Propelling the propaganda, part deux

The US administration has asked Americans to sacrifice their lives to fight the war on terror, while it tries to keep them deprived of information particularly about the failures of that war. The leaders are smart enough to remember the lessons from the Vietnam war in terms of how to spin war while keeping enthusiasm high for warmongering, but they weren’t smart enough to keep us out of a losing proposition. Any and all images which depict the human suffering of the war are kept out of the media because such images tend to evoke the emotions that are as self-preserving, instinctual as self defense because this administration, in fact the federal government of the United States is consumed with the notion of war and it needs all able bodied people it can muster to fight, even when that fight is not in the best interest of the people.

So, the news that people want to bring to America that truly reflects the costs of war has to be suppressed. What I found interesting about this story of the public affairs director of Arlington Cemetery was even after she secured the permission of the families of those being buried in Arlington, the Army tried to limit access to such funerals even though such limitations were baseless. I love how people want your enthusiasm, your patriotism, but only on their terms. Support the troops has been the battle cry for this war, yet the reality is so much more different. Hiding behind empty slogans is not characteristic of a great Republic, but rather of a banana republic.