Eric Margolis:The crusade against 'terrorism'

[Sticky]

NEW YORK -- "If at first you don't succeed, lie and lie again" seems to be the watchword of the floundering Bush administration.

First, it was the ultimate evils, bin Laden and Mullah Omar. When they couldn't be found, evil forces "that hate our freedoms." Then Saddam's nuclear weapons, anthrax, mustard, and nerve gas, "drones of death," mobile germ labs, and links to al-Qaida, etc.

Now, in the latest change of sales pitch, the president insists his war on terrorism equals Iraq.

According to Bushthink, any Iraqi opposing U.S. occupying forces is a "terrorist." Ergo, growing Iraqi nationalist resistance will inevitably mean Bush's signature "war on terrorism" will be a growth industry.
SNIP>

They are probably right: recent polls confirm 2/3 of confused Americans still believe the nonsense, promoted by the White House and neo-conservatives, that Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks.
This example of how the White House shamelessly exploited the confusion and ignorance of many Americans about world affairs recalls another famous quote:
Reich Marshall Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg trial: "The people can always be brought to the bidding of leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." Indeed.

http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/margolis_sep14.html

[displacedtexan]

1. excellent article!

thanks!

[Sticky]

2. Once again

Erica Margolis gets it just right.

He was on paula Zahn the other night and even Repub Paula didn't
try to spar.

Here's an excerpt from a pre-war interview Eric had with paula a few
months ago.



"Paula Zahn gets a lesson in how the government manipulates the media.

MARGOLIS: Paula, there is no doubt there is a large amount of VX nerve agent, the most advanced form that is and remains missing. The Iraqis say that they don't know where it is, or what happened to it. It is a big question mark. Whether Iraq sold it to al Qaeda through a third party as the story goes, I'm skeptical about that.

ZAHN: Why?

MARGOLIS: Well, as Winston Churchill said, truth is the first casualty of war, and we're getting a lot of sort of pro-war leaks and stories comes out of the government and other interested sources.

ZAHN: Wait, wait, wait a minute, Eric. This is a story that the Bush administration won't even confirm. They are saying they can't corroborate it. You are not suggesting that a member of the administration floated this story to the "Washington Post" are you?

MARGOLIS: Well, it seems to me to be a planted story that has come from someone in the administration, and when they don't have a hard story with facts and figures to it, they simply say, Well, we can't really deny or confirm it, we don't know it's true. But the net effect of this is that people who listen to the news here and say, Yes, Iraq is applying chemical or biological weapons to terrorist groups."
http://web.pitas.com/swag/03_01_2003.html

I'm surprised he's been invited back! hehe