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UPDATED - ColdType

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It’s an invasion, not a war.<br />

It’s fomenting terror, not fighting terror.<br />

It’s using weapons of mass destruction, not<br />

suppressing them.<br />

It’s using uranium ammunition, not suppressing<br />

uranium weapons.<br />

It’s practicing fascism, not promoting democracy.<br />

It’s Anglo-American colonialism, not a willing<br />

coalition.<br />

It’s classic hegemony, not charity.<br />

It’s backwards logic, not forward defense.<br />

It’s another racist hate crime, not a noble just<br />

war.<br />

It’s an organized lynch mob, not leadership<br />

decapitation.<br />

They’re homicide bombs, not guided bombs.<br />

They’re the natives, we’re the cavalry.<br />

Déjà vu all over the place. ●<br />

APRIL 5: TV IS BOMBED<br />

TO CURE THEIR PROPAGANDA<br />

IF we ever needed a clearer demonstration of<br />

the power of media, we have it now. The battle<br />

for media control has moved into the center of<br />

the war. Despite the violation of international<br />

law associated with bombing a television station,<br />

the US forces continue to try to do it in Iraq. Suddenly<br />

we are back in the Romania of l989, or the<br />

Russia of 1991 as a fight against a TV station<br />

becomes a centerpiece in the campaign to delegitimize<br />

a regime.<br />

US forces have been targeting the TV towers in<br />

Baghdad the way they did in Belgrade. And they<br />

still haven’t taken it off the air, despite all the<br />

WAR KILLS JOURNALISTS<br />

171<br />

cruise missiles, smart bombs, bunker busters,<br />

(JDAMs) and who knows what else, they have<br />

thrown at them. At the CENTCOM briefing this<br />

morning, comfortably televised from the milliondollar<br />

air conditioned media center in Doha by<br />

another type of controlled TV, there were suggestions<br />

that the Iraqis had built redundant systems<br />

anticipating just such an attack. They have<br />

also leased time on satellites.<br />

Propaganda front and center<br />

THE media war has moved centerstage with<br />

briefers describing their own propaganda initiatives,<br />

i.e. taking over Channel 3, and launching<br />

radio stations that Clear Channel Communications<br />

are likely to pick up for a song when the<br />

war ends. Meanwhile, the American TV commentators<br />

buzz about whether or not that was<br />

the “real” Saddam we saw in the streets with<br />

cheering supporters yesterday.<br />

(As for the briefings, here’s a disturbing side<br />

bar. Last week we cited NY Magazine columnist<br />

Michael Wolff’s report lambasting the phoniness<br />

of the whole Doha disinformation enterprise.<br />

When he returned to New York, he reportedly<br />

discovered that radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh<br />

had been blasting him on the air and calling<br />

on his listeners to bombard him with emails.<br />

Rush gave out his email address and his ditto<br />

heads dutifully overloaded his computer. So<br />

much for freedom of expression.)<br />

No one commented on the contrast between<br />

President Bush flanked by cheering soldiers in<br />

North Carolina and the Iraqi leaders being<br />

embraced by his people in the streets. The Iraqis<br />

are showing tapes of what they call martyrs –<br />

most recently women with rifles calling for more

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