TO BUSH, IT'S A POLITICAL CAMPAIGN, NOT A WAR
This entry was posted on 7/21/2007 3:53 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
There is one thing we must never forget when contemplating George W. Bush and the latest merry-go-round of Iraq debate, and it is something that I have yet to see seriously considered by anyone, with the possible exception of Jeffrey Feldman at the Frameshop, who recently blogged on the subject for Huffingtonpost.com--and even he still missed the greater point, as I see it, and that is that BUSH SEES THIS WAR AS ANOTHER POLITICAL CAMPAIGN.
The clearest indication of that can be contrasted by two incidents; first, the bizarre dog-and-pony show Bush put on for loyal conservative mouthpieces, in which his upbeat, even jocular, mood seemed to fool most of them except for Peggy Noonan, who thought that, in a time of war, it was not only unseemly, but a possible indication of mental instability. (Not like we haven't tried to tell you, Peggy.)
The second took place when our new secretary of defense, Robert Gates, broke down in front of a roomful of Marines at the annual Marine Corps Association dinner while talking about "the Lion of Fallujah," Maj. Douglas Zembiec, who was killed in Iraq during his fourth deployment, in May.
I don't know how many of you are aware that, every night, Sec. Gates sits down and hand-writes letters to the families of every soldier and Marine killed that day, a gesture of humanity and compassion that I am quite certain Donald Rumsfeld never even thought of.
This gesture is an intensely personal one, and I like to think that Gates started doing it, in part, because his memories were still so fresh of so many fine young Aggies from Texas A&M's Corps of Cadets that he knew--for those of you who are not Aggies, you may not realize that A&M has lost more soldiers and Marines in Iraq than any other ROTC program in the nation, with the exception of West Point.
There is a powerful military tradition on the A&M campus that, to this day, honors the war dead--even though the Corps now represents only a small fraction of the student body. For instance, you cannot wear a cap in the Memorial Student Center, nor walk on its grassy lawn, because the MSC was built to honor those Aggies lost in every war of the 20th century, and some just before. The MSC is not just a student center; it is a sacred place.
There are many such places on the A&M campus, and many fine young men and women who serve in the Corps, and for the secretary of defense to leave that place and those kids and move to the Pentagon PERSONALIZES the war to him in ways that we see precious little of in this White House.
So Bush calls together a gaggle of conservative pundits and prisses to discuss His War and convince them of his genius, and while he's at it, he's joking around, smiling, and "confident" as they dutifully reported. Only Peggy Noonan bothered to point out that in the heyday of "Hey hey LBJ, how many boys did you kill to-day?"--Johnson was often seen with his face in his hands, his shoulders bowed.
Not so, the cheeleader from Andover.
These two incidents--Bush's happy-talk propaganda ploy with a friendly audience, and Gates's breakdown in front of a room of tough Marines who--judging from comments posted on message boards afterward, were just as weepy themselves and felt honored that he had acknowledged their sacrifice--these two incidents make my case for me.
This is not a war to George W. Bush. It is another political campaign.
Those who dismiss that, claiming he is a lame duck and will not be running for anything again fail to take into account the Rove Shadow that overpowers everything Bush does. Karl Rove's whole reason for living is to establish a Republican government that is damn near permanent. I am quite certain that he regards the election of 2006 a temporary setback, and right now, you can bet he is pulling out all the stops and furiously tugging on all Bush's strings from his shadowy corner backstage to set up a Republican upset in 2008.
And if you fail to comprehend this simple fact, then do so at your--and the Democrat's--own risk.
Every single step the White House takes over this war is designed to put them in as good a place as possible--for propaganda purposes (truth was never relevent to them)--for the upcoming campaign. They want congress back, and they DO NOT want to hand the White House over to any Democrat, period.
They do not want anybody to come along and peel back all the miserable grimy layers of sticky fly-paper they have stuck down over this government.
To that end, they will not bother to take any kind of measures that will prosecute this war in any way whatsoever that will bring our soldiers and Marines home any sooner, or that will make points with the American people.
THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE SOLDIERS AND MARINES. THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. ALL THEY CARE ABOUT IS MAINTAINING A MAJORITY AND KEEPING THE WHITE HOUSE. PERIOD.
So, rather than taking a serious look at war-plans that might actually make SENSE, they are instead putting out a full-court press to brainwash their Kool-Aid drinkers into following along. If they can get their mouthpieces to trumpet the talking-points, it will create enough leverage on talk-radio and FOX news to pressure their congresspeople to fall along the company line and do nothing to seriously defy the president.
This will enable them to continue the war right on up to January 2009.
To claim that they are really really really turning things around in Iraq, "making progress" and that the Democrats are quitters and losers and betrayers of our fearless flag-draped men and women warriors.
From the top down, all the have to do is keep their base from giving up on them, getting disgusted, turning apathetic. All they have to do is get enough out to vote to bring back a majority even if it's only a one-vote majority. All they have to do is win the presidency by a few thousand rigged votes, just as they did in 2000 and 2004.
Here is how the campaign works:
1.) Charm offensive to right-wing mouthpieces.
Flattering invitations to the imposing Roosevelt Room of the White House, with a "drop-in" by a joking, confident, smiling president, the same man they all fell in love with so stupendously back in 1999. Reassure them that he's NOT losing it, that in fact, he is soooo sure of himself that he can even laugh about it! Pass out nicknames, like calling William Krystol "Billy."
It works every time to the easily brainwashed:
"It had been a while since Republicans on the Hill raved about their care and feeding by the White House. But the Bush visit was a hit, and the administration officials say they are already working on several of the visitors' suggestions. For instance, research is being assembled on appropriations issues and other presidential priorities on the Hill that White House aides will be discussing with the press.
