Greeley: Big lie on Iraq comes full circle

[chiburb]

Snip:

Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda chief (director of communications, in the current parlance), once said that if you are going to lie, you should tell a big lie. That may be good advice, but the question remains: What happens when people begin to doubt the big lie? Herr Goebbels never lived to find out. Some members of the Bush administration may be in the process of discovering that, given time, the big lie turns on itself.

The president has insisted that Iraq is the central front in the war on terrorism, a continuation of the administration's effort to link Iraq to the attack on the World Trade Center. While almost three-quarters of the public believe that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the attack, the polls after the president's recent speech show that less than half believe that Iraq is the ''central front'' of the war on terrorism. Moreover, the majority believe that the war has increased the risk of terrorism. A shift is occurring in the middle, which is neither clearly pro-Bush nor clearly anti-Bush. The big lie is coming apart.

There is not and never has been any evidence that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attack. None. The implication of such involvement was an attempt to deceive, a successful attempt at the big lie.

Snip:

''War on terror'' is a metaphor. It is not an actual war, like the World War or the Vietnamese or Korean wars. It is rather a struggle against fanatical Islamic terrorists, exacerbated if not caused by the conflict in Palestine. When one turns a metaphor into a national policy, one not only misunderstands what is going on, one begins to slide toward the big lie. One invades Iraq because one needed a war.


http://www.suntimes.com/output/greeley/cst-edt-greel19.html

[maha]

1. "One invades Iraq because one needed a war."

Yep, that's what it boils down to.

[Vitruvius]

2. "One invades Iraq because one needed a war" -- and OIL for Halliburton

et al. A win-win for the profiteering chickenhawk Rethugs and their big-business paymasters, but not so good for our troops. Or the Iraqis.

[rogerashton]

3. Well -- he could have invaded Liberia.

After all, there is evidence that Charles Taylor was complicit in 9-11.

[rock]

4. One BIG difference in Hitler and Bush*sucks

Hitler knew he would remain in power until his death. He didn't have to worry about backlash. Bush*sucks will be disposed. The press, the new administration, and the politicians will no longer be cowed. Bush*sucks seems to have forgotten he's not dictator for life.

[ixion]

5. wow... great read

to hear this coming out in the US press is amazing... and again, I have a glimmer of hope that perhaps people are waking up to the BIG LIE that's staring at them across the table.