I recently read the following on The Dojang “We lapped up the propaganda from Pentagon-paid “military analysts” who were employed to convince the U.S. public to go to war in Iraq.” That sentance worked, it irritated me immediately on several levels. After letting my flash of irritation to settle down, I took a look at the ’source.’ Wow, sure made me think of the old saying the pot calling the kettle black, propaganda being used to blast propaganda.
Then I looked up ‘Propaganda‘ in the wiki – I didn’t have time to read the whole thing, the first portion was enough. And yes, allowing for the fact that there is no clear line between persuasion and propaganda, and assuming just the minimal facts of the story told in that link to be true, I can see where it could be described as propaganda. But I can also see a different viewpoint. I can also see that effort described as keeping the public informed, of working to build international diplomatic support to hopefully head off the need for military action.
I believe I could also make a pretty good case that the article you linked would also meet the definition of propaganda. Shoot, when you get right down to it, I think it would be safe to say that certainly all 3 campaigns have the most sophisticated propaganda machines they can buy trying to convince us to vote for them. The simple fact is, whatever you call it, we are all bombarded by information prepared and presented specifically for the purpose of influencing the audience, hence meeting the basic definition for propaganda.
Yes, that post disturbed me on several levels, the most significant being that you have so quickly and easily bought in to the basic agenda of that article, it is a new article, based on events of the past couple of weeks. You couldn’t have had time to research it much, same as I don’t have the time to research much of what I use for information. The fact that this article provoked such powerful emotions in you shows me that you do buy in to the concept that Bush/Conservative is evil. Not incompetent, not stupid, evil. That really bothers me a lot. Do you truly believe that Doj? What sin(s) did he commit? Do you believe he lied about WMD in Iraq? Lied, a very clear, and strong word. To say yes, you believe that, is to say that he knew that there were no WMD and he made a conscious decision to tell us a lie. Is that what you truly believe? Obviously, it can only be opinion, there is no way for us to know the fact. If that is your honest belief, please say so, because I do not believe it and I do believe I deserve a shot at convincing you it is not true.
Do you recognize the significance of that statment, Doj, that our president lied to us about WMD so he could justify an invasion he wanted to do for other reasons. If that is so, impeach him, charge him with 4000+ counts of murder for all of our brave people who have died in Iraq. Think about this a lot, Doj, because this is getting very close to the very root of what I consider our biggest problems.
In my opinion, no one knew for a fact that WMD’s had been removed/destroyed. I can (and will if requested) produce a link to a series of video clips from 60 minute’s I believe it was, of the lead Federal investigator interviewing saddam. The investigator specifically asked why saddam had continued to pretend that he had WMD’s. He said he needed the world to believe he had them to keep Iran and other opponents from attacking him. I can, and if we must I will dig deeper on this, produce the link to the videos, and we can examine that concept more deeply, the concept that saddam was deliberately pretending to have WMD’s. If we accept that saddam was indeed pretending, that makes it a huge stretch to claim the Bush lied. How much risk would you be willing to accept? What if say 80% of your experts were telling you they did exist, would you believe them? What if the number was reversed, only 20% saying they believed they did still exist. Would you be willing to accept even that risk? Remember, he had used scuds, killed our troops and civilians with them during the first Gulf war. And he also used some pretty nasty chemicals, mustard gas wasn’t it, on his own citizens. Look at what saddam was doing in the months, even years preceeding that. So, given all that data, do you really believe that the President lied to us about WMD’s?
I need an answer, this is a very critical point. If you can not sincerely agree that he did not lie, then we need to pursue this issue more, it is simply too big to go around. And this concept has been the subject of intense propaganda for quite some time. And that has damaged the United States of America throughout the world. If that is what our own citizens are saying, well, we must be right, that is the way it is seen in many areas. There is a huge difference between saying he was wrong, or stupid, or about anything else you can come up with, and lying.
You have not lived overseas yet, as you know, I have, quite a bit. I was in Korea when they assassinated their president of 18 years, President Park, took power right about the end of the Korean war. I have driven through the smoke from tear gas in Seoul. I was here in Thailand for the Sept 06 coup, and the Thais just recently had their first elections since the coup.
When a country’s citizens are saying loudly that their own president is a liar, that is not a good thing, it weakens us in the world’s eye. Yes, weakens our national security. That is what I found so disturbing in your post, Doj. I am not trying to attack you, but I am attacking what I see as one of the cornerstones of liberal propaganda. And I am not so naive as to believe that I am not making some similar errors. Shame on our ‘leaders’ for feeding us so much BS, and shame on us for letting them get away with it.
Rix Kix
