Letters to the Editor

Everyone we fight in Iraq is now "al-Qaida" A change in the way the Bush administration and military commanders refer to "the enemy" in Iraq has been almost immediately adopted by the media. Glenn Greenwald [2007-06-23]

• It didn't just start

  The Duh-bya administration started this campaign a few months back - it takes a little time for these language shifts to take place, i.e. "faith-based" programs. They decided early on to set the terms of the debate on anything by couching it in the terms they want used.

  General Petraeus was interviewed on All Things Considered two or three months ago and I noticed then that he talked only of "Al Quaeda" as the people we're plowing down, blowing up, maiming and torturing in Iraq. I knew then that the strategy was set to instill this concept in the American public. It's SOP.

  So when are the rest of us going to rename the "surge" - which is a preposterous misnomer for our escalation of the war?

  Why not start a fund to take out ads in papers across America to decry this propaganda war at home? Every time they start down this road with another concept, 20 people should write letters to their local papers and point it out. 50 more should phone their local editors and demand that they get fairer news coverage. And 100 more from every metropolitan area should write, phone, email the television news networks - language counts, as Karl Rove clearly knows.

  And, of course, it's time to take up a regular chant for impeachment of Cheney and Gonzales, for starters. It's time for progressive thinkers to get as relentless and repetitious as the war criminals and religious fanatics in the White House.

  P.S. I was pleasantly surprised to see a NYT article on 6/22 that repeatedly referred to "religion-based" programs. The tide can be turned.

  -- Ghillie
  [Read Ghillie's other letters]
  Permalink Flag Saturday, June 23, 2007 11:13 AM
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