Will The Tricks Used To Sell War in 2003 Work in 2014? by @spockosbrain

Will The Tricks Used To Sell War in 2003 Work in 2014? 

by Spocko
"You can't change the world with words Bill, unless you write those words in the evening news with blood." - Tom Bowen, In the movie Non-Stop
Glenn Beck tried to cash in on the feeling of unity many had after 9/11. His 9/12 project in 2009 was BS. But he did understand there was unity after 9/11/2001. He wanted to capture and use the anger and bloodlust, the feeling, "Let's all get the bastards who did this."

He wasn't the only one using the bodies of the dead to get what he wanted. The desire for vengeance was stoked and consciously used by the Bush/Cheney White House to get us into Iraq. But the sale of war in Iraq needed more than raw emotion from 2001, it needed mind-changing visuals, serious authority figures, big money support and clever catch phrases. Remember:
And who can forget this deadly visual word poem.
"Smoking gun in the shape of a mushroom cloud." 



They won't be able to do it again, right? We are smarter now. Many of us even spotted it all at the time. But it didn't stop the war train. How do we use our knowledge this time?

Can they use our emotion like last time? After 13 years the confusion, sadness, anger and desire to act has diminished.  And now we have been lied to. And bilked. And emotionally manipulated by professionals.

If someone wants to evoke that 9/12 feeling again they need a fresh jolt to the system. Like beheadings.

Following 9/12/2001 the rage and anger was scaled up to include entire regions. The right wing wanted an entire religious faith to be punished. Any suggestion of trying to understand who did it and why it happened was mocked. Anything less than "glass parking lots" was "letting the terrorists win."

But in 2014 you can start asking questions. Might there be another way to deal with this current atrocity? Can there be a direct police-type action for the crime?

We've learned from the 2003 run up to the Iraq War. Yes, a lot of us knew what was up at the time, but our protests were ignored. What will we do differently this time? New chants? Or can we use the tools and leverage we have now we didn't have before?


The Fall War Launch Needs New Words, Images, People and Emotion

We know how they sold the Iraq War to us. Spot the tricks this time! Look for:

Words. Notice the words and phrases being used this time. "Boots on the ground." It's all about protecting our people. Drones aren't "boots in the air" so they are fine. This shift in focus from people to machines should lead us to look at the cost, but will it?

Keep an eye on the word degrade, that's an emotional word pawned off as a military and physical action. Degrade has that, "It happens over a long period of time" feeling to it. That's intentional.

 Images. The beheading videos are powerful, but they won't be showing them over and over. That means the military will offer up successful bombing videos--from a distance. Look for what they don't want us to see.
Closer in photos of the innocent dead.

Of course if these photos slip out they will be condemned as inciting violence toward us. The people who provide them (or retweet and publish them) will be labeled traitors for  helping the terrorists. Fox News will remind people of all the bad people we killed without loss of US lives. They will probably do a fair and balanced chart of it.

People. Keep an eye out for the retired Generals. Who pays them? Do they work for people selling drones?  Could someone please check them now? Call the TV producers and demand they mention their affiliations. Also, who is paying the think tank people? Foreign governments? Defense contractors?

The media already has brought on tired old "experts" to make the case for war, but who is new in the media opposing war? If our "boots on the ground" aren't in danger, can we get some accountants on to talk about the cost of these drone strikes?  How about representatives of the innocent dead? Someone from a Big 8 Peace firm?  Who do you suggest?

Emotion. If they can't get anger, they will go for fear. Any attack in the US or on US interests will be linked to ISIL faster than you can say, Al Qaeda in Iraq.

I've heard three experts say it would be very hard for ISIL to attack the US. They will find someone who says they can. He will be in heavy rotation on Fox.

How do you stop them from using emotion? You can't, but you can offer other emotions. Like courage.

Denying Them Their War Propoganda

David Swanson wrote an interesting piece,  James Foley Is Not a War Ad

He makes the point, with video to back it up, that Foley would not have wanted the video of his death to be used this way.
What if people in the United States were to watch the video of Foley when he was alive and speaking and laughing, not the one when he was a prop in a piece of propaganda almost certainly aimed at provoking the violence that Obama has just obligingly announced?
I can't speak for the dead, Foley was human and I understand the reaction of most, "Let's get the bastards who did this."  But who he was leads me to believe he wouldn't want his death to be scaled up to a war.

We can't control the actions of the group called ISIL, but we can control our response to them. Let's not let the bastards who lied and manipulated us into the last war get away with it again.

Cue The Who.