Monday, January 23, 2006

Change the subject...

After the year end administration blitz to garner support for the Iraq quagmire, one may wonder what happened to take the focus from that issue. Now everything from the administration is about domestic security and the global war on terror, minus any Iraq linkage.

The year end blitz really had a negligible effect on the overall support of the public for the misbegotten war in Iraq. Election after election in Iraq has been trumpeted as the landmark turning point, yet the violence and chaos never seem to dissipate following these benchmarks. Indeed leading up to each election we are given dire predictions by administration toadies that the insurgents will ratchet up the violence in the days prior to the election, and then we are given predictions that immediately following the balloting that the insurgents will ratchet up the violence to discredit the election. The only time the violence seems to truly dissipate is on election day, when cars are not allowed on the streets and the country is basically locked down out of concerns for security. And we can not do that on a daily basis...

Today brings the grim news of seven more grieving families of dead U.S. service members. This of course means that we must stay the course to honor those deaths. And as the death toll mounts we must continue to stay the course to honor the additional dead. A more circular argument could not be imagined except by the Rovian sickness that currently rules Washington.

If the administration can not point to progress in Iraq without being shouted down by the facts on a daily basis, what do you suppose is the best way for them to try to gain public support? When even traditional military backers see the folly in the Iraq war (embodied by the defection of John Murtha to the side of sanity) what is the strategy to garner flagging public support? Change the subject.

And the subject now raging, taking up front page headlines and top billing on the news is the NSA spying controversy. Seven dead G.I.'s? You will not find that story on the front page of Yahoo news... you have to go to the Iraq section. As of the time I'm ripping out this post these casualties are not even given a mention on MSNBC or CNN. Without checking the plethora of other news services right now, I'll wager that the same type of coverage can be found on most of the major sites. But what you can find on sites and front pages across the news spectrum is the presidents defense of willfully breaking the law...

I believe the NSA story is extremely important, and I in no way believe the coverage of it should be lessened. This may very well be the mechanism that proves the willful extra constitutional methods used by this administration to further it's agenda. But just remember this folks. Seven families are mourning tonight, and right now they could not care less about the NSA spy program.

Comments: Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]





<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to Posts [Atom]