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http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0906-21.htm
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Published on Monday, September 6, 2004 by the Toronto Star
Republican Propaganda Machine Rolls On
by Haroon Siddiqui
Be afraid, very afraid. But keep shopping.
That was the message to the American voters from George W. Bush and
the Republican National Convention.
Even discounting the partisan exaggerations of such self-serving
gatherings, one can't think of a contemporary parallel in which the
dissonance between rhetoric and reality was greater.
In the $107 million (U.S.) fantasy beamed out of Madison Square Garden
in New York, there was nary an acknowledgment of several inconvenient
facts.
To wit: Self-absorbed Americans are not the only victims of terrorism.
The applause greeting the president's triumphant declarations
coincided with the cries of children and adult hostages at their
impending murders in Russia by Chechen terrorists.
The 140,000 American troops in Iraq are presiding over an exponential
growth in terrorism. Extremism is flourishing in almost every place
this president has intervened. America is deeply divided at home and
almost universally reviled abroad.
Yet, here was Bush promising more wars, not fewer. And, oblivious to
all of the above, the faithful were cheering him on.
That both the president and the party are in denial is, in some ways,
more instructive than what they are being criticized for: the
shameless exploitation of 9/11, the nasty attacks on John Kerry's war
record and the hiding of the Christian fundamentalist delegates, who
formed the majority at the convention but were barred from prime time.
Feeding fear of crime and exploiting its victims has long been a
staple of Republican campaigns (and copied here by the Harris-Eves
Tories).
Also familiar is the Bush family's penchant for demolishing opponents,
whatever it takes. Exhibit A: Democrat Michael Dukakis in the 1988
presidential election. Exhibit B: Republican war hero John McCain in
the 2000 primaries.
It comes as no surprise that Bush and running-mate ***** Cheney, having
dodged service in Vietnam, are presiding over a vicious campaign to
question Kerry's heroic service in that war and his even more heroic
opposition to it when he returned home.
Having made a mess of the economy only "girly men" worry over it,
said Arnold Schwarzenegger, while Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York
counselled shopping the Bush-Cheney team is campaigning on its
foreign policy, despite its demonstrable failure in curbing global
terrorism.
War talk it will be from now until election day a balm to the frayed
nerves of the citizens of a gun-toting culture, especially the
Republicans' rural and conservative base.
The status of the stateless terrorists has been elevated to that of
the Nazis and the communists.
McCain: "Just as surely as the Nazis during World War II and the
Soviet communists during the Cold War, the enemy we face today is bent
on our destruction."
Cheney: "It's an enemy whose hatred is limitless." Defeating it is
"vital to preserving freedom."
Rudolph Giuliani: Terrorists are "dedicated to eradicating us and our
way of life."
The conservative media join in.
Sean Hannity: "We are in the middle of World War III."
With that spin, it is easier to compare Bush to Churchill and
Roosevelt, however absurd the proposition.
The Iraq war is, again, being rolled into the war on terrorism,
notwithstanding the missing weapons of mass destruction and the
missing links to Al Qaeda. It is as though those embarrassments never
happened.
Bush: "In Saddam Hussein, we saw a threat."
Cheney: "We dealt with a gathering threat."
Giuliani: "In any plan to destroy global terrorism, removing Saddam
Hussein needed to be accomplished. He was himself a weapon of mass
destruction."
Also back in circulation is the retroactive justification of the
invasion the liberation of Iraqis, even if nearly 20,000 have been
killed in the process, so far.
Giuliani: "We ended Saddam's reign of terror."
McCain: "Iraq was a place of indescribable cruelty, torture chambers
and mass graves."
Which it was. But we must try to forget that it was at the peak of the
gulag, in the 1980s, that Washington was happiest with Saddam as an
ally.
Similarly, in hearing Bush boast of his democracy initiative in "the
broader Middle East" its geography yet to be defined we are to
turn a blind eye to the fact that the initiative is not going
anywhere, precisely because he is the one promoting it.
We must also not rain on the president's parade of good news from
Afghanistan.
That "more than 10 million citizens have registered to vote in the
October presidential election" is, in fact, a reminder that there are
only 9 million eligible voters.
Afghans are acquiring more than one ballot not out of democratic
enthusiasm but because they can trade them to the warlords who hope to
use them as bargaining chips with President Hamid Karzai.
The mission in Afghanistan remains half-finished, principally because
of Bush's detour in Iraq. The Taliban are on the rise, as is opium
production.
While the American war machine is bogged down abroad, the Republican
propaganda machine rolls on at home.
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| User: "Leigh_Bee" |
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| Title: Re: World War III **NEWS** Update 8/9/4........+ |
10 Sep 2004 05:10:14 PM |
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(From: Wally Lorne?) wrote in message news:<29ab5835.0409080246.18288561@posting.google.com>...
=====================================================================
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0906-21.htm
=====================================================================
Published on Monday, September 6, 2004 by the Toronto Star
Republican Propaganda Machine Rolls On
by Haroon Siddiqui
Be afraid, very afraid. But keep shopping.
That was the message to the American voters from George W. Bush and
the Republican National Convention.
Even discounting the partisan exaggerations of such self-serving
gatherings, one can't think of a contemporary parallel in which the
dissonance between rhetoric and reality was greater.
In the $107 million (U.S.) fantasy beamed out of Madison Square Garden
in New York, there was nary an acknowledgment of several inconvenient
facts.
To wit: Self-absorbed Americans are not the only victims of terrorism.
The applause greeting the president's triumphant declarations
coincided with the cries of children and adult hostages at their
impending murders in Russia by Chechen terrorists.
SNIP
While the American war machine is bogged down abroad, the Republican
propaganda machine rolls on at home.
===============================================================================
But to those who hear Dog Whistling, the Message was loud and clear,
SCREW THE WORLD, Pedal to the metal!
LB
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| User: "Jean Guernon" |
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| Title: Re: World War III **NEWS** Update 8/9/4........+ |
08 Sep 2004 10:00:28 AM |
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From: Wally Lorne? a ιcrit:
=====================================================================
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0906-21.htm
=====================================================================
Published on Monday, September 6, 2004 by the Toronto Star
Republican Propaganda Machine Rolls On
by Haroon Siddiqui
Be afraid, very afraid. But keep shopping.
That was the message to the American voters from George W. Bush and
the Republican National Convention.
Even discounting the partisan exaggerations of such self-serving
gatherings, one can't think of a contemporary parallel in which the
dissonance between rhetoric and reality was greater.
In the $107 million (U.S.) fantasy beamed out of Madison Square Garden
in New York, there was nary an acknowledgment of several inconvenient
facts.
To wit: Self-absorbed Americans are not the only victims of terrorism.
The applause greeting the president's triumphant declarations
coincided with the cries of children and adult hostages at their
impending murders in Russia by Chechen terrorists.
Yeah right. One week later. What a ***** stirrer... Ha yes, we have our
assholes here. Well, Dorkshit, eric, et al., showed that plainly though.
But I mean, even in the press.
J.
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