Good vs. Evil Redux

Submitted by Laura Miller on

The New York Times' David E. Sanger notes a change in how George W. Bush discusses future U.S. military activities. Bush "has begun warning that the insurgency is already metastasizing into a far broader struggle to 'establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia,'" Sanger writes. TheRevealer.org's Jeff Sharlet comments, "[T]his is reductive rhetoric that equates the complexities of Indonesia, where 'radical Islamists' struggle against a dictatorship-disguised-as-a-democracy - and one directly descended from a genocidal regime just a decade past - and Spain, now a fully democratic country. Not to mention the stretch in between Spain and Indonesia. The question is, Will the media buy it?" Given "the allure of such a powerful dichotomy to a press that has so long peddled stories dependent on 'us' and 'them,'" Sharlet writes, "it's legitimate to ask, now, what's driving this latest variation on the age-old 'battle between good and evil' story - Bush's politics, or the demands of the press?"

Main Source: 
TheRevealer.org, October 17, 2005
Topics: 
Terrorism
U.S. Government

Comments

stephane mot replied on

Just a few days ago, Bush would mention for the first time "fascist islamists / fascist islamism". He didn't invent the expression, which perfectly fits the worst part of radical islamists. But why would the Official Propaganda operate such a shift in vocabulary at this stage ?
Now I know it was a clear signal. We're raising the level of terror threat, but we're also raising the level of permissivity. They're using their Qaeda ? I'm calling my base* : you may not have the toughest fundamentalist nominated for the Supreme Court, but be sure the country is yours.
A few days later, authorities would allow the American National Socialist Movement (a.k.a. America's Nazi Party) to march proudly through Toledo, OH (a key state and a touchy area if any). Just like the yearly Orangist marchs in Ulster or Sharon's not so innocent September 2000 visit at Jerusalem's Temple Mount, a violent riot was bound to erupt. As a result, more publicity than these Nazis could ever dream of.

______________________________________________________________________________________ Stephane MOT - http://www.stephanemot.com ______________________________________________________________________________________
*"Some people call you the elites; I call you my base" (nb : Qaeda in Arabic).