Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community

Who's the Enemy? We the People of the United States

by Steven D
Sun Apr 9th, 2006 at 11:47:36 PM EST

You might think your government works for you. You might imagine that its purpose is the safety and security of you, your family and all other Americans. You might still believe that the only people our military targets are evil terrorists and dictators who threaten the peace of the world. If you do, though, its only because you, ordinary John and Jane Doe American citizen, have been the target of the most massive disinformation campaign ever conducted by our military at the behest of our so-called President.

You see, YOU ARE THE REAL ENEMY targeted for deception, and they have been lying to you for quite some time now:

The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program. The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the organization responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

A disinformation campaign directed at you. And you. And you. And 300 plus million other you's from sea to shining sea.

Because in any military operation you always target your deadliest enemy, the one that can do the most harm to your mission, with a campaign to distort the truth, to confuse and mislead that enemy into making critical mistakes. And the fact that all of us have been spun, have been the subject of military psy-ops, have been lied to repeatedly by our political and military leaders tells us everything we need to know about who they consider to be the most dangerous foe to their mission in Iraq:

We, the American people.

More after the break . . .

Some senior intelligence officers believe Zarqawi's role may have been overemphasized by the propaganda campaign, which has included leaflets, radio and television broadcasts, Internet postings and at least one leak to an American journalist. Although Zarqawi and other foreign insurgents in Iraq have conducted deadly bombing attacks, they remain "a very small part of the actual numbers," Col. Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq and then was one of the top officers handling Iraq intelligence issues on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an Army meeting at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., last summer.
In a transcript of the meeting, Harvey said, "Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will -- made him more important than he really is, in some ways." [...]
The military's propaganda program largely has been aimed at Iraqis, but seems to have spilled over into the U.S. media. One briefing slide about U.S. "strategic communications" in Iraq, prepared for Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, describes the "home audience" as one of six major targets of the American side of the war.
That slide, created by Casey's subordinates, does not specifically state that U.S. citizens were being targeted by the effort, but other sections of the briefings indicate that there were direct military efforts to use the U.S. media to affect views of the war. One slide in the same briefing, for example, noted that a "selective leak" about Zarqawi was made to Dexter Filkins, a New York Times reporter based in Baghdad. Filkins's resulting article, about a letter supposedly written by Zarqawi and boasting of suicide attacks in Iraq, ran on the Times front page on Feb. 9, 2004.

These WaPo reporters are pussyfooting around the truth here, perhaps because they consider the truth to be too unpalatable for their readership to bear. Think: no Iraqi in their right mind would accept that Zarqawi is the mastermind behind the insurgency. They know better. Only us poor dumb Americans, lied to by our leaders and by a cowed and lazy press corps would ever fall for that whopper. And my how so many of us have fallen.

Go to any right wing website or just peruse the letters to the editor in your local paper. See how many of them believe with a passion that we are fighting Al Qaida in Iraq, that Saddam and Osama were the best of best buddies before 9/11, and that the legendary Zarqawi, Al Qaida mastermind and evil genius, is the source of all our troubles in Iraq (well, that and the liberal media). Far too many of them for my comfort.

And why do they believe these patent falsehoods? Why do so many still insist Saddam had something to do with 9/11? In great part because Americans have always been the largest target of the Bush regime's propaganda efforts. Propaganda efforts run out of the Pentagon against the very people our military is sworn to protect: You and me.

We are our country's biggest enemy in George Bush's Endless War on Terror.

War on Terror Zarqawi The Pentagon Iraq al-Queda 9/11 attacks Propaganda Disinformation Campaign

Who's the Enemy? We the People of the United States | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Who's the Enemy? (4.00 / 5)

Amazing writing Steven. Makes one feel rather hopeless though. Is there any stopping this propaganda machine? George W. Bush is just an actor on a stage, reading a script they hand him every morning. The real danger is that he has come to believe the script is reality and we are heading in a direction that I for one, never would have believed would be possible in The United States of America. How do we stop the insanity? How do you stop the Hitler of our time?

Frodo failed...Bush has got the ring.

by alohaleezy on Mon Apr 10th, 2006 at 12:08:40 AM EST

Re: Who's the Enemy? We the People . . . (4.00 / 4)

"Villainize Zarqawi/leverage xenophobia response," one U.S. military briefing from 2004 stated.

This is abhorrent.

