June 23, 2006
Rove Reactivates the Fear Machine
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
BuzzFlash is not saying that there wasn't a plot against the Sears Tower, but it was awfully curious timing for a "raid," wasn't it? After all, the Dems had just finished making their first somewhat united effort to initiate a troop withdrawal from Iraq (just disagreeing over the timetable -- with only a few renegades, like GOP Joe Lieberman). It reminds us of the old days when Tom Ridge rolled out a color-coded terror alert whenever the Bush Administration experienced a dip in the polls.
You see, the essence of the Bush Administration efforts to continue waging a lost war is to tie it to terrorism (even though they created a death trap for our soldiers by starting the war.) Cheney was just on CNN once again tying Iraq directly to the "War on Terrorism."
And then there were White House lapdogs Santorum and Hoekstra claiming that pre-1991 no longer useful chemical weapons -- that were the type used by Saddam against Iran with a green light from the Reagan Administration -- were the WMDs the Bush Administration started the War about. It was a ludicrous claim quickly debunked by the Pentagon and even White House staffers.
But, of course, the Santorum/Hoekstra assertion was initiated by the White House.
Say what?
Actually, it's quite easy to explain. This is Rovian cynicism and mass media manipulation at its essence. Put a false claim out there through any means possible, then quietly debunk the assertion. The false claim gets picked up and conveyed with alarm by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, FOX News and even the rest of the mainstream press. Meanwhile, the disproof of the false assertion gets left behind in the crowd, like a milk carton that is trampled in a feverish rush of people who are running from the boogeyman.
It's a masterful stroke of demagoguery that has worked ever since 9/11 for the Bush/Cheney regime. It is totalitarian and evil, but it generally works, doesn't it?
Do you think the people in Omaha know the truth? Heck, a recent poll revealed that more than 80% of our soldiers in Iraq think that Saddam was tied to 9/11! That's how effective propaganda can be.
So maybe there were some people in Miami vaguely talking about doing something evil to the Sears Tower. (And BuzzFlash would be concerned about this, since we are located just a few blocks from the Sears building.) But the dramatic arrests on the evening of the Senate debate, after the Rovian message point of the day was that if we leave Iraq, it will embolden terrorists -- well, that's just a little too coincidental, isn't it?
But, they will sure lap it up in Topeka, won't they?
And Rush and FOX News and the mainstream press will have at least a four-day window of news opportunities, as Rove strategically leaks a new detail a day about the raid.
And then, the masses will once again seek the "bold" leadership of George W. Bush to protect them from the terrorists.
It works like a charm, doesn't it?
Except that the Bush Administration is creating scores more terrorists every day in Iraq than it allegedly arrested in Miami.
The White House policy in Iraq is the biggest terrorist threat to America on the table.
We forget that at great risk to our lives and national security.
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS