U.S. Starts Iraq 'Good News' Offensive

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031017/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_good_news_and_bad&cid=540&ncid=1473

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. government has launched a "good news" offensive in Iraq, and a couple of Baghdad street kids, peddlers of soda pop, have been recruited for the first wave of attack.

On a two-day visit, U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans said thousands of new businesses have sprung up here since the war, and gave an example of new entrepreneurship: two boys he spotted by the road selling soft drinks to Baghdad's parched drivers.

For the man who runs the Bank of Baghdad, however, those cola kids don't impress much. His own reading on new business is decidedly downbeat. "No one's applying for credit," an unhappy Mowafaq H. Mahmood said.

Who to believe? It's good news versus bad once again in an American war zone, and once more the media are caught in between — between a U.S. government that wants to accentuate the positive, and journalists' own duty not to eliminate the negative.

more

[Noordam]

1. Four US dead today pretty much kills a ton of good

news. IMHO.

[leftchick]

5. Not according to nethercutt....

<snip> Rep. George Nethercutt, went home to Washington state and complained the U.S. press was missing the real story.


"The story of what we've done in the postwar period is remarkable," he said. "It is a better and more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day."

:grr: ASSHOLE!

[Q]

9. Nothing is more important that 'losing a couple' of soldiers every day...

...of the deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqis.

- The arrogance is astounding.

[benfranklin1776]

10. Yes a puerile display which reflects the fundamental callousness.....

.....and lack of essential humanity displayed by he and his ilk. Of course you see to them working class men and women who die in service to or because of the neocon fantasy of American Empire are merely the "hired help" and thus insignificant to the ruling class.
Intsead of going on those carefully scripted tours of fantasyland arranged by the brass, Mr. Nethercutt really should have attached himself to a combat unit and gone on patrol for a month. Perhaps then he would realize the "importance" of what it means to be a human being in constant mortal fear of being killed.

[Sideways]

15. I Call The NeoCon Position A Doctrine Of Fantasy And Hatred

We think alike Ben.

[benfranklin1776]

18. Yes it is a dangerous blend of psychosis and psychopathology.

"Kick their ass and take their gas. Invade and occupy at will and, if necessary, kill them all and let God, who is, of course, on our side, sort them out." That is the essence of their "strategery," their lofty self delusional pronouncements to the contrary. They are full fledged founding members of the cult of Dr. Strangelove. However the truly sad part is the price paid, as always, by the innocents for these delusions. The Nethercutts of the world care little since the blood of the victims and their cries never permeate the smug, posh little insular world which he and the fellow members of today's ruling class occupy.

[prolesunited]

2. I find the continued attempt

to justify and market an unwarranted invasion of a sovereign nation completely OFFENSIVE. If a war was truly justified, would we really need to spend so much time and effort selling it to the public?

We were told that we were going into Iraq because it possessed WMDs and were ready to strike us at any moment. I don't recall anyone saying that we needed to sacrifice billions of dollars and hundreds of U.S. soldiers' lives so that little boys could set up a soft drink stand on the side of the road.

[havocmom]

3. the population of former USSR probably treated to same "offensive"

when their military was bogged down (for what, 10 years?0) in Afghanistan. We called it propaganda back then. Now it is a Good News Offensive!?! Well, they got that last part right, anyway.

If something is this hard a sell, the makers of it ought to rethink their product.

edit: typo

[rocktivity]

4. Don't they get it? The war has JUST BEGUN!

First you invade, then you fight, then you win, THEN you rebuild. The Pretzel-Dunce is trying to rebuild when he should be focused on wiping out the guerillas so that the soliders can be sent home (instead of playing sitting ducks in a shooting gallery) and rebuilding can go on without sabotage or profiteering. At least the Viet Nam vets got to engage the enemy. No wonder the solider's morale is so low.



rocknation

[tlcandie]

6. Using CHILDREN, yet again to pander their propaganda....

Thier offensive is nothing more than another attack upon Iraq and American citizens to brainwash them into getting IT or believing they are above reproach and IT was the right thing to do for Gawd!!! :puke:


EDIT: There was a link to a soldier's story where IN THE BEGINNING of the war they (children) were standing on sides of road selling water and sodas and some got ran over and killed. He said they were everywhere, so how is this any different?