Well, if we're Bush's greatest enemy, we should do our job. All these leaks that are coming out suggest that people in the government, the miltary, the Pentagon, etc., know what Bush is doing (and probably know much more than we know) and they want him stopped. They need us to be on board. So they leak the information to us, asking us to help out. Let's give them a hand. Do what, though? What will actually help?

If there are 10 or 20 or 100 times as many phone calls to senators and members of congress? If we get a clue from tomorrow's immigration marches and have equal or larger marches to protest BushCo? If we got a million or more people to march on the White House? Or should we target the media? Protest outside of newspapers and tv studios, call and email them to get them to change their tune?

Alohaleezy is right above. You feel helpless. What can we do that will actually bring results?

by James 438 on Mon Apr 10th, 2006 at 12:26:31 AM EST

Damn straight I'm the enemy (4.00 / 5)

I said this back in July:

If they are trying to organize support for an illegal and immoral war that my sons, both in their twenties with families, could still be sucked into, then damn straight, I'm the enemy.
If they are bankrupting the country to line the pockets of people who already have more money than you and I are ever going to see at the expense of education, health care and social security for the citizens of this country, then damn straight I'm the enemy.
If they want to create a populace that sits numbly in front of their television sets with whatever sludge they decide to serve up pouring into their brains, then damn straight I'm the enemy.
If they want to send my job overseas because it's cheaper for businesses to do so, then damn straight I'm the enemy.
If they want to make my air unbreathable, my water undrinkable and my landscape unliveable, then damn straight I'm the enemy.
If they want to curtail my rights to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to worship, freedom from self-incrimination, freedom to own a weapon, freedom to peaceably assemble, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, freedom from cruel and unusual punishment, freedom to vote, and freedom to think and act for myself, damn straight I'm the enemy.
I love this country, and if they're going to treat me like a traitor for trying to stand up for it, then damn straight I'm the enemy.

I for one welcome our new Twitter overlords. @Omir55

by Omir the Storyteller (omir.the.storyteller -CAT- gmail -DOG- com) on Mon Apr 10th, 2006 at 01:35:05 AM EST

StevenD (4.00 / 4)

First, thank you for writing this. I recently realized how depressed I have been over these 5+ years. It's so hard to keep pushing against all this. It just keeps coming, & righties keep calling us Democrats traitors & whackos, while excusing the rightwing whackos every flagrant sin! The press & government have laid down & let this happen to our country. But Americans are finally getting concerned & angry.

This is the hardest pushback I've ever been through. The 36% approval gives me hope. They're almost down to their bare minimum base. Maybe it's not too late. I keep hoping we've reached or passed the tipping point, & I have seen some signs it may be so.

I'm exhausted, but I keep pushing. Now people who had little interest in politics are coming to me & expressing their anger & fear. They know we have been and are still being lied to, even if they don't know all the details.

It's a good sign.

I am an American. It is my duty to defend my country. More freedom means more responsibility. Some of us are natural activists. Most operate on the gut-level. But most Americans hate being lied to, conned, & manipulated. We are, as a people, honest & open.

Not recognizing that, IMHO, was Bush's biggest mistake.

I hold hope it's not too late.

"The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern." Proverbs 29:07

by x on Mon Apr 10th, 2006 at 02:37:52 AM EST

Re: StevenD (4.00 / 4)

Hi x, I did call and send russ feingold his sunflowers. It was an interesting time for me to do this. When I called, I got two women who did not understand what was happening with this movement. When I explained to her, they said they might do it likewise. Quite by accident, advertisement by word of mouth, got two more to support our movement. I ask that others do this too. Show the rest of America that we are out here and are for real and we are leading a cause for change in status quo.

One of the women really was verbal about her unhappiness of our government. So while waiting, instead of being put on hold, we talked...that is what it is gonna take, talking to others.

NOw to our complacency on what our government does. We the ppl have been what it has been all about from the very beginning. We the ppl are what it is gonna take to change the atmosphere of politics overall....in both parties. We the ppl have always had the power...when are we gonna use that power to take back our America. As I see it, I too have been very unhappy since 1999 and had a clue as to what would happen with this selective group of ppl we have running the show now. When it takes the military to make this happen, that says a lot. I actually think they have fooled a lot of ppl who really believed in this war and the policies of this government. They are now awakening to reality and they now know what we have known for a very long time.

