and we cannot trust it to convey truth but rather, like advertisement, sells a message.
And like advertising campaigns we are inundated with a barrage of messages. It's
quite literally, collective brainwashing. "Wordsmithing" became a high art during the Bush
administration. And now it is a staple. I first had the same experience the author here
describes when, under Bush, there was an attempt to convince this nation that we needed to invade
Venezuela. Every headline and byline was nearly identical. And they were working overtime to
discredit Chavez. I am guessing that BOTH this story and the Venezuela story were/are primarily about
oil/gas/profits. And we don't need to guess what the invasion of Iraq was about.

usually by using words like "strongman" or "dictator." ( If the target is not in an operating government then they say "warlord.&quot

In screenwriting they teach you to introduce the villain early. For example in Star Wars they introduce Darth Vader before Luke and the other heroes. The bad guy defines the goal. So if the bad guy is a dictator then the answer, by no coincidence, is "democracy."

This kind of war salemanship is somewhat like the old door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen who would throw dirt on your floor when you opened the door and then offer to clean it up with the miraculous vacuum cleaner that they wanted to sell you.

These people are sick. This reads like an article you'd find in the Oniion:

For more than a decade, the CIA has deployed drones, satellites, spies, informants and tracking devices to thwart al-Qaeda in Pakistan.

The spy agency also considered a plan to wage war with toys.

Beginning in about 2005, the CIA began secretly developing a ­custom-made Osama bin Laden ­action figure, according to people familiar with the project. The faces of the figures were painted with a heat-dissolving material, designed to peel off and reveal a red-faced bin Laden who looked like a demon, with piercing green eyes and black facial markings.

The goal of the short-lived project was simple: spook children and their parents, causing them to turn away from the actual bin Laden.

The code-name for the bin Laden figures was “Devil Eyes,” and to create them the CIA turned to one of the best minds in the toy business, said those familiar with the project, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the project publicly.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-hatched-plan-to-make-demon-toy-to-counter-bin-laden-influence/2014/06/19/cb3d571c-f0d0-11e3-914c-1fbd0614e2d4_story.html

and that is what we get from the MSM. The analysis and commentary is all twisted no matter who you can puzzle out an incident discredits or favors. So wrapped up in false issues like Benghazi that they can't make anything at all about what is really happening everywhere else. A MSM taking the available general interpretation from the administration- until the GOP can muddle through some ludicrous anti-Obama spin for the final talking points.

The incident raises some interesting issues- besides- ironically- the current talking points setting up Maliki as the barrier to immediate intervention and the ultimate fall guy. First: the US intel and inner Iraq supports taken to the cleaner in almost a perfect repeat of the fall of Vietnam. Second: a general world wide Sunni extremist insurgence worldwide using tactics to counter the US. Those tactics would include, the unexpected, blitzkrieg and avoiding the effects of a US rapid response(which the MSM does indicate within the spin). The melting away does seem planned for, yet some media interviewing our soldiers, trainers has long indicated where the suspended, divided loyalties of their "All Iraq army". Our soldiers were undoubtedly glad to get away from their local "allies" before something like this or ambushes against us occurred- as they have happened and will continue to do so in Afghanistan.

An Arab spring may have turned into a Sunni summer with implications regarding Iraq's big neighbors. And yes, whose side are we on? The Bush cabal set up this vicious game playing one sect off against another- differing upon which target would be the current target for the oil and financial profiteering game. None of that had to with the safety of Israel either. And what game is the Obama administration left with. A pure democratization high road that really wants to target only Shiite Iran(Maliki's supporter)? Is that why the administration gets played instead of criminally benefiting from the Syrian crisis- of which the attack on Iraq is a a direct part? A chaos which includes a talking point war on foreign policy involvement in the US where every divided side is more interested in face and gain- and every side seems guilty or stupid or both.

It might be worth considering whether strategically it is worth the extremists' while to attack US targets or concentrate on all others where the situation is pant's down, brain frozen and the seeing eye dog replaced by a distracted drone program.

The US went in to protect US-based, multinational Oil and Gas Corporations profits.

The US pretty much failed. So the corporations negotiated some deals with the new regime and things were settling down profit-wise, and now the new regime is being wiped out. Ditto the profits and the supply.

So the Corporations want to go in and get their profits on the cheap with another invasion/occupation/ annexation. Because that worked so well the last time.

have summoned Sunnis to take over the oil refineries? No one has destroyed the pipeline. Seems like killing has been selective with hardly any infrastructure damage. What war? Seems like an uprising only, in my opinion. Are oil contracts being distributed equally around the country by the Shiite controlled Iraqi government? Are there enough Sunnis in the government to represent their interest? Seems like the Sunnis gave Maliki last four or five years to provide some equality in the resettlement of Iraq.

http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=112565

Thanks for the thread, jakeXT.