If you stop for a second and consider it, it is surely strange that news about or connected to the "War on Terror" and it's nasty twin the "War in Iraq" isn't the lead news item anymore. People are still dying, insurgents are still bombing, documents about high level endorsement of torture are still surfacing, the marvellous spectacle of Iraqi democratic government has yet to materialize, US troops are still being handed the shitty end of the stick by those who profess to support them most - and it isn't big news.
One woman and speculation about her mental life and the right of everyone else from the President on down to interfere in her family's affairs - that's big news.
One man who did good things and bad things in his life but happened to be a public figure in a major spiritual group died of old age - that's big news.
One faded pop star who it is alleged has a prediliction for pre-teen boys and dirty magazines, preferably at the same time - that's big news.
And it's not just in America that it is big news. These stories and others have hustled Iraq, Afghansistan and every associated report off the front page in the UK, in Germany, in Australia...and even in Iraq.
Riverbend, the girl blogger from Iraq, tells us that the Middle East is being swamped by armloads of American TV -
The first time I saw 60 Minutes on MBC 4, it didn’t occur to me that something was wrong. I can’t remember what the discussion was, but I remember being vaguely interested and somewhat mystified at why we were getting 60 Minutes. I soon found out that it wasn’t just 60 Minutes at night: It was Good Morning, America in the morning, 20/20 in the evening, 60 Minutes, 48-Hours, Inside Edition, The Early Show… it was a constant barrage of American media. The chipper voice in Arabic tells us, “So you can watch what *they* watch!” *They* apparently being millions of Americans.
It's a fairly obvious but also obviously flawed propaganda ploy. Immerse the region in US television and maybe soon they will actually start thinking like Americans. The flaw is that they don't have to take 60 minutes version, toned down for American consumption, for granted. They can just look out their windows. There they will see that US reports fail to adequately deal with "the water problems, the lack of electricity, the check points, the raids, the Iraqi National Guard, the bombings, and- oh yeah- the ‘insurgents’."
In the US, though, off the front page means little or no TV coverage and little or no public attention. That suits many people - the Bush administration for one who must be at least a bit worried that their voters wake up and work out how badly the "War on Terror" is really going - many of the backwards steps being self-generated by self-serving pronouncements like ""My impression is that what has been charged so far is abuse, which I think technically is different from torture and therefore I'm not going to address the `torture' word," uttered by Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld. Does no-one care that even Canada is on the verge of effectively calling the US a rogue state unable to effectively police itself and it's warmongers?
The arms manufacturers are certainly standing to gain. The war is just enough in the public perception that no-one will question a vote for extra money in Congress but enough under the fold that no-one is really looking closely at the immense amounts being spent on ammunition stockpiles or shiny new toys which will be flat out useless against terrorists but great for invading other oil-producing nations.
Oh, and just remember that the financial backing for the current administration and much of it's opposition comes from the shareholders and executives of both the media companies and the arms manufacturers...and that offtimes they are all one and the same people. People who are happy to use YOUR tax money to make them richer but don't want to pay their own share of the tax burden. That isn't patriotism, it's cynical profiteering.
If there were a "Bush-Cheney LLC" it's quarterly report would be pretty boyant right now.
Regarding the Iraq war: Despite occasional barbs from "the liberal media," they are largely taking cues from weak-kneed Democrats in Congress who ignore the significant opposition to the war that exists at grassroots as measured by opinion polling. With many stakeholders in Bush-Cheney LLC still receiving major financial benefits from war-related contracts, the status quo remains lucrative while the political hazards appear to be manageable over the next few quarters.
As in the past eight quarters, the spectacle of U.S. servicemen and servicewomen in harm's way must be utilized to deflect criticism of the policies that put them in harm's way. CEO Bush will continue his Jimmy Stewart imitations during appearances with soldiers and their families, while CFO Cheney will further develop his persona of stern and slightly avuncular paternalism.
The Dems are no better, purely because enough of them are in the same hip pockets. Asking a large segment of the Democrat Senate and House to have a policy on Iraq which would help Iraq rather than vested interests in the US would be like asking the foxes to guard the henhouse. That's the truth behind the recent mutterings of moving Democratic policy towards a more hawkish stance as a "vote-winner". It's also the reason reconstruction in Iraq has been so disasterous until now.
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