We must have a plan to push this over the top. This plan has to be swift and accurate. We must get on with this and do it NOW! We have addressed so many problems here at Booman, but I have not heard the consorted effort as to what we as a group must do on a daily basis to get the job done.

I have advocated that we must join others in getting this done. Martin, I advocate that you, as our leader here, ask other leaders of other sites to make it a unison/united message to get out to the ppl inside the beltway and other sites of government, ie, governors of states, and get the message out and strongly. Once we start this movement, and now is the time, we will have impact. We must take over the congress to get a lot done and we have to get it done solidly with impact, for them to really understand what we want. The atmosphere is ripe for this NOW!

I watched c-span this w/e and this was discussed. This has been slowly going on for about a year now. I hear it so much so now, that I am truly amazed as to how we can get such an easy job to do this change. We have a chance as progressives to make a big jump into the whole of the abyss for our cause. We must do it now or loose our chance for change. Just some thoughts as to what I see and am hearing.

I decided about a month or so ago to just listen to others. Hear really what they are saying, instead of pronouncing what I want all the time. The message I hear is not that much different that what we have been saying all along. We have to just listen and get into conversation with them and see what we can do for this change. That really takes courage from us to actually do the listening. Then when we do speak, mean what it is that we want and not stumble around trying not to make anyone angry for what we really believe in. Bring to the forefront of the actual problems that really needs to be addressed. They are now asking for help to get this change. It will come from us and has to be done from a very prudent way of which we should govern hereafter. FOR WE WILL WIN IN THE END!!!!! As always, this is just my opinion.

by BrendaStewart (stormyweather1@hotmail.com) on Mon Apr 10th, 2006 at 08:27:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Two notes (4.00 / 4)

First, Steven D, this is outstanding commentary on your part. Going into an editing phase in life, so that means my time for news is going to be limited. Meaning I'll probably be using the Booman Tribune, and Daily Kos, sites as news clearing houses. And catches and analysis like this are very helpful. I've no doubt that the Pentagon is fast drafting a memo targeting Steven D as a source of powerful truth that must be silenced.

Second, it is amazing to me how many Americans are so completely uncapable of critical thought. Since before the war, I have been reading every news item with a propaganda filter. It is like reading TASS in the Soviet days. You have to glean the truth, and recognize the obvious manipulation. And al Zarqawi has, to me, always been screened as an obvious manipulation. Christ, his stories even seem to pop up in a rhythm that supports down times in the Pentagon news cycle. It is absolutely ridiculous. Read all news and be very wary.

"Have you no sense of decency, sir. At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" -- Boston Attorney Joseph Welch, taking down Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

by BostonJoe on Mon Apr 10th, 2006 at 07:36:10 AM EST

Re: Who's the Enemy? We the People of the United S (4.00 / 4)

Outstanding post, Steven.

As Dylan wrote, "we're only a pawn in their game."

I can't help but wonder what might happen if they told the truth . . . but here is my take:

If The Doubleduh-Cheney Gang, while still campaigning in 2000, had said, "If you elect us, we're gonna kick the evil Taliban out of Afghanistan; shake things up in Iraq and steal their oil and trash their country; nuke Iran; change regimes in Syria; then suppress the populist movements in South America. And to do all this, we're gonna hafta spy on them filthy liberals who are trying to push us Christians around", would they have won the 2000 election?

Sadly, I think they would have. The Doubleduh-Cheney Gang didn't start this stuff, as much as liberals would like us to believe how evil and radical they are. As in the Reagan Revolution, all they did was give voice and empowerment to the Moronic Majority.

In '08, if Hillary wins, we shall see little change. If you think we were really better off under Clinton, you weren't really paying attention. The people are the enemy of elitist power. Elitist power wraps itself in both Democratic and Republican Party costumes.

by ddjango (ddjango (at) myway (dot) com) on Mon Apr 10th, 2006 at 07:59:18 AM EST

Re: Who's the Enemy? We the People (4.00 / 2)

Our government hates us for our freedom. Sad, but true. Their ultimate goal is single party rule, they even admit it. There is no way to that reprehensible goal without silencing all dissent in any way possible.

by Shalimar (srbaxley@yahoo.com) on Mon Apr 10th, 2006 at 09:51:40 AM EST

Who's the Enemy? We the People of the United States | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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