[CLUE-Talk] The military takes a cue from Microsoft

[Jed S. Baer]

On Sun, 12 Oct 2003 09:06:46 -0600
Jeff Cann <j.cann at isuma.org> wrote:

> On Sunday 12 October 2003 1:52 am, Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier wrote:
> > Still sounds to me like something cooked up by Army PR. 
> 
> I can't believe that our very own government would cook some
> quasi-accurate story for PR purposes. 
>    
> +http://news.google.com/news?num=30&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&edition=us&q=bu
> sh+PR+campaign&btnG=Search+News
> 
> Oh, wait - THAT'S right, it MUST BE THE LIBERAL MEDIA that is badly
> PORTRAYING the situation in Iraq, not the facts of daily ambushes,
> bombings of UN facilites, killings of US solders.  It's all just a rose
> garden:
> 
>  + http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=15634
> 
> Has this administration (including the army) started used facts to make 
> decisions?  I didn't see any announcements on Fox News....

Well, what do you expect them to do when the media is awash in the whole
"quagmire" meme. If they see it differently, why are you surprised they
want to tell people about that?

Facts, hmmm, lessee:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/236jmcbd.asp

<quote>
    "When I left office, there was a substantial amount of biological and
chemical material unaccounted for. That is, at the end of the first Gulf
War, we knew what he had. We knew what was destroyed in all the inspection
processes and that was a lot. And then we bombed with the British for four
days in 1998. We might have gotten it all; we might have gotten half of
it; we might have gotten none of it. But we didn't know. So I thought it
was prudent for the president to go to the U.N. and for the U.N. to say
you got to let these inspectors in, and this time if you don't cooperate
the penalty could be regime change, not just continued sanctions."

    --Bill Clinton, July 22, 2003
</quote>

Yep, that's just part of the right-wing conspiracy there. I didn't know
Bill owned substantial stock in oil companies.

Now, I agree that the coincidence here looks a little suspicious, until
you look at for how long favorable reports from Iraqis and U.S. troops
alike have been coming out of Iraq. If such have been ongoing, then it's
no surprise anymore that one of them comes along right after the
administration announces their PR campaign. In fact, I wouldn't be
surprised if their PR campaing was influenced by those, instead of the
other way around.

  http://www.aim.org/publications/weekly_column/2003/09/29.html

I'm actually getting tired of hearing all the Bush-Bashing over Iraq. When
you can explain why it's OK to sit back while dissidents (and in Iraq,
that was a pretty easy label to come by) are routinely tortured, let me
know.

  http://www.thesunlink.com/redesign/2003-03-24/opinion/103520.shtml
  http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/text2003/0325clwyd.htm

jed
-- 
... it is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday
facilitate a police state. -- Bruce Schneier