Pentagon Co-opted Independent Military Newspaper For PR Campaign Pushing Bush’s War Policies
The Pentagon has engaged in an aggressive U.S. grassroots efforts to drum up support for Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the guise of supporting the troops. A central front in this effort has been the “non-political” America Supports You (ASY) program. (One branch of ASY is Operation Straight Up, an “evangelical entertainment troupe that actively proselytizes among active-duty members of the US military.”) As the New York Times reported in May, the Pentagon Inspector General (IG) is currently investigating whether Pentagon officials “engaged in improper fund-raising and unauthorized spending” for the program. Many Pentagon officials believe that efforts such as ASY are nothing more than “tax-payer-funded propaganda,” with a large portion of the funds going to the PR firm Susan Davis International to bolster domestic support for the war. On Saturday, the independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported that it, too, is now part of the IG’s investigation. Without the knowledge of top editors, the Pentagon transferred Stars and Stripes funds to Susan Davis International for ASY promotion….
Why? Why, indeed…? Because in the never-ending battle against radical Islamofascism, it’s imperative to find new and different ways to lie to the Amerian Sheeple. How else can Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © and his neoConservative thugs ensure that they have a blank check for their “Hey, kids!! Let’s remake the world in our image!!” agenda? Not only that, this Administration recognizes that proselytizing and propagandizing is the best way to ensure that they have a pliant (and compliant) military willing to unquestioningly do their bidding. Heaven forbid that Americans- especially active-duty military- should begin to think for themselves (Yeah; that pain you thought was a headache? That was a thought. Just let it go….). That might lead to some very uncomfortable questions as people begin to wake up and realize what they’ve allowed this cabal of thugs to do in their name for the past almost seven years.
Nah…it’ll never happen, though, because the American Sheeple just don’t seem to be able to see past their own narrow self-interest. As long as they can pay the mortgage, gas up the SUV, and get little Johnny to his soccer games, who cares what’s being done in Washington…or Iraq…or Afghanistan, Iran, or anywhere else?
Welcome to the true meaning of “Compassionate Conservatism”….
Of course, to run a truly efficient propaganda mill requires a cadre of intellectually and morally bankrupt ideologues and zealots willing to suspend disbelief in the service of The Worst President EVER © . This is where our latest DUMB@$$ comes in.
The common link between Stars and Stripes and ASY is Pentagon communications official Allison Barber, who heads both ASY and American Forces Information Service, the parent organization for Stars and Stripes. As the American public has become increasingly disaffected with Bush’s war policies, Barber has had to ramp up the administration’s PR efforts.
This isn’t the first time Barber has been caught in unethical doings. In 2005, she “insisted” to reporters that questions from U.S. troops to Bush during a press conference “were not rehearsed.” Later she was caught on tape showing just the opposite ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ that she had “drilled through” “all six” of the questions that Bush was going to ask.
Barber recognizes, of course, as any good propagandist would, that the truth is what you make it. He who speaks the loudest, the most consistently, and with the most conviction gets to determine what the truth is. I suppose that’s why they’re called “talking points”, eh? Hit ‘em, hit ‘em hard, and hit ‘em often. This is the essence of Josef Goebbels’ “Big Lie”
The problem with this approach, though, is that, this being a democracy and all, virulent propaganda of the sort the Barber trades in is toxic to democracy. When an atmosphere is propagated that allows any American to question another’s patriotism for not wearing a flag lapel pin or asking the “wrong” questions (or just about anything else), the train is off the tracks.
If you’re one of those thoroughly brainwashed sorts who find people like me threatening, unpatriotic, and unAmerican- as people like Allison Barber would have you believe- might I remind you of a little thing called “The Bill of Rights” and a little thing I like to call “freedom of speech and expression”. DUMB@$$E$ and budding (not so) benevolent dictators would have you believe that in a time of war free speech is not a luxury we can afford, lest we give aid and comfort to the enemy. I’d remind you, though, that it’s in times like these that freedom of speech and thought become doubly important.
Unless, of course, you like living in a burgeoning police state.
STILL GLAD YOU VOTED REPUBLICAN? DON’T YOU WISH EVERYONE WOULD??
