Playing the “Terrorism” Card
by Norman Solomon
February 13, 2003
Dissident Voice
These days, it's
a crucial ace up Uncle Sam's sleeve. "Terrorism" is George W. Bush's
magic card.
For 17 months
now, the word has worked like a political charm for the Bush administration.
Ever since the terrible crime against humanity known as 9/11, the White House
has exploited the specter of terrorism to move the GOP's doctrinaire agenda.
Boosting the military budget, cutting social programs and shredding civil
liberties are well underway.
Like the
overwhelming majority of politicians on Capitol Hill, most journalists in
Washington are too timid to do anything other than quibble about fine-tuning and
get out of the way of rampaging elephants.
The word
"terror" has become a linguistic staple in news media. For keeping
the fearful pot stirred, it's better than the longer word
"terrorism," which refers to an occasional event. The shortened word
has an ongoing ring to it. At the end of February's first week, when Attorney
General John Ashcroft announced an official hike in the warning code, the cable
networks lost no time plastering "Terror Alert: High" signs on TV
screens.
Days later, the
administration literally couldn't wait to tell the world about a new audiotape
from Osama bin Laden. The eagerness of Colin Powell knew no bounds. He was
spinning about the tape at a congressional appearance even before a single
moment of the audio had premiered on the Arabic-language Al Jazeera network.
The next day, a
White House spokesman did what he could to bolster the thin wisps of supposed
links between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. "If that is not an unholy
partnership, I have not heard of one," said Ari Fleischer, who trumpeted
"the linking up of Iraq with Al Qaeda." It was, he said, "the
nightmare that people have warned about."
Actually, it was
a dream that the Bush team has been yearning for -- some semblance of a public
embrace involving Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
You wouldn't
know it from the dominant media coverage, but the embrace was not only
distinctly one-sided -- it was also riddled with caveats and barbs. In his
statement, Bin Laden made clear that he has never stopped viewing Hussein as an
infidel. And the Iraqi dictator has continued to keep his distance from
longtime foe Bin Laden.
In the
propaganda end game prior to an all-out attack on Iraq, the Bush crew is
playing a favorite card; as a word, terrorism can easily frighten the public and
keep competing politicians at bay. And now, Washington's policymakers are on
the verge of implementing a military attack that will, in effect, terrorize
large numbers of Iraqi people.
Pentagon war
plans, dubbed "Shock and Awe," call for sending many hundreds of
missiles into Baghdad during the first day. Numerous articles in the daily
British press have been decrying these plans. In contrast, with few exceptions,
mainstream U.S. journalists have been shamefully restrained.
The people in
control of U.S. foreign policy are now determined to treat 9/11 as a license --
their license -- to kill. Although even the most fanciful statements from the
Bush administration have not claimed that the Iraqi regime had anything to do
with the events of Sept. 11, the murderous actions on that day are being cited
to justify a military attack on Iraq sure to take thousands of civilian lives.
When the sludge
of propaganda is afflicting the body politic of our country, news outlets have
a crucial role to perform. Media can function as a circulatory system for the
nation; the free flow of information and debate is the lifeblood of a
democracy. But right now, the USA's media arteries are clogged.
If seeing a
"Terror Alert: High" sign on your TV screen makes you feel edgy,
imagine what it's like to be living in Baghdad or Basra. For people in the
United States, the odds that terrorism will strike close to home are very small
compared to the chances that any particular Iraqi family will be decimated
before summer.
We desperately
need a full national debate on whether we as a society ought to condemn
terrorism -- across the board -- no matter who is doing the terrorizing.
Clearly, politicians will be the last to initiate such a nationwide discussion.
And, sad to say, few journalists show much inclination to ruffle the feathers
of the hawkish gang that rules the roost in Washington. So, let's stop waiting
for others to rise to the occasion. If we want to get an authentic debate
going, we'll need to do it ourselves.
Norman
Solomon is Executive Director of the Institute for
Public Accuracy (www.accuracy.org) and a
syndicated columnist. His latest book is Target Iraq: What the News Media
Didn’t Tell You (Context Books, 2003) with Reese Erlich. Email: mediabeat@igc.org
*
Video of the recent C-SPAN "Washington Journal" one-hour interview
with
Norman
Solomon will remain online until about Feb. 22 at:
http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/jdrive/wj020703_solomon.rm
"Target
Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You," by Norman Solomon and
Reese
Erlich, has just been published as a paperback original by Context
Books.
The introduction is by Howard Zinn and the afterword is by Sean
Penn.
For the prologue to the book and other information, go to:
http://www.contextbooks.com/newF.html