The Administration Sold America the Surge As a Winning Strategy

Wanna Buy a Bridge?


As a "non creative" sales executive for a variety of studio and network companies, I hold in the highest regard the process of "selling it." Madison Avenue has sold us almost everything we consume, and we have grown to love and accept their multitudinous sales campaigns that engulf us over and over again.

Selling it has been an art form in the movie and television business, but nowhere is the practice done any better than the "selling it" that has been done in the last seven plus years of the Bush presidency. They create slogans and sales campaigns all the time and package unsavory acts in unsavory ways to make them "attractive" to America.

What could be better than the "Patriot Act, Operation Liberty Shield, reproductive health services, Office of Equality Assurance, English Plus, Terrorist Information Awareness, Revenue Enhancement, Voluntary Regulation, Tree-density reduction, Faith-based Initiatives, Extra Affirmative Action, and Single-payer Plans, Jobs and Growth, and lest we forget, Family Values?"

Also, for almost the grand prize in selling it, I would nominate "Weapons of Mass Destruction." Boy was that a lying and misleading winner.

Whatever these guys want to do, they have a name that has a certain "ring" to it, and these "names" are used to sell their HORRID product.

One of the latest Bush verbal travesties has been his using the word surge along with a "the" in order to make up the sales tool of "The Surge."

Surge is defined as: a strong, wavelike, forward movement, rush, or sweep: the onward surge of an angry mob.

How about a few other Military names for things used in Iraq? They All begin with the word "Operation" and include: Iraqi Freedom, Falconer, Airborne Dragon, Planet X, Desert Scorpion, Iron Hammer, Bayonet Lightning, and Iron Justice, as well as many more, but enough already.

In a war that they started in 2003 and managed badly, the Bush guys had the temerity in 2007 to announce "The New Way Forward", almost 4 years later. Now after almost five and a half years and gazillian dollars later have they have the chutzpah to say to America, hey look what we have done, we sent in reinforcements and things are much better. It makes me nuts.

I am also not thrilled by McCain waving the banner of his own support of "the surge" as if this somehow resolves the issues of a war started and waged in lies, and now after five plus years of fighting all he can say is something akin to we are now winning. Have you ever heard him tell anyone about what he was doing during the years before the surge?

Of course I adore how the Presidents' unofficial "press corps" (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) use the Presidents terminology without a "context" for this futile, costly, and destructive war. They are supporting these administration incompetents by not providing a context for the "surge" strategy."

Once again I am sorry to say that the "mass media" appears to love this stuff. It would be nice if once in a while they challenged this administration vigorously enough to piss them off instead of kissing them on the lips all the time. (A horrid metaphor.) At the risk of offending many I would say "The Surge My Ass!"

The broadcasters serve the Administrations mass media needs and report the stories about the war in Iraq that they are nicely "fed" by the administration. Does anyone remember the last time a broadcast network "originated" a story about the surge based on their own reporting?

When Movie and Television Studios send their stars around to promote their latest projects on radio and television it is something that as a commercial guy I have grown to accept.

My hair is ignited however when I hear the most charming and interesting General David Petraeus appearing all over the place not selling us a movie but rather selling us our continuing involvement in the Iraqi occupation.

The General, responding to questions as to when we will be able to withdraw some of our troops, indicated that he will be able to determine that in the near future.

GOOD GRIEF!

Norman Horowitz
For Sale!

Comments

[SirReal1]

I'd be very interested in hearing from ANYONE who cares to share, what part of "The Surge" they believe constitutes "smart" or "A success".

Is it the millions of $$$ per month that we are now paying to the Sunni militia's that were once KILLING AMERICAN SOLDIERS?

Is it the payoff's we've given to Al Sadr to keep him from sending his Militia against us?

Is it the reduced, albeit still continuing, number of Deaths and Injuries that U.S. Military personnel are sustaining, now that they venture away from their bases less than they did "pre-surge"?

Is it the thousands of Iraqi citizens (civilians) still dying or being injured or being pushed out of their homes, on nearly a daily basis?

What part of this "Surge" really strikes these people as "smart"?

What is the "success" that these people see?

We now have roughly 150,000 U.S. Military personnel in Iraq. We have (perhaps, being that we STILL don't have a full accounting to Congress but most estimates conclude) nearly an equivalent number of "Civilian Contractors" in Iraq. They are not dying in the daily quantity that they were in 2005, but they also are not "out of the country" yet.

To say that we are now "Winning the war" when we've paid everyone who WAS shooting at us, to stop shooting at us, is a ludicrous manipulation. What do you think they will do with all of OUR money once WE run out?