It not only transforms the present, it rewrites history.
This morning, NPR did a report on Fallujah. In it, they said, at least four times, that back in 2004 we were fighting Al Qaeda there. We weren't. A look back at contemporary accounts shows that at the time the 'enemy' there was referred to as "insurgents," "Sunni fighters," "Saddam supporters," and "Sunni extremists." Not a word about being Al Qaeda.
One has to assume that some intelligent PR person in the administration, or in the Pentagon, has given orders that in all military press releases and in all military press conferences, the people we are fighting are to be referred to as "Al Qaeda!" No evidence required.
After all, the American media needs no evidence. They simply quote. Then the quotes enter their own language, mind set, and reference systems. They become an echo chamber, working relentlessly, though often unconsciously, to conquer the minds of the American people for Bushionics, the transformation of reality through re-labeling.
The second victory is the new certainty that "The Surge is Working."
We saw it in the Democratic presidential debates. The moderator asked the candidates the question this way: "Now that everyone agrees that the surge has worked, how do you evaluate your opposition to it?" (I don't have the transcript. That may not be the exact words, but to the degree it is a paraphrase, it is an accurate one.)
It is now a matter of accepted fact, in the media, that the surge has worked.
It may be acknowledged that the goals of the surge, a set of achievements by the Iraqi government, have not been met at all. It is occasionally pointed out, by nay sayers, that the decrease in violence has been achieved through ethnic cleansing, mass forced migrations, and by making common cause with exactly those people whom we were fighting in Fallujah and renaming them as 'enemies of Al Qaeda.' It may be acknowledged that in order to maintain conditions in Iraq, even at the level of relentless disaster that exists now, will require the presence of U.S. forces for 10 or 20 or 50 years. (It is never mentioned that one of the real goals in Iraq was precisely that, to establish a permanent military presence, exactly like those we have in Germany, Japan and Korea).
But in the minds of the primary audience, the media, and the minds of the ultimate audience, the American public, those are but footnotes, arcane trivialities, lost beneath that definitive headline: The Surge Has Worked.
With that established, and the enemy renamed, Bush has won his victory -- the Iraq War is off the table as a campaign issue and the political conventional wisdom is massive drift toward accepting a permanent U.S. military presence there.
This is an astounding triumph. It should be recognized as such. Recognition must go, also, to those members of the news media who made it possible, by mindlessly inserting administration PR claims into their 'news' reporting as fact.
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me," is a colloquialism, a line in a blues song (BB King), and occasionally misspoken by George Bush. But what are we to say about America's media, including such "reputable" members as NPR, CNN and the NY Times? "Fool me once, fool me twice, fool me again and again, I'll always be a fool for you." What does that make them? Fools for Bush. Agents of delusion. Conduits for PR offensives. Enemies of reality.
Larry Beinhart is the author of Wag the Dog, The Librarian, and Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin. All available at nationbooks.org.
That was the first comment, and it still is the best retort.
The fact that no one ever asks how they claim to know that it is in fact al-Qaeda we are fighting should also be considered.
Every thing our leaders and the ideological theoreticians coaching them have done, ostensibly to project American dominance into the future, has only hastened and supersized our comeuppance. When we're all shivering in unheated factories making shoes for the Chinese, we can thank Bush, Cheney, Kristol, etc. for jumping on the accelerator when the car was in reverse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I7nz5rcBmI
When do we start saying "HEIL P.N.A.C!" ?
Thank You again for allowing the real stories to come to the forefront.Seems you've gotten over the BS Prims and realized Shit's still happening that Effects US Now.Those corrupt SOB's are still working hard to F*ck US UP!!!
Not AQ, or Islamic Facists or what ever the Rhetoric flavor of the week is- IT'S THE DAMN ARCHITECTS WHO'VE BEEN SCREWING US FOR DECADES!!!
These are the Terrorist of Our Times- Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfie ...Brought to US by their Corporate Sponsors with a few countries who've used US as their Pawns.
I think there is some 'Piece' in the Middle East, They just haven't bothered with a Press Release - the Conflict is working so well for Profits Margins. Corporationists/Dictators/ 'Royal' Families..
Come On Huff- We could Use a Little Woodward & Bernstein (since they've drinken the Koolaid now too)
As far as the surge goes, we have to start by defining the problem in Iraq. Americans would say that we need to get out of Iraq. We already won the war and the further costs are not worth whatever the benefits will be.
Then we have the republicans that will define the problem in Iraq as an Iraqi government that is not coming together to form a democracy. The republicans had 935 reasons to attack Iraq. More troops on the ground will help the Iraqis come together and form a solid govt.
Somehow Al Qaeda is left out of the previous definitions of the problems in Iraq. And, how did the surge help the Iraqi govt. iron out all their problems? And, how did the surge solve the "Al Qaeda" problem?
How long will it be before the neo-cons figure out how to shut down the blogosphere, and then where will the truth be discussed? On the Propaganda News Channel?
decades of capitalist war for profits has created a war mongering american society of might makes right gun lovers.
any iraqi that resists our occupation of iraq will be and is now called terrorists.
we even call our soldiers war heros for invading and occupying iraq. we have become imperialist war mongers.
the day will come in america when those that resist corp. fascism will be called terrorists and subject to no civil rights.
what we give out we will receive back ten fold. the power of karma.
craps like a police state, it's a police state, and all the P.R. campaigns in the world won't help matters. Bush's 3 trillion dollar Big Suck out of the federal budget has only worsened matters for the country, and has helped polarize other countries against us. But, karma's a bitch, and you are what you eat,
I just find the entire sunshine story to be UNpalatable, and apparently so do a lot of other people. Oh, and then there's the UN, as a fairly good example that corruption in public office isn't confined to the USA, either. Greasy business deals, BigBuxx, oil monopolies,
all that peanuty goodness...
All of this notwithstanding, high-handed social engineering aside, we still have a pretty good country, because despite all the political and social manipuleering, you're still essentially free to call 'bullshit' on the entire business.
And, as long as that door's still open, the military-industrial whatsis has not gained the Ultimate Power status that they' doubtless like to ascend to. But, they're out there...kind of makes you think about the whole voting business in a brand-new light...how high would you like your income taxes to be THIS year, 'citizen'?
Poverty shuts people up, too.
However, just imagine the nightmare world we might be facing if Bush had experienced even a modicum of real success in Iraq. Say, for instance, Bremer's orders to de-Bathify the army had not been issued, and Iraqi resistance had only smoldered, with splintered resistance to occupation, and not exploded as it did.
I bet the greater American public would be raising toasts to this uninformed idiot right now.
There are so many untruths that the media blathers on about without challenge or question. We live in a world now of distorted truth, lies of omission, lies by poll, lies that are repeated until they become "accepted as truth," and lies by silence. Dennis Kucinich can not get his message heard because the media absolutely refuses to cover it. Calls for impeachment by Wexler and others go unreported.
I think our media is almost as much a danger to us as Bush if not more because he will eventually go away but the media is being allowed to exert way too much control over who will replace him. It isn't just Bush controlling the message. I don't know who it is, but I feel very frightened for the country's future.
VOTE FOR EDWARDS. He's our only hope right now.
Many an American voter they did trick.
Seven years are now gone,
The war in Iraq is still undone.
Meanwhile Osama Bin Laden is still having his fun.