Iraq Propaganda Collapse
Bush, Cheney, Powell and Condoleezza Rice all made speeches recently about Iraq. Ostensibly the idea was to promote the positive side of the occupation. But according to Senator Richard G. Lugar, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee,
"the tone in all of those were distinctly different."
Lugar sounded like a Democrat when he said:
"The president has to be the president. And that means president over the vice president and over the secretaries."
President Bush figured that he had a PR problem because journalists were reporting daily the mayhem, the destruction of property and the deaths of soldiers and Iraqi citizens. He was unhappy that the Iraq occupation was not going according to the administration's forecast. So he and his "senior officials" set out on a campaign-like tour touting the good news that was not being covered by the press. But they were not all saying the same thing.
Big propaganda collapse! The main characters were not all following the same script. Cheney is belligerent. Powell is more concerned with the International community.
We do not need more propaganda. We need leadership. Tough-guy Bush tends to go with Cheney and Rumsfeld. But by now he ought to be able to see the devastating results of their policy of unilateralism. I hope he listens more to Powell and allows the UN to be in charge of all non-military operations in Iraq.
Unilateralism has failed. It has brought us nothing but foreign enemies. Let's switch to multilateralism. It may bring back some of our foreign friends. God knows we need them.
