Debunking Another Talking Point
For the last five years, one of the more irksome peculiarities of the Bush administration's war on terror rhetoric has been their penchant for mischaracterizing who it is we are supposedly fighting in this "war". This is most evident by the interchangeability of terms like "terrorist" and "insurgent" during Presidential speeches. Lately they have taken to lumping together seemingly disparate groups such as Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda under a common banner and this deficiency was again on display last night during the State of the Union address. Now I know that such vagueness is not entirely due to a lack of understanding and has more to do with the need to keep the public misinformed. Indeed this ambiguity about who it is we are at "war" with is how Osama was able to morph into Saddam. And the media, for the most part, has failed to broach this subject. So it was nice to see this piece from WaPo today in which Glenn Kessler does a fine job of noting the incongruity of the President's statements and the realities of the groups to whom he applies the all too simplistic label of "the enemy".
Meme has more. Robert Parry weighs in as well.
Meme has more. Robert Parry weighs in as well.
Post a Comment