War Mom vs. Peace Mom: "Bush yesterday repeated a misleading assertion that he first made Tuesday: That critics of the war in Iraq are also calling for an immediate withdrawal of troops from the broader Middle East.
'An immediate withdrawal of our troops in Iraq or the broader Middle East, as some have called for, would only embolden the terrorists and create a staging ground to launch more attacks against America and free nations,' Bush said.
Yesterday morning, three news organizations -- Agence France Presse, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times -- called attention to this mischaracterization. See yesterday's column for links.
But today, several news organizations -- including The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press and Knight Ridder -- published Bush's assertion unchallenged."
This quote brings to mind another, from Hitler's propaganda minister
"There was no point in seeking to convert the intellectuals. For intellectuals would never be converted and would anyway always yield to the stronger, and this will always be 'the man in the street.' Arguments must therefore be crude, clear and forcible, and appeal to emotions and instincts, not the intellect. Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology."
It is sad and pathetic to see both sides of the war controversy; the president and his detractors, trying to manipulate public opinion putting a sacrificing mother against a grieving one; reducing the debate to character assessination tactics.
The problem should be obvious, they are trying to justify actions appealling to emotions, disregarding the facts which are misconstrued from the beginning.
Regardless of which mom appeals more to your symphaty, the fact is clear: our culture is being driven by nothing but manipulation.
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