"Big Star-Spangled Lies for War" - Worth the read.

[splat@14]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080805E.shtml
By Norman Solomon
A lot of people want to believe that the current war on Iraq is some kind of aberration - a radical departure from the previous baseline of US foreign policy. That's a comforting illusion.

Yes, the current administration in Washington is notable for the extreme mendacity and calculated idiocy of its claims. But - decade after decade - the propaganda fuel for one US war after another has flowed from a standard set of lies.

Some of the boilerplate lies are implicit assumptions about Uncle Sam's benign and even noble intent. Other deceptions rely on more specific whoppers endlessly whirling through the news media's spin cycle. From one war to the next, certain themes are played up more than others - but the process always involves building an agenda to start a war, trying to justify the war while it's under way, and then claiming that the war must continue as long as the man in the Oval Office says so.

Sometimes a war begins suddenly, filling the national horizon with a huge insistent flash. At other times, over a period of months or years, a low distant rumble gradually turns into a roar. But in any event, the democratic role of citizens is not simply to observe and obey. In the United States, what we think is supposed to matter. And for practical reasons, top officials in Washington don't want to seem too far out of step with voters.

The president leads a siege of public opinion on the home front - a battleground where media spin is the main weapon. A media campaign for hearts and minds at home means going all-out to persuade us that the latest war is as good as a war can be - necessary, justified, righteous and worth any sorrows to be left in its wake.

[arcane1]

1. thanks, and a kick!!

:kick: