Letters to the Editor
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Allawi left on Tuesday (American Monday)
So, Allawi just took his 4 ministers out of the government today. This article says 17 out of 37 ministers have dropped out. By "not succeeding on the political front" you mean "nose diving to sub quorum levels."
http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/3829/Iraqi_Papers_Tue_Allawi_Follows_Suit
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less Fox?
I seem to remember that Fox News was planning on reducing their coverage of Iraq, claiming a lack of news, which may account for some of the 10% rise in the perception of the surge working.
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By analogy
Let's say Tiger Woods shoots 95 in a professional tournament. For you non-golfers, that would be by far the worst competitive round he has ever played.
If Karl Rove were Tiger's press agent, the spin the next day would be: Tiger sinks 10 foot putt on 15; sticks approach shot on 11; says "wait until next week, my swing needs a little work but things are improving."
Throw in a few insults for any reporters cheeky enough to say that Tiger plain sucked on the course and there you have the Bush/Rove/Cheney plan for success in Iraq.
Press releases. Spin. Fire generals who tell the truth and replace them with willing propagandists.
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Great line!
Indeed, the power of positive thinking is an old American value. But sometimes it causes people to fall for pyramid schemes, or even worse.
Iraq is a pyramid scheme, only it's made of bodies, not bucks.
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More effort has been put into PR than actual strategizing
This war has been an Orwellian marketing scheme from the start. I guess more deaths = less violence. And I love how a newspaper could cite casuality projections like it's Enron banking on projected profits. Why does it feel like more effort is put into spin than in capturing Bin Laden? It's as if Bush could care less.
This administration and its abuse of power never fails to disgust, but always fails to surprise in its deceit. It's appalling and tragic that so many have had to suffer because of this arrogant monarch we have for a president.
Thank you again Salon for these articles! Please keep them coming-- this needs to be front and center in the nation's attention.
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Thanks -- seriously! -- for this depressing 'surge' of reality, Dr. Cole.
I've seen "reduction in violence" cited endlessly, but no one's corrected the record for July, yet, except for you.
Caught one typo, highlighted below (our resident trolls will call it a Freudian slip):
...
July 2006: 43
July 2007: 80
Meanwhile, the statistics for the hapless Iraqis themselves are no less encouraging. According to ...
I hope you will make yourself available in September to provide your fact-checking services to Congress while it is weighing Petraeus' and Crocker's report. I don't hold out much hope, though, considering the FISA outcome.
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Ask The Iraqis
Someone should poll the Iraqi citizens to get their assessment of "progress" in Iraq.
Of course 30,000 more troops in Baghdad will help reduce the violence but that is TEMPORARY.
The Bushies don't want that to be known, of course, so they are spinning this in a way to make us think that real progress is being made.
Ask the Iraqis if progress is being made.
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It's good to get the truth for a change...
A chief reason for this article's real importance is that even people like me, opposed to this criminal war from well before it began, have been nonplussed recently by nearly universal stories of "progress." Even trusted people like Senator Levin has said in effect that, yes, military progress is true but not political--and so forth. And of course the chorus of sycohphants and liars who support this war have been in full cry. Now, at last, I understand, thanks to Professor Cole. It's mostly spin even about the military side, never mind the rest. The July thing alone makes his work worthwhile. Thank God Salon and a few other sources are telling us the truth, and backing it up with credible statistics and evidence.
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Spin, Lies, and BS
Wow, more and more people are buying fascist swine Karl Rove's spin, lies and BS still once again, even though over the past four, five years it's been obvious who and what he is. This means he's a genius, right? Wrong. It means that the true believers are either stupid, brain dead or in profound denial. It's hard watching the slow descent of the American government into dictatorship, otherwise known as the Imperial Presidency. It's hard seeing Congress become even more of pathetic joke than it already is. It's even harder to watch that smirking, arrogant moron of a president continue to spout Rove's talking points. It sickens me to see him swagger around with his arms held away from his body, like one of those gunslingers in spaghetti westerns. He is trying SO hard to appear macho, and when a guy tries that you know that deep down he's a pussy. And speaking of pussies, how about those Democrats who caved in still once again to Rove's famous "soft on terrism" meme? There appears to be not a single damned thing that anyone can do to stop the madness. Virtually everything that happens these days is a "win" for the fascist swine Republicans, and a defeat for the Democrats, who apparently can't live any other way but at the bottom. They think that's where they friggin' BELONG.
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SPIN = AIPAC AT WORK
Neither Israel or Aipac wants the US to withdraw from
Iraq
Aipac can squeeze newspapers but not blogs or SALON into promoting spin
Why do you think that newspapers are so out of step with
the voting public ??
Aipac owns the dems the newspapers and the columnists
This is why spin is so pevalent now --Before the great
deception in September which will supposedly show progress
in Iraq.
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A cynic may well choose...
A cynic may well choose to believe what has been suggested by some that a cauldron of Iraqi social/political chaos/mayhem is being put in place deliberately by the Americans in order to pave a clear way to American long-term Iraq hegemony.
A cynic might refer to this as being the Israeli WestBank/Gaza strategy/policy picked up by the Americans for use in Iraq.
Recent days bring reports of very large numbers of weapons having gone missing or becoming "lost" in Iraq. Weapons the Americans brought into Iraq.
Now is that just ever so convenient for the Americans or what?
Surely al-Maliki is likely more of a politician than what passes for that breed in WashDC these days.He plainly is in the hot seat no matter what he does or does not. It is very doubtful G.W.Bush as Iraqi PM would have made it this far in Iraq under the conditions al-Maliki must swim in.
Clearly the Americans can/do keep al-Maliki from fully being an independent sovereign PM of Iraq. And any who believe the Americans are not setting or posturing al-Maliki's agenda or range of movement are likely very wrong.
A cynic might suppose it would serve the Bush/Cheney WH regime to see al-Maliki fail and indeed fall out of power. Clearing the way then for someone else who may prove more useful to American desires and intents in and for Iraq. A cynic could envisage such a turn of events taking place in Baghdads GZ.
A cynic might also not be surprized should the Americans put up a new "Iraqi strong man" to sort of pick up and carry on from where Saddam left off in Iraq.
Finally based on the Bush/Cheney regimes very sorry record since the first day of Shock and Awe in Iraq a cynic might well expect them to try to spin un-truths and non-facts ever so much more between now and Jan.2009 to escape any consequence(s) of or from what they did/did not do or have done/not done in and to Iraq.
A cynic would likely seldom or perhaps indeed never be proved wrong by the Bush/Cheney regime regarding Iraq.