Bush Vs. Bin Laden: The propaganda war

Bush Vs. Bin Laden: The propaganda war

by: An American citizen soon to be arrested for thought crimes.

Like Bin Laden, Bush has been highly effective in winning the hearts and minds of the people. OBL has used the same strategy and techniques that were taught to him by the CIA. Why is it working for Osama and not Bush?

Bush has not been able to control the media as well as Osama, even though most of the corporate US media has been complicit in helping to hide the realities of the war on terror. Unfortunately for Bush, there is still a small pocket of independent media left in the USA. He’s working on that.

When fighting wars, propaganda and psy-ops are an integral part of winning. Both sides have to feel like they are the just side, or in layman’s terms..."the good guys". How does one convey that thought to it’s people? Propaganda.

Why is it working for Osama? The less you know about Osama, the better. So when the worlwide terror network sits down with some popcorn to view the latest, Osama is pictured as a freedom fighter, popping his head up at choice points in his campaign to win the hearts and minds of his worldwide terrorist network. He is able to keep a small pocket of loyal individuals close to him to keep the secret. What’s the secret? That’s why it’s working for him. We don’t know. Unless you believe him when he says he fights for the end of occupied Palestine amongst other things.

Turn the table, and we see that Bush isn’t able to keep a secret. At least not with independent media spilling the beans every chance they get. Why don’t women rise up and be heard in the countries that we hear about, where oppression of women’s rights are a daily occurence? Propaganda, control of information, and a police state can help in those situations. Why is Osama winning, if he has no country, no people to control, and no media to hinder. Because he knows how to use his appearances in small doses so that it means something, at least to someone.

When Bush uses apple pie, moral values, and freedom as his talking points, he doesn’t realize that 1/2 the US doesn’t even know how to make apple pie and would rather have a starbucks latte and croissant instead. Bush’s tactics may work on the bible belt, but not in NYC. Bush can’t hide in a bunker either, not forever anyways, although he tries. The amount of secrecy within the US gov’t has increased since Bush has taken office, yet still not enough to wage an effective propaganda war outside of the US, but very effective inside the US.

Most of the world doesn’t buy into the world war on terrorism, or WWIV, this is apparent with the slow erosion of the "coalition of the willing". Most world leaders listen to their people, Bush has a hard time with that...father knows best, as they say. WWIII was the cold war, in case you missed it. In that propaganda war, communists were painted as oppressive, so the US had to be shown as a free thinking society. No walls in the US...this is when the enemy was across the seas, you only had to worry about communist spies. When the cold war ended, we saw that the world no longer wanted to be involved in long wars that cost untold human sacrifice and accomplished little. Diplomacy and economic sanctions were the daily fare.

So how do we know for sure Osama is winning the propaganda war?

1) He has lured Bush into afghanistan, which is not his country, I doubt he cared about the fall of the taliban, in fact, since their fall, heroin exports have increased.(a choice source of funding for Al-qaeda) Score 1-0

2) He made Bush think that by toppeling Saddam, he would gain legitimacy with the American people, except it has only divided the US more. Score 2-0

3) By toppeling Saddam(on of bin laden’s enemies, contrary to popular belief), Bush has opened the floodgates closer to Osama’s home country, surrounded by Muslim countries, where he can rally more like minded people to fight for his cause. 3-0

4)In contrast, Bush hasn’t been able to get American citizens to rally to his cause, as such, they don’t have too many kids lining up ready to go to war, to paid less then halliburton employees, and fewer ready to go back. 4-0

5) Bush has been able to create the illusion that by fighting the war in Iraq, somehow, this will be an effective way to fight terrorism, and terrorism is Al-qaeda, and Al-qaeda is OBL, and OBL is 9/11(forget the anthrax attack, we still don’t know if that was OBL or not, even though it originated in a US military lab)...Bush has scored here. 4-1

6)Bush won his re-election, fair or not, as some would say. Only independent media is challenging this. 4-2

7)Osama has been able to scare Bush into thinking that he has to take away American citizens’ freedoms for more security, limit their access to information, and not be accountable for the failures of 9/11. (I’ll give them both a point, because depending on how you look at it, this could be a point in Bush’s column) 5-3

8)Anti-war protests across the US, 400,000 on the eve of the RNC in NYC saying no to the Bush Agenda, and hundreds of protest groups springing up faster then you can count them. 6-3

9)Bush failed to make WMD’s stick, the ties between AQ & Saddam, and still...bin laden runs free. (you could argue this is 3 seperate losses, but I count them as one propaganda campaign to be fair) 7-3

10)Bush with Allawi, has been able to control the media in Iraq, by shutting down Al-Jazeera, local papers(sadr in perticular-now you know why he’s mad), and curbing foreign journalists from leaving the green zone.(unless they want to be kidnapped). The information coming from and leaking into Iraq is less then when Saddam was in power. You could talk about anything you wanted during Saddam’s reign.(unless it was about Saddam, now it’s Bush) 7-4

