Lies, More Lies, and Damn Lies

http://mwcnews.net/content/view/15590&Itemid=1

As Americans turn increasingly against President George Bush’s calamitous war in Iraq, and revolt spreads through Republican ranks, the White House is again resorting to its tried and true ploy of fanning grossly inflated fears of terrorism.

The president just made two preposterous claims last week that insult the intelligence of his listeners. First, Bush insisted US forces in Iraq are fighting `the same people’ who staged 9/11.’

Second, withdrawing US forces from Iraq, as the Democratic-controlled Congress is urging, means `surrendering Iraq to al-Qaida.’

These canards mark the latest steps in the Bush administration’s evolving efforts to mislead Americans into believing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are all part of a global fight against al-Qaida.

When marketers want to change the name of an existing product, they first place a new name in small type below the existing one. They gradually shrink the old name, and enlarge the new one until the original name vanishes.

That’s what’s been happening in Iraq. When the US invaded, Iraqis who resisted were initially branded `Saddam loyalists,’ `die-hard Ba’athists,’ or, in Don Rumsfeld’s colorful terminology, `dead-enders.’ Next, the Pentagon and US media called the Iraqi resistance, `terrorists’ or `insurgents.’ The reason for invading Iraq, the White House insisted, was all about removing the tyrant Saddam, seizing weapons of mass destruction, defending humans rights and implanting democracy.

Then, a tiny, previously unknown Iraqi group that had nothing to do with Osama bin Laden appropriated the name, `al-Qaida in Mesopotamia.’

This was such a breathtakingly convenient gift to the Bush Administration, many cynics suspected a false-flag operation created by CIA and Britain’s wily MI6. Soon after, the White House and Pentagon began calling most of Iraq’s 22 plus resistance groups, `al-Qaida.’