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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: geode00 who wrote (37618)	2/18/2005 7:23:29 AM
From: Crimson Ghost	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 173976

Propaganda Perpetuates US Foreign Policy Failures By John Anast Al-Jazeerah, February 17, 2005 New information with regard to the desire of the former Lebanese leader Rafiq al-Hariri to reassert control over Sheba’a Farms, currently illegally occupied by Israel, as part of the Gaza withdrawal by Israel, combined with Russia's decision to arm Syria with modern missile technology, suggests it may have been Israel which murdered Mr. al-Hariri. For America's people however there is a more ominous notation to this tragic event. The propaganda machine at Pentagon, spewing its trash aggressively if not ineptly, designed to influence public opinion in foreign nations, is so soundly rejected in the Arab world as a comical display of America's inherent dishonesty, that US media has now become its primary outlet and the American people its primary customer. How free is any people when the foreign policy of its government is predicated upon deliberate falsehoods, which are then disseminated by its mass media as truth? The coverage of the assassination in America's media has been resoundingly one sided. Every major cable media outlet in the US, for example, has seemingly rounded up every Jewish commentator to respond to the murder of a leader in the Arab world from a uniquely pro-Jewish perspective. Are there no Muslim or Arab or Lebanese commentators available? This type of prejudice designed to dominate the debate and more precisely to propagandize and control the dissemination of information to benefit Israel is not lost on the Arab world. The propaganda reporting uses key words associated with Israel like "suicide bomber" in an attempt to ascribe blame uniquely Arab or Muslim. While the connotation that some individual carried several thousand pounds of explosives on their back is ridiculous, the intent of the reporting is not accuracy but to be deliberately inflammatory and blamed on the Arab world. Add to that the seemingly coordinated if not simultaneous political moves by the Bush Administration including its request to the European Union Secretary to reassess the EU's stance on Syria and demands on the Syrian government to remove its troops from Lebanon, merely expose another desperate attempt to counter the threat of a united Islamic nationalism as currently reflected in a growing trend away from secular governance in "free" Iraq That said, certainly, the fact that Israel failed, due in large part to its foreign policy, in its attempts to dissuade Russia from providing advanced tactical weapons to Syria, identifies it as the prime suspect. With all due respect to Mr. al-Hariri and condolences to his family, what remains unclear for US policy is why any US administration would support events which further destabilize secular governments in the Middle East and targets a foreign political leader friendly to the United States? Surely the House of Saud realizes now it too is on the target list of this less than American movement and justifiably so for as ironically as it may seem the US through its current policy is likely to achieve Bin Laden’s goals for him. Its ultimatum delivered to the Bush Administration in early 2001, the Saudi's initially received a positive letter from the White House guaranteeing a more even-handed approach in Middle East policy to bolster the Kingdom and region in general, only to find that letter smoldering in the debris of the Twin Towers "three days" later on 11 September, and their future now in the hands of the Russians and Chinese and their collective ability to blunt the threat posed not only from Bin Laden but from the US as well. As the US continues to borrow to cover the costs of the Iraq war, now estimated at over $300 billion and counting, the Russian's are planning to pay their entire "external" debt early -- which is estimated at less than half the current cost of the Iraq war -- while the Chinese increasingly control the ability of our Government to finance its war machine through its discretion to purchase US debt instruments. The bottom line is that current US policy is not sustainable or manageable, in the long-term, from an economic or strategic standpoint.