The Bush administration spin machine is like clockwork:
1. Ominous predictions of summer terrorist attack
2. Sudden appearance of Osama on the internets
3. And just to tie it all into the war in Iraq, the news that an attack on the US "homeland" is being plotted not just by al qaeda, but by al qaeda in Iraq:
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States faces an increased threat of attack from al Qaeda, which will likely try to use battle-hardened associates in Iraq to strike inside the United States, an intelligence report warned on Tuesday.
4. Therefore the war must continue! Fight them there or fight them here!
Everyone remembers the hypnotic "al qaeda/saddam" routine that preceded the Iraq war -- psychological propaganda at its finest. But the objective was different: get people behind starting a war on Iraq. Right after 9/11 people were ripe for revenge -- somebody, somewhere, had to pay, and pay big. With no luck finding OBL, and not a lot of resources spent trying, it was as simple as pointing to the next guy in line: there! Him! And the whole world was on Saddam like the kids in 'Lord of the Flies' on Piggy.
Things are different now, and the administration's attempts at psychological manipulation are more an object of derision than a source of the kind of liver-quivering fear the US lived in 5 years ago. War fatigue has set in big time. Saddam's toast. Nobody wants to start another war (Iran), or even continue with the current one in Iraq. And significantly, the peoples' mood is snarly enough that if there was a terrorist attack in the US, the white house might find itself getting almost as much blame as the perpetrators, either because (a) they fucked around all this time in Iraq when they should have been chasing the real terrorists, or (b) their fucking around in Iraq produced a whole new generation of jihadists and sympathizers.
On the other hand, the one thing that might get at least some of the country behind the white house and their ongoing war plans is another attack. And at the risk of sounding like I wear a tinfoil hat, I'd never underestimate Cheney.
Things are different now, and the administration's attempts at psychological manipulation are more an object of derision than a source of the kind of liver-quivering fear the US lived in 5 years ago. War fatigue has set in big time. Saddam's toast. Nobody wants to start another war (Iran), or even continue with the current one in Iraq. And significantly, the peoples' mood is snarly enough that if there was a terrorist attack in the US, the white house might find itself getting almost as much blame as the perpetrators, either because (a) they fucked around all this time in Iraq when they should have been chasing the real terrorists, or (b) their fucking around in Iraq produced a whole new generation of jihadists and sympathizers.
On the other hand, the one thing that might get at least some of the country behind the white house and their ongoing war plans is another attack. And at the risk of sounding like I wear a tinfoil hat, I'd never underestimate Cheney.
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