The Propaganda Imperative
A similar realization holds true with foreign policy. The U.S. government has so thoroughly bought into the concept of "perception management" and "strategic communications" -- blending psy-ops, propaganda and P.R. -- that the government has decoupled from facts. Information is just there to be exploited for geopolitical gain, usually to pin some offense on the latest "designated villain."
We saw this in 2003 with the disinformation campaign about Iraq's WMD, but it didn't stop there. The U.S. government has used its control of important media levers to demonize a variety of world leaders who have gotten in the way of Official Washington's desires. Meanwhile, equal or worse abuses by "our guys" are downplayed or ignored.
For instance, Libya's secular dictator Muammar Gaddafi was mocked when he warned of Islamist terrorists rampaging in eastern Libya. Indeed, Gaddafi's vow to fight them became the pretext used for a "regime change" operation under the "human rights" banner, "responsibility to protect."
That operation -- promoted by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who gloated over Gaddafi's murder ("We came, we saw, he died") -- has transformed Libya into a land of anarchy with the Islamic State and other terror groups seizing ground and chopping off heads. But Clinton, like other architects of this disaster, won't admit to a mistake.
Similarly, the Obama administration and the compliant mainstream U.S. media pushed a propaganda campaign against Syria's secular leader Bashar al-Assad, blaming him for virtually all the violence that engulfed Syria despite the awareness of senior U.S. officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, about the key role played by Sunni jihadists and terror groups with the backing of Sunni-ruled Gulf states and Turkey.
So, when a lethal sarin gas attack struck a suburb of Damascus on Aug. 21, 2013, the Obama administration and key "human rights" groups blamed Assad's forces although some U.S. intelligence analysts and independent observers quickly smelled a rat, the likelihood of a provocation sponsored by Al Qaeda operatives -- possibly aided by Turkish intelligence -- trying to induce the U.S. military to destroy Assad's army and clear the way for a terrorist victory.
Though that "false flag" scenario became increasingly likely -- as the case against Assad's forces essentially collapsed -- Obama and his administration have never corrected the record. They just left what now appears to be a false narrative on the record, so it can still be cited by neocon opinion leaders or "human rights" advocates and thus be used to mislead the American public.
Some people defend Obama for not admitting a mistake because to do so would undermine U.S. credibility, but I think the opposite holds true, that a frank admission that there was a misguided rush to judgment would be refreshing for Americans who are sick and tired of spin.
Similarly, there's the case of the July 17, 2014 shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine, which the Obama administration pinned on ethnic Russian rebels and indirectly on Russian President Vladimir Putin. The case whipped up a frenzy of Russia-bashing across the West and thus became a valuable propaganda club.
But again, as U.S. intelligence analysts shifted through the evidence, some moved off in a different direction, blaming a rogue element of the Ukrainian government, according to a source briefed on these findings.
Yet, instead of either correcting the record or presenting evidence to buttress the initial judgment, the Obama administration has gone silent, refusing to make public any evidence that it possesses about the killing of 298 people. That has allowed the West's mainstream media and some supposedly "independent" bloggers to continue to push the Russia-did-it line.
Shifting Blame
More recently, the Obama administration has reacted to overwhelming evidence that some of its Mideast "allies" have been aiding and abetting the Islamic State, Al Qaeda and other violent jihadists by trying to shift the blame to the Syrian government and Russia.
In other words, we're told not to blame the Saudis and the Qataris for funding and arming these jihadists (despite admissions from Vice President Biden, former Secretary of State Clinton and the Defense Intelligence Agency). Nor should we notice that the Islamic State has been shipping its illicit oil into Turkey in large truck convoys through Turkish border crossings which also allow jihadist fighters to go back and forth.
The evidentiary record of Turkey's covert support for these radical jihadists is a long one, including many admissions from Turkish officials and reports from major Turkish media outlets. But we're told to ignore all that evidence and trust that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is doing all he can to seal off his border and stop the terrorists.
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