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jackreade |
08/07/06 |
"America leads the world in advertising techniques, and now we'll need every ounce of Madison Avenue's skill to sell a difficult product. That product is victory. From the beginning we were told that victory was the only acceptable outcome in Iraq, and now selling that message has become twice as difficult in Lebanon.
Insurgents an terrorists aren't giving up. The Islamic world celebrates their existence. At this moment the most popular figure among Muslims everywhere is Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the defiant Hezbollah leader who stands as tall as Osama bin Laden and has proved just as indestructible.
The reality of victory isn't even the point anymore. President Bush, in his surprise visit to Baghdad six weeks ago, announced a new plan to secure people's safety in Baghdad. He showed his total support for the al-Maliki government, which pledged to end the terror of Shi'ite militias on the street. A program of amnesty and national unification made headlines.
None of it has happened. But instead of saying so, which would be realistic, the image has to shift. The sales job needs tweaking. It's sad when image can't match reality. But isn't that the point in all wars? The home front must be sold the inevitability of victory and the impossibility of defeat. War-makers are frighteningly willing to sacrifice civilian lives while fiercely defending their own posturing. Thus Israel, with our backing, proclaimed that its Lebanon campaign could only end in the total destruction and disarming of Hezbollah. From the beginning some voices said this goal was impossible, and so it is proving. The image of victory was duly modified to lesser goals as things began to go contrary to plan. Israel next wanted a 15-mile safe zone in southern Lebanon, then a one-mile zone, then an international peacekeeping force. The reality is that there's nothing left to sell but the illusion that they will win.
Wars are places where illusions go to die. A great many died after the fall of Saigon in the Vietnam fiasco, but after thirty years a new crop sprouted again. Installing democracy by force in Iraq is an illusion; deep sectarian hatred is the reality. A government of national unity is an illusion; the U.S. putting a Shi'ite sectarian president in power is the reality. Iraqi security forces are an illusion; armed thugs dressed in police uniforms to make it easier to kidnap and slaughter innocent people is a reality.
These days I think I'm like most people, exhausted from criticizing the Bush war policy. All I really want now is an honest admission, first to all Americans and then to the world, that we've stirred up far more than we can handle. Let's stop fighting over WMDs and distorted evidence and yellow cake uranium. A real crisis faces the world on an order of magnitude no one ever anticipated. Every demon has flown out of Pandora's box, and trying to market the illusion that we're winning feels like a page from George Orwell. The citizens in " were trapped in a world where war never ended, yet they woke up every morning to the cheerful news of impending victory that was just around the corner." Deepak Chopra
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Have all you right wing guys finally come to your senses?? :) |
Clarification/Follow-up by jackreade on 08/07/06 8:33 pm:
The subject is Nineteen Eighty Four with a question mark.
Glitch
Clarification/Follow-up by tomder55 on 08/08/06 12:38 pm:
love the pitching matchups for the Yanks-ChiSox series. Today Wang V Garcia ;tomorrow Johnson v. Garland ;and Thurs. Mussina V Vazquez .... all double digit winners this year .
Clarification/Follow-up by ETWolverine on 08/08/06 4:22 pm:
Jack,
The mid-east violence actually proves my point. We spent so much time catering to the Media and the PC types that we didn't properly finish the job of kicking the ass of the insurgency, and THAT is why there is still violence in Iraq.
Do you really think that 12,000 poorly armed, under-trained insurgents with no air capability, armor, or artilary can really take on a 140,000-strong fully-trained modern military with all the bells and whistles, if that military was really unleashing its full strength? But we haven't unleashed their full strength because our political "leaders" in the Senate are too worried about the media image and what the rest of the world says.
If not for that consideration, I have absolutely no doubt that we would have already killed off the entire insurgency. Civillian casualties would have been higher in the short run, but much lower than they will be in the long run under current circumstances. So Chopra's argument that we should be worried about how the media handles the "message" of the administration is exactly the WRONG thing to be worried about. We should be more worried about ending the war quickly by any means necessary so as to limit the casualties in the long run, rather than let this thing go on for decades, as it very well could.
That is why I disagree so strongly with Chopra. His way of handling wars drags them out for years, which leads to much higher casualty rates, which is exactly the opposite of his real goal, which is to limit casualties. I don't doubt Chopra's sincerity: I truly think he's a man who wants world peace. It's the methods that he recommends to warring parites (especially the USA) that I have issues with. They don't bring peace between warring factions. They just slow down the end of the war, and thus create additional unnecessary casualties.
Elliot
Clarification/Follow-up by Itsdb on 08/09/06 11:40 am:
Clete, sometimes you just don't know when to hold your tongue. Of course I'm sure that from where you are you can speak firsthand of what's taken place in this country the past 3 years. You must have just been at the beach enjoying a picnic while the likes of MoveOn.org, Democratic Underground, Ted Rall, Michael Moore, Daily Kos, Huffington Post, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, al-AP, local columnists and other other moonbats,
The Democratic National Committee and the Bush Sucks Webring while they were spewing their incessant hatred, defeatism and propaganda.
But I was here and paying attention, so I know.
Steve
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