Letters to the Editor
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1984
Support the troops means the opposite. It means do not question them or their commanders. As long as that is our mantra we are fuked and brainwashed. They are in the middle of a civil war which has nothing to do with us. I wish they, the troops, would speak out and tell the truth of what is going on. Very few do. Support democracy and let the democrats know how spineless they are. Those poor fukin' Iraquis. Noone here gives a shit about them.
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cognitive dissonance
I have sympathy for the unhappy soldiers and widows this campaign is exploiting. They desperately want their losses to be worth something. It's so very human to keep working at your logic until you find a place you can justify pain like that to yourself.
Unfortunately, the analogy about sending living men into a deathhole of a coal mine to try to retrieve men who've already lost their lives is apt.
I feel for them. But it doesn't make their judgment sound.
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Unbelievable Cynicism
Ari Fleischer, who covered his ass in the Valerie Plame scandal, is now playing politics with war veterans in the most disgusting example of exploitive advertising yet by the neocon liars who hate our fighting men and women.
Fleischer had the balls to say that not fighting terrorists "over there" is like us fighting only Japan in WWII...EARTH TO ARI: WE WERE ATTACKED by Germany in the Second World War...IRAQ never attacked us on 9/11...SAUDIS did...he told Mike Barnacle on Hardball that saying that is soooo 2002...Ari, the facts haven't changed, whether it is 2001 or 2007... Iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11, and to tie it in is a baldfaced lie!
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re: amputations
Are these not the same strategies and monied interests that campaigned against double amputee, Tammy Duckworth, when she ran for a house seat on a platform of withdrawal? Maybe some cannonfodder gimps simply know better than others.
If Fleischer is now out of his hole, I would like to see talkingheads in the MSM nail him on his outrageous statements while WH press secretary. Sadly from what I've seen, they are allowing him all the due respect of a former WH official and letting him spin freely.
Gee, as far as that goes, what does Coulter have to say about using victims of terrorism and their families for political gain? Did she recently take his place back in the hole?
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Propounding Propaganda
I've seen those egregiously grating FreedomsWatch "issue ads" on CNN's Wolf Blitzer political program in the afternoon as well as on the ABC/NBC/CBS local network stations, sandwiched between the local news and the national news. In all cases, they were some of the lamest pieces of drek-filled propaganda ever.
In my case, according to Joe Conason's article, they seemed aimed at our "wavering" US Senator Arlen Spector. With the number of whipsaw turns and 180's from Senator Spector on the Iraq imbroglio, I'm surprised that ANYone knows what his position even is!
Rather then spending their money on worthless, misleading and indefensible crapaganda, these Repooplican fatcats could donate that money to a homeless shelter, a foodbank, a battered-women's shelter, a humane society or directly to either veteran's relief or the families of those who are currently serving in uniform.
Of course, that wouldn't serve their purpose, which is to prop up their boy Dubya and his blind fealty to their continuing profits.
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propaganda- yes ...
but these are very effective ads, they manipulate the heartstrings, a brilliant juxtaposition of visual and audio. Based on lies and propaganda, yes, but how do you argue or respond to a paraplegic vet, a mother who has lost a child, a wife her husband. These are the ads WE should have run to get the troops home. I think too many people on here, really don't understand the lack of analysis and insight of the general population. They don't read, they get their news from snippets and commercials (propaganda) like this does have a tremendous impact. Rant all you like about the lies of ari fleisher and this administration, the medias complicity is why we are now at a crossroad of constitutional crisis. It is the constitution, Stupid
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It is the constitution, stupid!
I agree.
Except for the tense in the verb (is) .
We need to really update our prose by speaking of the constitution in the PAST tense.
It WAS about the constitution. (While there still existed one.)
Thanks to Ari and Anne and the late Mr. Kelley (Atlantic) and all the deniers of the years of weapons inspection (NY Times and most big media) doing such thorough brian and soul washing of the soul-less , unbrained US electorate, we have an historic shame and a political disfigurment.
Do these zombies now turn once again for their assigned voice at the polls, November '08? Yes.
And with them, another 97,000 Florida for Green votes, a fourth party bid and Hillary fatigue...President 9/11 Rudy
welcoming in another new age of bamboozlement. So Ari and Anne get shiny new jobs and the zombies all go back to critical "American Idol" balloting.
Orwell's Newspeak is mastatizing. It may be here to stay till the final hour of our post-constitutional republic's decline.
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I'll get out my checkbook for a rebuttal ad
There is time to hit the same markets with a rebuttal exposing the hypocrisy here. Is MoveOn or a Demo group working on that?
Seems like Max Cleland could address the issue openly and honestly from a personal perspective. He could even debunk Bush's VietNam blather from this week while he's at it.
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A perfect example of American ignorance and xenophobia
The only way so many people, especially in the military, can continue to believe that Iraq and 9/11 were somehow connected before the terrorist attacks is if they knew absolutely nothing of Muslim/Arab religion or politics, and have studiously ignored learning anything about it since.
Only if you regard all Muslims as "ragheads" or "camel jockeys" can you equate Sunnis with Shiites, or secular tyrants like Saddam Hussein with religious fanatics like Al-Qaida.
That ignorance and xenophobia, combined with a messianic idea of America's inherent superiority to any other country, is what got us into this mess, and despite all the dissastisfaction with the Iraq war, I don't see those fundamental assumptions changing much in the mind of the average American. Iraq is now unpopular because we're losing. That's all.
Empires - and imperial thinking - die hard. Our educational systems don't permit questioning of fatuous assumptions or encourage real learning about other cultures except at the advanced levels. Those who don't go on to college - like many in our nation's armed forces - are fed a steady diet of "patriotism" and highly selective facts about our country.
People like the young veteran featured in these ads, whatever their selfless sacrifices, are dupes for a regime that cares nothing about either freedom or the welfare of the average American. It's about the power and money of a few, and those few are going to maim and kill as many people as they have to, by any means necessary, to maintain their hold on power.