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May 10, 2006
WB: Hook, Line and Sinking

Billmon:

Of course, it may be that conning the simple minded — i.e., holding the base — is all the Pentagon propaganda technicians are trying to accomplish here, or all they think is reasonable to shoot for. If the Powerlie bundists are clutching at straws, so, too, is Donald Rumsfeld. It seems one of the hallmarks of a failing authoritarian regime is its ability to go on fooling itself, and its followers, long after the rest of the world has stopped even paying attention.

Hook, Line and Sinking

Posted by b on May 10, 2006 at 19:40 UTC | Permalink
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From the Ricks piece:

One internal briefing, produced by the U.S. military headquarters in Iraq, said that Kimmitt had concluded that, “The Zarqawi PSYOP program is the most successful information campaign to date.”

But it’s over … That is if your are not a powerline fooly

Posted by: b | May 10 2006 19:47 utc | 1

Kinda makes an eternal optimist want to get back on course and campaign again and then vote. But then the rationalist remembers that changing the Sergeant at arms doesn’t change the regime in charge.
The military/cannibalistic/predators that control most of the armaments as well as the ink and paper and electrons are now just voting for which thugs enforce their dictates for the next four years.
But then again, maybe the pendulum has swung so far off center that the gaining momentum is carrying it back toward a light that will outshine even the likes of Cheney/Rumsfield/et al.
Bless even the deluded optimists.

Posted by: Juannie | May 10 2006 21:30 utc | 2

In the run-up to Gulf War II, Tom Ricks of the Washington Post is the only MSM reporter who did not get crap on his face. In fact, if one followed Ricks’ reporting on Pentagon-Centcom planning fall 2002-spring 2003, even a village idiot knew that the whole thing was going to be a clusterf##k. Ricks should have received a journalistic award for this reporting.
When, in mid-2004 thereabouts, Ricks’ column disappeared from Pravda on the P, I figured that Hiatt and the New Stalinists had sent him to the journalistic gulag and air brushed him out of the company picnic group photos.
Not so. Was working on a book on the Iraq War, titled Fiasco, due out in September.
Ricks isn’t a sycophant, tool, or lackey. He is a goddamned good reporter.

Posted by: Groucho | May 10 2006 21:42 utc | 3

b
“But it’s over..”
what do you mean? you say this constantly, as if the u.s. were surrendering cheney to a hague magistrate.
I don’t understand the resistance here and elsewhere among ostensible leftists to acknowledge the durability of the occupation. while I’m equally enthusiastic about the collapse of the u.s. hegemon (though fearful what part of the surfeit of global stupidity and avarice would take the empire’s place in history) report’s of the empire’s death have been greatly exaggerated. billmon’s entry might as well be written in 2008, or 2020, if the end of hegemony depends on the attrition of u.s. military power through iraqi “insurgency.”

Posted by: slothrop | May 10 2006 22:30 utc | 4

I think I have to agree with slothrup here, even if I stand at the ready to side with Billmon and anna missed at the slightest provocation. The trouble is, that provocation never arises. The seesaw seems to tip precariously, but in the end, the same side always lands on the ground. There is certainly more than an element of chance to this.
All I can say is we will see.
On the other hand, there is a certain element of cannibalism to the occupation: Cannibalism of our Armed Forces, and more particularly, their materiel; cannibalism of the environment, which after more and more DU “love bombing” will eventually get so toxic that everyone who serves there will develop cancer, and such service, even in the pusuit of profits and development of oil resources, will indeed become “radioactive;” and cannabalism of all the good will, and even downright fear, that our empire engenders and which compels others to cast their lot with our deadly imperial adventure.
So, things seem fairly steady-state at the moment. But it is possible that events will hit a proverbial “tipping point,” and change dramatically in an instant. My guess is that even if that point is to arrive, it is still several years down the road — perhaps as part of an “October Surprise” cooked up by the Bushistas to welcome in their Democratic successors.
So, all I can say is that we will see.

Posted by: Malooga | May 11 2006 0:24 utc | 5

I want to make clear my view of the decline of empire has more to do w/ global capital accumulation crisis rather than this or that “insurgent” confrontation w/ u.s. military.
but, even wrt to this economic crisis, the capitalist class, whose mobility is global and not national, can only be broken by the global solidarity of workers. I mention this because I want to confront, whenever I can, the view that “the hegemon” is “the u.s.” As I said, above, I’m fearful what may replace the “u.s. hegemon” as a result of the inability of oppressed people to see that the hegemon is global capital, not “the u.s.” if this simple acknowledgment is not made, what we’ll get is chinese slave-camp capitalism or some other revolting derivative of the beast. and the diminution of u.s. power in the world will do nothing to change this fact.

Posted by: slothrop | May 11 2006 2:44 utc | 6

Our enemy is growing stronger day after day, and its intelligence information increases.
“By God, this is suffocation!” the writer says.
That’s not al-Zarqawi.
It’s Karl Rove after his latest grand jury testimony.

Posted by: Night Owl | May 11 2006 4:06 utc | 7

“But it’s over..”
what do you mean?
The success of the Zarqawi psyops campaign. The Iraq war itself will take several years more to be lost.

Posted by: b | May 11 2006 4:41 utc | 8

Just interesting and found at blondesense.

Posted by: beq | May 11 2006 15:11 utc | 9

Amen, brother!
Nevertheless, while “the hegemon” may not be the “u.s.,” it is the u.s. military that is killing people in Iraq with their military machinations.

Posted by: Malooga | May 11 2006 15:40 utc | 10

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