Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Wildfires
On a morning when the newspaper and Internet headlines blare Bush's claims that we are continuing to make progress in Iraq (and his plans to run for reelection as a great peacemaker), Robert Fisk's reporting serves as a necessary cold shower. Fisk's gloomy assessment of the long view in Iraq shows Bush's statements yesterday for what they are--propaganda at odds with the truth.
Or maybe Bush isn't a skillful propagandist, just ignorant, as Paul Krugman speculated in the New York Times yesterday. But the end result is the same--Bush is trying to get reelected by any means necessary, twisting the facts and relying on a gullible media and citizenry to buy it. Given that the administration's policies are an utter disaster, lying is the only thing left that reliably works, the only thing they can control.
Also, on the Times op-ed page today, T. Coraghessan Boyle, whose novel A Friend of the Earth took place in a future world ravaged by environmental catastrophe, reports from Santa Barbara on the California wildfires and wonders when it will be his turn to see his home burned.
On a morning when the newspaper and Internet headlines blare Bush's claims that we are continuing to make progress in Iraq (and his plans to run for reelection as a great peacemaker), Robert Fisk's reporting serves as a necessary cold shower. Fisk's gloomy assessment of the long view in Iraq shows Bush's statements yesterday for what they are--propaganda at odds with the truth.
Or maybe Bush isn't a skillful propagandist, just ignorant, as Paul Krugman speculated in the New York Times yesterday. But the end result is the same--Bush is trying to get reelected by any means necessary, twisting the facts and relying on a gullible media and citizenry to buy it. Given that the administration's policies are an utter disaster, lying is the only thing left that reliably works, the only thing they can control.
Also, on the Times op-ed page today, T. Coraghessan Boyle, whose novel A Friend of the Earth took place in a future world ravaged by environmental catastrophe, reports from Santa Barbara on the California wildfires and wonders when it will be his turn to see his home burned.