[paulk]

7. was it Molly Ivens

who said - "Pay attention to what Bush does, not what he says?"

This has been the pattern all along - create a reality and sell it to the people through the media. We can hope the media won't go along this time.

[omshanti]

8. I believe I hear the sound of desperation.

eom

[maggrwaggr]

11. new business! Coffins for American soldiers!

Perhaps the proud enterpreneurial people of Iraq will begin making money off the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq.

How 'bout THAT for a story, Shrub?

[Armstead]

12. Kids never set up sift-drink stands under Sadaam?

Not defending the bastid, but this notion that ordinary life goes on is a "triumph" of the American presence is ridiculous.

[Malva Zebrina]

13. there needs to be a major overhaul in this country

regarding advertising and spin--people must NOT let their children become victims of the corporate mesmerizing--it is because they are so willing, and we are so willing to suspend disbelief that we can shrug off the loss of the lives of thousands of people-unjustly and with great malice--Bush murdered all of those, plus hundreds of American troops, all for the sake of power and greed--his and cheny's, Powell's and Rice's--greedy killers all. There needs to be a concerted effort to get out children to stop the addiction to TV advertisement--teach them the value of cognitive thinking--teach them before another generation comes along and allows an idiot, an idiot with fascist tendencies to murder and kill, without just cause, thousands of innocents in our name :( I don't have the slightest idea how this can be accomplished unless it comes straight from the agony of the hearts of people about to raise families--I am probably too old to even see the beginning of it if it should ever happen. Corporate rule of our lives, and the lives of our children, needs to be resisted--and it can only start by an overhaul of values.

[bluestateguy]

14. Fox News isn't enough now?

Has Fox gone "soft" on the "war on terrorism"? Where is their latest report noting that the US just arrested over 20 "Saddam loyalists"?

This is nothing more than an effort to open up a state run television station for the purposes of propaganda. I would expect to see something like that is the old Soviet Union or Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

[nolabels]

16. Faux gone soft?

Dang, but I really wonder what's wrong with Faux? Are they running out of lies to spin around the other lies? Maybe they just must need some new spin-miesters. They should put out a help wanted sign out immediately

Btw we will get More Happy News for Happy people; you just need to be patient. People have to know that the 200+ million they spent on the PR campaign to trying scare the American public and sell the invasion of Iraq to is just a drop in the bucket to the unaccounted for trillions they have lost or can’t reconcile. ;-)

[LeftHander]

17. New food markets open in Bahgdad - Now with Splatter screens

BAHGDAD - Open air food markets reopend under the watchful eye of US occupying forces Friday in downtown Bahgdad. The market booths set up by Halliburton division Kellog Brown & Root feature biohazard splatter proof screens to protect fresh food items from being contaminated by bone, blood and flesh fragments.
The booths too feature bullet resistent kevlar awnings. KB&R spokesman stated that the $68,000 price tag per booth was "little in comparions to joy on the faces of the Iraqi people who no longer have to wash the blood of American soldiers from their fresh dates".
Earlier in the afternoon the booths were put to the test as an American soldier was wounded in an exchange of gun fire and rocket propelled grenades with Saddam loyalist Al-Queda terrorists. Ahmed Duballa praised the kevlar awning for saving him from the stream of 50 caliber machine gun fire that sprayed the market place from a U.S. checkpoint 75 yards away. "As soon as the shooting started I dropped the awing and dove under the dates, Allah bless the Americans and KB&R, my dates were saved." Eight Iraqi teenagers were killed in the crossfire. U.S. forces are still seeking the gunmen.