So far, OBL is winning the propaganda war, with very little effort. A few video tapes, some choice words, and Bush is quick to remind the US that they must be steadfast and vigilant against the terrorists(forgetting completely the name of OBL, in fact, he dares not remind you he exists, untill it’s needed). Zarqawi is the new Saddam, but even trying to get Americans to accept him as OBL has failed, Americans can barely pronounce his name, so that was a bust. Nope, Americans still want Bin Laden...and that stinks for Bush, he is still trying to convince Americans there is no difference between OBL and let’s say, the leaders of Iran. I think it was a wrong move to tell Americans that OBL was the cause of 9/11, because now, they have a name that won’t go away. It would have been much more effective to just label them terrorists...then. By not doing that, he gave Americans a chance of victory in this war on terrorism...because if you get OBL, you get the guy responsible for 9/11, and it would be harder to justify a war with Iran, unless you can tie them into 9/11 through terrorism, because terrorism is Al-Qaeda, and AQ is OBL, and OBL is 9/11.

Who will win this war? There is no war to win, that’s the beauty of a propaganda war, it never has to end. Both men are using ignorance, religion, and fear to further their causes, both men are using the people that believe, to cause harm on other innocent people, and both men...have delusions of grandeur. I don’t think history will hold either men up as champions of truth and/or freedom, quite the contrary. History will show that America entered a decade of opression that changed their constitution, their thinking, and ultimately, this will cost them their power. Not the kind of power your thinking, no, the US will not crumble and fall, but it’s position in the world as a beacon of liberty and freedom will. The US has the military might to win any war against a less powerful nation, but not enough to control the world. The US can’t win a propaganda war outside of the US, so the US will have to create it’s own iron curtain to protect the people of the US from any information that might lead them to think differently or for themselves.

One could also argue, that both men need each other, because without either...you have no war to win. So the US will continue down the dark path of further alienating it’s people from the rest of the world, taking away freedoms, dividing it’s nation, and creating a police-state reminiscent of Il Duce.

What’s next in the propaganda war? OBL needs to send another message, the US is getting a little tired of Iraq. Will the message be 9/11 redux? Will Bush be able to stop it this time when he is told about it? Will he want to? Can he really? No matter how much security the US has, unless they take away the guns, free speech, and what there is left of independent media in the US. Bush can’t stop anything...except the advancement of civil rights and liberties. Maybe that’s the war he wants to win.

"this country would be better as a dictatorship, just so long as I’m the dictator". That Bush, always kidding around.

Who would benefit from another 9/11? Sadly, both. OBL would use that to show how he can outwit a military intelligence that outspends it’s counterparts by 10 to 1, and that’s being modest. He would also try to use that against Bush, showing Bush can’t do anything to stop him, again. Bush would once again convince the American people that it’s not his fault, intelligence, or anything they can control...unless they are to completely give him full power over their lives and send their kids to fight the terrorists (draft by guilt and patriotism). But where are the terrorists this time? Iraq? No, we got the evil-doer there. Today we are being told they are now in Iran, Syria, and anywhere else...Bin laden is not. Score 7-5

We also don’t know when Bush will begin spending his politcal capital or what that means...he can take away abortions, sign mandatory prayer into law, censor television, ban some books or monitor those that read them, and legitimize gay bashing, but how will he convince Americans to fight another war?

9/11 Redux answers that question. So the world waits, we wait to see what damage these men will cause to the world through their propaganda campaigns, we wait to see how Bin Laden and Bush will use 9/11 Redux to further their mandates. If only Bush can keep the US safe, what will they do in 2008? Re-elect him? Perhaps these 4 long years will be used to convince American citizens...that only a Bush knows how to keep America safe. Jeb Bush seems a likely candidate to be passed the monarchy, unless W. Bush, can convince congress(like he is so good at doing), that the 8 year rule is antiquated and if a president is doing a good job, he should be allowed to run again. Stranger things have happened.

9/11 Redux, help Bush? Unfortunately, yes. Most Americans are being kept in the dark about NY. NY doesn’t want war, the families of the victims don’t war(most of them), especially with Iraq. They were the ones affected the most by 9/11, they voted for Kerry and that means nothing now in the propaganda war. Neither did the overwhelming support for Kerry in Washington, where the pentagon is. People in the southern states and across the midwest might as well be living in another country, because information is easier to control in the "red" states and they have always lived in fear... fear of the big city, fear of the intellectuals, and fear of too much freedom. They are happy to see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. Bush is their knight in shining armor, the guy that tells them what they want to hear. He’s the guy that tells them, "freedom is on the march", while he hides pictures of their dead sons and daughters. Score 7-6 (Bush is making a comeback and everybody loves an underdog).

Propaganda and surpression of information works or else it wouldn’t be used.

Sadly, only the people who are effected by the power of propaganda, lose this war. The only winners, are those that try to legitimize it and it’s only enemies, are those that recognize it.

Propaganda hasn’t worked on all Americans, some do not fear OBL, it’s midnight and they hear a knock at their door, maybe that’s what they’re scared of.