Eric Margolis: Fib Factory Running Full Tilt

From the Toronto Sun:


By ERIC MARGOLIS


The latest whoppers from the White House's fib factory came this week as President George W. Bush (A) claimed U.S. forces in Iraq are fighting "the same people" who staged 9/11, and, (B) withdrawing U.S. forces means "surrendering Iraq to al-Qaida."

These absurd assertions mark the latest steps in the administration's evolving efforts to depict the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as battles against al-Qaida.

When marketers want to change the name of an existing product, they first place a new name in small type below the existing one. They gradually shrink the old name, and enlarge the new one until the original name vanishes.

That's what's been happening in Iraq. When the U.S. invaded, Iraqis who resisted were branded "Saddam loyalists, die-hard Ba'athists, or dead-enders." Next, the Pentagon and U.S. media called them "terrorists." Then, a tiny, previously unknown Iraqi group appropriated the name, "al-Qaida in Mesopotamia."

This was such a convenient gift to the Bush administration, cynics suspected a false-flag operation created by CIA and Britain's wily MI6. Soon after, the White House and Pentagon began calling all Iraq's 22-plus resistance groups, "al-Qaida."



The U.S. media eagerly joined this deception, even though 95% of Iraq's resistance groups had nothing to do with Osama bin Laden's movement. Watch any U.S. network TV news report on Iraq and you will inevitably hear reporters parroting Pentagon handouts about U.S. forces "launching a new offensive against al-Qaida."

Al-Qaida in Iraq didn't even exist before 9/11, but that didn't stop the president from trying to gull credulous voters. Polls show that in spite of a mountain of evidence to the contrary, White House disinformation strategy has worked. Today, an amazing 60% of Americans still believe Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11.

FAUX WAR

This faux war is now costing a mind-boggling $12 billion US monthly, reports the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. The Bush administration has spent $610 billion since 2001 on its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, making them the second most expensive conflict in U.S. history after the Second World War. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Margolis_Eric/2007/07/15/4340909-sun.html