Heaping on the Propaganda
I’d make a venture that the White House has this week highlighted on their calendar as the "week to scare the public into accepting the need to attack Iraq." Last week, Mark Steel observed that the Bushies were "cobbling together evidence," since the blanket pronouncements of Saddam's "evilness" weren’t enough to sway public opinion. So, expect the full propaganda push in the coming days…
For example, from today’s offerings:
- "Mohammed Atta met Saddam Hussein in Baghdad prior to September 11. We have proof of that, and we are sure he wasn't just there for a holiday," [Richard] Perle told Italy's business daily Il Sole 24 Ore…"
- "The United States has evidence that Saddam Hussein is working on a nuclear weapons program, according to Vice President Dick Cheney, who warned of a 'possible marriage' between the Iraqi leader and terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda…"
- "Iraq could build a nuclear bomb in a matter of months if it were to obtain radioactive material from abroad, but Saddam Hussein’s regime currently lacks the ability to make its own nuclear material, a leading independent think tank said Monday…"
- "A woman who says she was Saddam Hussein's mistress…was told the Iraqi leader has met and given money in the past to Osama bin Laden…"
Update: According to the NY Times, the propaganda push we are seeing is, indeed, "a meticulously planned strategy to persuade the public." "'From a marketing point of view,' said Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff who is coordinating the effort, 'you don't introduce new products in August.'" Yep, you wait till September...especially when you have an orgy of mourning just 'round the corner.
