General: Military Losing PR War

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/01/politics/main1089345.shtml

General: Military Losing PR War
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WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2005
(CBS/AP) The military hasn't done a good enough job of explaining to the American people what is going on in Iraq and the political and military progress there, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday.

snip

Mr. Bush's plan contained no new approaches and no start date for withdrawing U.S. troops. He urged patience, claimed steady progress and vowed to accept nothing less than "complete victory."

Democrats dismissed the administration's presentation as little more than a public relations exercise, reports CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante.

snip


House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California embraced a call by a prominent defense hawk in her party, Rep. John Murtha, to begin a troop withdrawal. "The status quo is not working," Pelosi said.

-more

Oh wait...

Same as it ever was. Pentagon whines about loosing propaganda war -- but not for lack of spending taxpayer moneybucks to Catapult the Propaganda far and wide.

The propagandists argue that a nontraditional war such as the one in Iraq justifies nontraditional methods such as hiring PR specialists to feed "special" stories. Meanwhile, the price to the PR operatives is a cool $20 million a year. Who the F*ck is getting that kind of money for some nice stories about the friendly guys who are helping build a sewer system?
The other troublesome part of this story is that the Lincoln Group is a meld of substantially British guys with loads of weird experience. Check them out on SourceWatch.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=SourceWatch

To me this is a frightening statement from a military representative.

The military should NOT be an advocate for a war. They are supposedly a non-political arm of government that carries out the policies of civilian representatives. The military should not be selling this or any war. That's up to the civilians.

Does anyone else see this as dangerous????

war can NOT be sanitized -- even if they keep hiding the coffins and the photos of the dead. There are too many grieving mothers in BOTH sides -- the dead just don't get up after the director yells "CUT".

These guys (military p.r. freaks) are murdering journalists to keep the truth of war from reaching the sleeping masses in the US.

Pentagon grasp with their powerful military intellects?

:sarcasm:

Iraqis don't fall as easily for neo-con BS as Americans seem to do.

Bush knew that 11 soldiers were killed in Iraq before he went into the rose garden to give some good news on the economy Friday morning. As you will recall he did not mention it. 26 minutes later after his speech the news broke to the press. McCellan said bush knew before he gave the speech....

...we're winning. You are just being fooled by the undue influence of the Islamic news media.

The 10 Marines just killed in Fallujah show the success of turning that city into rubble and burning its citizens with willy pete.

make things all better.

Iraq is a war crime - from start to whatever finish - a war crime.

There is no PR that will change that.

You can lie, spin and deny all you want - it's still a war crime.

Nothing anyone says will change that. Nothing anyone can do will change that.

There is NO good being done in Iraq that will change the bad that is taking place.

Beabie babies don't negate torture.
School supplies don't negate invading a country illegally.
Rebuilding does not negate the war crimes.
PR will not negate the theft of resources.
You can't spin away the flesh burns of WP.

People need to stop looking for honor where none exist.

It does not take away from the troops to admit that they have been criminally used by the Bush Regime. It does not take away from all the troops to admit some of them have committed war crimes...and that it's more than just a few bad apples....it's systemic - the policy of the US government.

America can't make this right. EVER. PR can't make this right. EVER.

The only thing America can do to regain a modicum of self-respect is to stop this insanity NOW - and punish the Bush Regime for war crimes.
Fuck America's mythical and lie-rich standng in the world - we are a war crime nation - that's our fucking standing.That's the fucking reality.

There is NO saving face here - America has committed multiple war crimes...and now wants to put an honorable face on it - to spin it all away - well, bullshit.

How many crimes against humanity can America's history afford to just sweep under the carpet? Do we just sweep the crimes in Iraq under the carpet with the genocide of original peoples, slavery and other assorted crimes? Only to be spoken off after it's too damn late to do anything about it? Speak the truth of it only after enough time goes by so that it's "safe" to bring it up? Just put it down to "the times we were living in"?

"The military hasn't done a good enough job of explaining to the American people what is going on in Iraq and the political and military progress there, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday."

That's right, because they were busy bullshitting everyone, including themselves. They bullshit every single facet of everything they do, from lying to the reservists they call up about where they're going to go to concealing casualty figures to labeling every dead person old or young enough to fuck a "terrorist."

This is a truism: an armed force which cannot accurately measure its own capabilities is guaranteed to lose to a force which can. We're gonna lose this war, because from the Commander in Chief on down there is a reliance upon fantasy over fact. And that breaks my heart.

these fools - same folks who think unleashing Karen Hughes on the world with trifling propoganda will suddenly change the world's view of the US actions in Iraq.

Propoganda ... er.... PR isn't the issue. Geez.