"White House officials said the meeting with the conservative commentators was designed to remind them how many issues they had in common with the president before immigration became a transcendent issue that prompted many pro-Bush pundits to noisily break with him."
--"Bush Courts Columnists, Hill," Mike Allen, The Politico, July 18, 2007
In other words, corral those little dogies! Cut their nuts painlessly and they'll never even know it happened.
Guess what? IT WORKS.
According to The Politico, David Brooks went from the meeting to write for the New York Times that Bush was "assertive and good-humored" and "unshakably committed to stabilizing Iraq."
William "Billy" Krystal penned for the Washington Post an op-ed titled, "Why Bush Will Be a Winner."
For the U.S. News & World Report, Michael Barone headlined, "An Energized President Defends His Policy."
There were others, but you get the idea, and each one was aided and abetted by a mainstream media who persists in referring to Bush as "steadfast" my favorite, "resolute," and Congress as "obstructionist"--rather than the other way around, and even Newsweek had a major story depicting a resolute Bush, with the massive headline: REFUSING TO LOSE.
This, of course, sets up the Democratic-led Congress in the LOSER spot and Bush and the Republicans in the WINNER spot.
Do not believe for one moment that a man and his enablers who would actually START A WAR for political purposes care--for one moment--about the men and women actually fighting it. Do not believe that a single policy decision coming out of the White House concerning this war is about ANYTHING except politics.
2.) Make a power-play with dissenters while slipping in bad news.
About the same time that all the White House media mouthpieces were getting joshed and charmed into blanketing the print and airwaves with gushy pro-Bush stories, politicians (at least those who actually knew it was being done) were being bussed to the Pentagon for high-level briefings from all sorts of high-ranking warrior-types by video link-ups to Baghdad--all designed to present the Company Line that progress is being made and that "the troops" NEED MORE TIME.
In fact, slipped in almost as an afterthought was one general's assessment that we really wouldn't know ANYTHING until...oh...November...maybe?
In fact, in subsequent days, other murmurings began making the D.C. rounds that Baghdad was going to need AT LEAST until...probably...summer of 2008.
In case you weren't paying attention--that's the time when the Republicans will be having their national convention. Lots of flags. Balloons. AND GOOD NEWS FROM BAGHDAD!!!
(No, no--don't be shaking your head because you live in the land of reality. This White House makes up its own reality. Trust me. By summer of '08, there WILL be good news from Baghdad.)
To show that...They were right, the Democrats were wrong...so who do you REALLY want supporting the troops and running our government...hmmmmm???
It's a political campaign, boys and girls. Not a war.
3. Marketing "the Brand" to the public at large, just in time for the elections.
In case you missed it, it seems that an urban operations officer at the Joint Chiefs command commissioned a Madison Avenue ADVERTISING study on how best to market this war and the United States military.
It cost $400,000 of taxpayer money, and it was called, "Enlisting Madison Avenue: the Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation."
It was all about how to convince the Iraqis that we're there to be their friends, not to kill them...and while we're at it, how to convince the American people that this is not really a WAR...it's a public relations campaign!
The marketing of the war was compared to marketing changes that came about when Heinz ketchup decided to capitalize on the fact that it was so hard to get out of the bottle by calling it "thick and rich" and by designing a new bottle that was "always ready when you are"--and to McDonald's, which went into a slump when consumers became health-conscious until it started to market a new, healthy menu.
You think I'm kidding? I'm not. I wish to God I was.
The report lists eleven suggestions for "clarifying" the military brand in Iraq.
One of the suggestions was monitoring "civilian satisfaction" through such techniques as "town hall meetings, surveys, and civilian advisory boards."
What Shi'ite or Sunni wouldn't want to serve on a Heinz ketchup--excuse me--American army advisory board, eh? Aren't they, after all, mere CONSUMERS of Bush's War?
Writing for Huffingtonpost.com, Jeffrey Feldman says:
"While this marketing report is unlikely to bring about changes in Iraq, and even less likely to make the occupation more successful, it is a snapshot of the profound disconnect between the Bush administration and the American people.
"Just knowing that this report exists will enrage the American public. Rather than changing the policy, the administration seems determined to keep selling us the same burger, while trying to make us feel better about swallowing it."
--"How Ketchup Can Stop the Killing," Jeffrey Feldman, Huffingtonpost.com, July 21, 2008
The American public can only be "enraged" if they are made to understand that they are being bamboozled and hoodwinked yet again, for yet another Bush campaign.
Democrats need to be very very careful at this point that they do not step foot in any snares or trapdoors set for them; they must understand that, even as they are fighting to end A REAL WAR, the White House is fighting to hold on to power. And they will use any means necessary to do so.
Like manipulating the friendly press. Like lying to the unfriendly press. Like comparing a war to ketchup and a terrorized and devastated civilian population to consumers. Like managing a war that results in the bloody deaths and maiming of tens of thousands of young Americans like a political campaign, complete with a "jocular" and "confident" commander-in-chief who likes nothing better than to use wounded troops as props and backdrops for his campaign ads.
Do not be fooled into thinking this president is no longer dangerous because he's not running for anything.
He's always running for something. In this case, it's not only his stupid "legacy" and "place in history," it's the CONTINUATION of his policies through a friendly successor.
I am the mother of a United States combat Marine who risked death through two deployment and the aunt of three nephews who have all done multiple combat tours in Bush's War, including one who is there now. Nobody gets more emotional about this war than I do.
But we can't let our anguish and heartbreak about this war blind us to the fact that, to this president, this is not a war. It is a political campaign. We ignore that fact at our own peril.
Fight him on his own turf, in his own way--just as you would a political campaign.
If you want to end the REAL war, it's the only way to do it.
