Has propaganda ever been used so blatantly as it’s being
used now by neoconservatives in their advocacy of US
intervention in the Middle East? Here’s a sampling from a recent email
conversation I had:
The fight against the
Middle Eastern terrorists is in fact a fight against Islamofascists! Now, an educated person understands that a
fascist is one who advocates subordination of the individual to the state. People who advocate violence against the US based on
strict interpretations of the Qur’an, then, would not be fascists. By definition they might be fanatics or
fundamentalists (or freedom fighters if you go back far enough in the CIA’s
paperwork). But the terms fanatic and
fundamentalist conger images of small sects of individuals, and that just won’t
suffice. The term fascist on the other
hand stirs up memories of WWII and Nazi Germany. Much more powerful rhetoric, indeed.
But haven’t you
heard, this is a world war! Thank you Mr. Podhoretz. Without your analytical acumen the world
would have completely missed the fact that we are indeed involved in World War
IV. Yes, there’s only one theatre. And yes, there’s really only one legitimate aggressor. And yes the great enemy actually isn't a government. But if the Cold War was actually WWIII, how
could this not be regarded as WWIV?
Wait, the cold war was WWIII?
That doesn’t make sense either…
And this Podhoretz guy is advising the Giuliani campaign on Foreign
policy issues? Yikes.
Fine, but without preemptive
strikes our nation is at risk! Well,
these countries have no navies and no air forces, but I will admit that it’s
possible that some time in the future they might be able to produce some
variety of nuclear payload… And I’ll further admit that there’s some chance
that if they do actually produce a nuclear device that they might be able to develop
the ballistic capabilities of delivering onto US soil. I guess that’s kind of a risk… Sort of.
Whew… Would I be propagandizing if I mentioned Joseph Goebbels
at this point? But really, how do these guys come up with this
stuff? I have to imagine that this variety of pablum contributed to the
results of a recent Zogby poll, which stated that 52% of likely voters "would
support a U.S. military
strike to prevent Iran
from building a nuclear weapon.” Good thing these polls are so worthless, and that Americans are smart enough to see through this propaganda, or we might be looking at another $2.4 trillion lesson in futility.
Vote Ron Paul!
Honorable mentions in the neoconservative propaganda category:
- To advocate withdraw is to desire defeat.
- To disagree with Middle East
intervention is to disagree with US involvement in WWII.
- Advocating withdraw is a betrayal to the troops.
- Not believing in the Iraq war is a liberal position.