Frank Rich says Bush will use 9-11 anniversary to extend "surge"

[bigtree]

Jun 26 2007

The Bush administration has a well established pattern of using the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to hype an often fictional "threat to America" and sell the war in Iraq, writes the New York Times' Frank Rich in his Sunday column. Rich expects this year to be no different.

"When the September 'snapshot' of the surge shows little change in the overall picture, the White House will say that 'the consequences' of winding down the war would be even more disastrous: surrender, defeat, apocalypse now. So we must stay the surge," says Rich.

Using the September anniversary to push the Iraq war is not a new strategy, according to Rich. On Sept. 8, 2002, three Bush cabinet members and the vice president fanned out across morning talk shows to warn of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein and his alleged nuclear program. That was the date of Condoleezza Rice's infamous "mushroom cloud" line.

"Like the war's rollout in 2002, the new propaganda offensive to extend and escalate the war will be exquisitely timed to both the anniversary of 9/11 and a high-stakes congressional vote (the Pentagon appropriations bill)."

If the administration wanted to give an accurate assessment of Iraq, they would not be withholding information about increased attacks in the Green Zone, says Rich. "Apparently the White House is working overtime to ensure that the September 'snapshot' of Iraq will be an underexposed blur."

By letting the White House get away with "falsifying reality, sliming its opponents and sowing hyped fears of Armageddon," a real debate on what to do in Iraq cannot not occur, he argues.

"The best way to honor the sixth anniversary of 9/11 will be to at last disarm a president who continues to squander countless lives in the names of those voiceless American dead."

http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=22673

[LiberalFighter]

1. If he uses that date for that purpose the public needs to respond immediately

Call the White House and ask for his head on a platter.

Call our U.S. Representatives in DC and leave messages in the district office.

Call our U.S. Senators in DC and leave messages in the district office.

Call our State Senators and State Representatives.

Call the local media demanding his head on a platter.

Let's burn the phone wires with the calls. Let's jam the phone lines so these people receiving the calls get upset with Bush.

[frogcycle]

2. calls for preemption

talk up this expectation to the point that it is conventional wisdom.