Petraeus and Crocker, less convincing this time

The power of description is a mighty power indeed.  Congress and the MSM give televised witnesses a splendid opportunity to "frame" discussions in such a way that the old "saw" that holds that one is entitled to a particular point of view but not to invented facts becomes irrelevant.

This week's stalwart duo has relentlessly and endlessly described the Badr/ISCI/Dawa hold on power in Iraq as the "government of Iraq" so many times that it must seem to most people that Maliki is the reincarnation of George Washington rather than merely one of the contestants for power in that miserable place.

Then, there are the "special groups."   These two words are being used to conjure up direct Iranian responsibility for our remaining difficulties in Iraq.  We seem to be expected to believe that were it not for the Iranians all would be well in Iraq. 

The endless repetition of these two propaganda "themes;"

- Maliki's legitimacy above all other contenders

- direct Iranian intervention as the cause of Shia infighting,

have been the music of the Petraeus/Crocker show before Congress.

This propaganda technique of the endless repetition of truth, half truth or outright lies is the essence of the propaganda trade.

This is how we were sold the war.  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/washington/09cnd-petraeus.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Comments

[searp]

The truth has been hiding in plain sight for years.

We have no constituency in Iraq, we have allies of convenience. These allies, being allies of convenience, change at whim - either our whim or their whim.

So we blunder around in the maze that is Iraq, generally stirring things up, using devastating weapons when needed, in pursuit of an chimerical end state defined by propaganda for domestic political consumption.

The utter pointlessness of it is really depressing. The essential evil of it all is masked by propaganda that has consistently represented our role in Iraq as humanitarian.

There is no way to explain our acceptance of this propaganda except to think that we are utterly incapable, psychologically, of imagining that we have actually done considerable evil.

[William R. Cumming]

Now that sufficient time has passed since the testimony by the dynamic duo, it is certain that the exercise was completely meaningless except for giving Presidential candidates some TV time. Still the General and Ambassador needed some time away from Iraq to see their families and line up support for future employment. Has a single appointee resigned over Iraqi policy in the Executive Branch? A list of those, if any, who did might be useful to the next administration. By the way does John McCain think we won or lost in Viet Nam? How about the other two? Last time the one who could make up his mind--he had better things to do--won and the one who still didn't know what he thought lost. Perhaps the past is prologue.