Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 2149 Editor's Choice: 7
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Of course I couldn't help but notice
[Read the article: Documenting Gen. Petraeus' record of statements about the war]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That you were able to put the video together well in advance of the testimony, confident that nothing the General would be telling Congress would deviate from the story line already in place.
How can the press corps even wake up the morning knowing full well that they're being played shamelessly.
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I don't think General Petraeus
[Read the article: Brit Hume and the Bush administration take propaganda to a new level]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]would apprecviate shooter calling him immature but it is appropriate. It does take a certain amount of courage to allow your viewpoint to be subject to the scrutiny that an actual interview with an actual journalist would entail. To instead arrange for an additional unquestioning platform for your prepared powerpoint presentation, represents either a weakness of character or more simply, the knowlege that you're engaging in brazen dishonesty and can't afford to be called on it.
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No fair.....
[Read the article: Brit Hume and the Bush administration take propaganda to a new level]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I remain convinced that trying to revive the Fairnes Doctrine would be counterproductive. We've already seen how the he said/she said form of controversy presentation can still effectivelly promote absolute lies to a level of plausability far beyond anything they deserve. If we're to imagine a regulatory solution, I think that reinstating the ownership-saturation regulations that were in place before Reagan would be more effective. With the entire reality pie being controlled by a few actors (GE - Disney - Murdoch) ALL of whom also have their fingers in defense industry, the fact that Americans even have the degree of knowlege they've achieved is pretty amazing.
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He's a manly man alright:
[Read the article: Brit Hume and the Bush administration take propaganda to a new level]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5305713/site/newsweek/
Leadership is always a bit of a confidence game. Project authority, display ability and power, and others will follow. Few do this as well as Petraeus. When a fellow Army Ranger, a twentysomething, recently asked the 51-year-old Petraeus how many push-ups he could do, the general offered a contest, dropped to the ground and won after doing 75 in a minute. He's got legs and lungs to match: just before the war, he finished the Army 10-miler in 63 minutes, a time only the fittest of young men could equal. ("And that was after I hurt my pelvis," he says.)
Read the whole artice.
Quite the trip down memory lane!
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The last time I checked
[Read the article: Brit Hume and the Bush administration take propaganda to a new level]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The US Army did not have a political affilliation. The fact that you guys are comparing a General and a Presidential candidate as if there were any comparison just shows how far we've slid. The Military is not a political organization.
Those who treat it as if it were are disgraces.
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For the record...
[Read the article: Brit Hume and the Bush administration take propaganda to a new level]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]General Petraeus was given his current assignment specifically because of his proven skills as a propagandist. His predecessors were significantly more honest.
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File under
[Read the article: Brit Hume and the Bush administration take propaganda to a new level]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Contrary to troll assertions (lies), no one's claiming that all military commanders are propagandists. Just this one.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/01/02/casey-escalation/
Contrary To Pentagon Claims, Gen. Casey Still Warning Against Troop Escalation In Iraq
On Dec. 23, an anonymous Defense Department official told the Los Angeles Times that top American military commanders in Iraq, including Gen. George Casey, had “decided to recommend a ’surge’ of fresh American combat forces.”
But in an interview last Friday, Casey told reporters that he still has doubts about an President Bush’s troop escalation plan in Iraq. From today’s New York Times:
The longer we in the U.S. forces continue to bear the main burden of Iraq’s security, it lengthens the time that the government of Iraq has to take the hard decisions about reconciliation and dealing with the militias. And the other thing is that they can continue to blame us for all of Iraq’s problems, which are at base their problems. … It’s always been my view that a heavy and sustained American military presence was not going to solve the problems in Iraq over the long term.
Additionally, according to Casey’s spokesman, the general, as of Dec. 23, had “not recommended more troops be sent here.”
The Bush administration has been heavily pushing the idea that there is support for troop escalation in Iraq. But in reality, the Joint Chiefs of Staff are unanimously opposed to Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq, as are prominent conservative senators, including outgoing Foreign Relations committee chairman Richard Lugar (R-IN) and outgoing Judiciary committee chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA). Many military officials believe that Bush has tried to bribe them into supporting his escalation plan by offering a tradeoff of increasing the size of the military.
Casey was “scheduled to shift out of Iraq in the summer.” But that now may “happen in February or March.”
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Lying or fantasy
[Read the article: Brit Hume and the Bush administration take propaganda to a new level]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm actually heartened by the comparison between the credit crunch and the GWOT. Like the dot-com boom before it, the situation is one where wishful thinking and profit motive have forced a disequilibrium between actual value and perceived value. Likewise wishful thinking and profit motive created a disequilibrium between the actual threat we face in the Middle East and the fantasy of being able to take one (randomly selected) bad guy out and have everything else just fall together.
In all cases the bubble eventually bursts and a new equilibrium is eventually acheived. This suggest to me that even our Iraq fiasco might be self-correcting at some point albeit at a horroble cost to many participants.
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Its time for my favorite quote re: Treason.
[Read the article: One-sided rules of political debate]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"I, _____ (SSAN), having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God."
I only bring it up because, the same people who are most likely to make references to treason while referring to their fellow citizens are uncoincidentally the same people who have the least respect for the US Constitution and the Freedoms it guarantees.