Lies, More
Lies, And Damn Lies
By Eric Margolis
07/18/07 "ICH"
-- -- As Americans turn increasingly against President
George Bush’s calamitous war in Iraq, and revolt spreads
through Republican ranks, the White House is again resorting
to its tried and true ploy of fanning grossly inflated fears
of terrorism.
The president just made two preposterous claims last week
that insult the intelligence of his listeners. First, Bush
insisted US forces in Iraq are fighting `the same people’
who staged 9/11.’
Second, withdrawing US forces from Iraq, as the
Democratic-controlled Congress is urging, means
`surrendering Iraq to al-Qaida.’
These canards mark the latest steps in the Bush
administration’s evolving efforts to mislead Americans into
believing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are all part of a
global fight against al-Qaida.
When marketers want to change the name of an existing
product, they first place a new name in small type below the
existing one. They gradually shrink the old name, and
enlarge the new one until the original name vanishes.
That’s what’s been happening in Iraq. When the US invaded,
Iraqis who resisted were initially branded `Saddam
loyalists,’ `die-hard Ba’athists,’ or, in Don Rumsfeld’s
colorful terminology, `dead-enders.’ Next, the Pentagon and
US media called the Iraqi resistance, `terrorists’ or
`insurgents.’ The reason for invading Iraq, the White House
insisted, was all about removing the tyrant Saddam, seizing
weapons of mass destruction, defending humans rights and
implanting democracy.
Then, a tiny, previously unknown Iraqi group that had
nothing to do with Osama bin Laden appropriated the name,
`al-Qaida in Mesopotamia.’
This was such a breathtakingly convenient gift to the Bush
Administration, many cynics suspected a false-flag operation
created by CIA and Britain’s wily MI6. Soon after, the White
House and Pentagon began calling most of Iraq’s 22 plus
resistance groups, `al-Qaida.’
The US media eagerly joined this deception, even though 95%
of Iraq’s resistance groups had no sympathy for bin Laden’s
movement. Watch any US network TV news report on Iraq and
you will inevitably hear reporters parroting Pentagon
handouts about US forces `launching a new offensive against
al-Qaida.’
Al-Qaida in Mesopotamia didn’t even exist before 9/11, but
that didn’t stop President Bush from trying to gull
credulous voters. He simply ignored the 2006 National
Intelligence Estimate that found US-occupied Iraq had become
an `incubator’ for violent anti-American groups.
If the US were to withdraw from Iraq tomorrow, the nation
would be split between warring Shia, Sunni and Kurdish
parties. The fake Al-Qaida in Iraq would end up at the
bottom of the totem pole, or be wiped out by other Iraqis.
Even Osama bin Laden and his number two, Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri,
have blasted the phony al-Qaida in Iraq and called for an
end to its attacks on Iraqi civilians.
Polls show that in spite of a mountain of evidence to the
contrary, White House disinformation strategy has worked.
Today, an amazing 60% of Americans still believe Saddam
Hussein was behind the 9/11 attacks.
At least that’s down from the 80% who originally believed
this Orwellian big lie in 2003. The White House continues to
blur the facts and make Americans believe Iraq and
Afghanistan are `central fronts in the global war on
terror.’
The fact recent polls found 60% of Americans – and 90% of US
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan – still believe Saddam and
bin Laden had colluded to launch 9/11 is shocking, but not
surprising. Ignorance of foreign affairs and mindless flag
waving are as American as apple pie.
Tens of millions of Americans are fed a steady diet of
political or religious ideology disguised as news from the
administration’s house organ, Fox News; from evangelical
Christian TV and radio; or from the neoconservative’s
version of Pravda, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial
pages. The rest are too busy watching brain-deadening TV pap
to pay the least attention to events overseas.
They remain unaware the faux `war against global terror’ is
now costing a mind-boggling US $12 billion monthly,
according to the non-partisan Congressional Research
Service. That’s the cost of 3 nuclear-powered `Nimitz’ class
97,000 ton aircraft carriers every month.
The Bush Administration has spent $610 billion dollars since
2001 on its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, making them the
second most expensive conflict in US history after World War
II.
Last week, US Homeland Security Czar Michael Chertoff
allowed he had a `gut feel’ that an al-Qaida attack on
America was imminent this summer. At the same time,
Washington was abuzz with a leaked US intelligence report
that al-Qaida – the objective of the so-called war on terror
– had reconstituted and was as strong as prior to 9/11,
2001.
America’s sixteen intelligence agencies spend $40 billion
annually, with another $15-20 billion in their hidden `black
budgets.’ Homeland Security spends $44.6 billion. In spite
of these gargantuan expenditures of a trillion dollars –
that’s $1,000,000,000,000 - the best intelligence Czar
Cheroff can come up with is `gut feel?’
One suspects Chertoff’s worried stomach has far more to do
with the growing Republican Party revolt against the
president’s Iraq war than nebulous threats from Osama bin
Laden’s loud but tiny group.
Polls show the only area where Republicans still command
popular support is the `war on terror.’
So Bush/Cheney & Co are trying to use al-Qaida to scare
Americans to vote Republican, just as they did prior to 2004
elections. It worked well last time and got Bush re-elected.
But Americans are increasingly leery of the White House’s
crying wolf. Many are also asking how Bush could claim
`steady progress’ was being made in his wars when it appears
the al-Qaida movement is back to pre-2001 strength,
anti-American groups are popping up across Asia and Africa,
and Iraq is a bloody mess.
After six years of conflict, 3,600 dead and 25,000 wounded
American soldiers, expenditure of $610 billion, tens of
thousands of dead Iraqis and Afghans, collapse of Mideast
peace efforts, and a Muslim World enraged against the US,
nothing positive seems to have been accomplished by a leader
who likes to style himself, `the war president.’
As the White House now ponders an attack on Iran, we would
do well to recall the famed words of King Pyrrhus of Epirus,
`one more such victory and we are ruined.’
Eric Margolis - Foreign Correspondent / Defense Analyst &
Columnist
http://www.ericmargolis.com/
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2007
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