Nov

What is Propaganda and who is doing it?

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If it looks like the war that was supposed to capture Osama bin Laden “dead or alive” has become a war on Afghans, well, that’s just because the Taliban are masters of deception aren’t they? Through guile they’ve lured the world into believing innocents are being blasted away, displaced, and threatened with starvation.

But isn’t it always that way? The other side, no matter how small, no matter how poor, no matter how devastated by war, crippled by sanctions, weakened by IMF reforms, is always cunningly able to manipulate perceptions, twist the truth, exaggerate, tell tall tales, while Washington and London, with their ready access to the media, to PR firms, to spin-doctors, to overnight polling, struggles to get its message — and the truth — out.

The British, Israeli and American forces commit outrages, trample international law, ignore international protocols banning attacks on civilians, and then, when the other side complains, and the public gets restive, they dismiss it all as propaganda.

But it must be propaganda, right? The Americans and British are civilized. They would never kill countless numbers of civilians…..would they?

Yeah, so maybe the Americans used weapons of mass destruction against Hiroshima and Nagasaki (and lied about the targets being military bases selected to minimize civilian casualties.) Maybe the Americans firebombed Tokyo during WW II. Maybe the Americans carpet bombed North Korea until there were no targets left to bomb, killing millions. Maybe the Americans and British stood by and watched with a check list as Indonesian dictator Suharto rounded up and murdered up to a million communists. Maybe the Americans carpet bombed North Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, wiping out three million. Maybe the Americans and British killed 200,000 in the 1991 Gulf War and 700,000 in their latest escapade. Maybe the Americans killed 2,000 Panamanian civilians to arrest Manuel Noriega, a former CIA operative. Maybe the Americans and British bombed Yugoslavia for 78 days, killing thousands.

But that was all in the past. This time it’s different, right?

So why did the Pentagon buy the exclusive rights to photos taken of Afghanistan by a commercial satellite in 2001, photos it’s not letting anyone else see? It’s not as if the Pentagon needs the photos. It has its own satellites that provide far better photos. It’s more like the Pentagon doesn’t care to have you see what’s really going on.

When US warplanes attacked the remote Afghan farming village of Chowkar-Karez, dozens of civilians were killed. A Pentagon official said, “the people there are dead because we wanted them dead.” Their crime? They sympathized with the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

So why did representatives of Hollywood studios, including many actors, agree that Hollywood would produce films that keep the public on side the war on terrorism? Isn’t that propaganda? Is there some reason the public may no longer want to be on side? Is there a risk the public could go soft?

Is it the Taliban with the assistance of the Afghan people who are using Propaganda?The Afghan people, by the way, are regarded as being some of the poorest and deprived people on Earth, with no money no technology,

Or is it the Americans and British?

Propaganda British American Afghanistan Islam Muslims