Blog For Arizona

Does the Lybia WMD agreement justify Neo-Con pre-emption?

The "Bush Doctrine" recieved a big boost as to its efficacy, if not its legitimacy with the Lybian agreement to ditch their WMD programs. Or so some would have you believe.The truth is a lot more complex and almost a decade in the making. The WMD deal with Lybia is the product of a long-term trend in Lybian politics due to economic drivers and the long-term involvement of allies and international institutions building confidence over a sustained diplomatic effort.

The wildcard is, of course, Burlesconi's claim that Qadaffi told him he caved becuase he was frightened of Bush. Bullshit. Burlesconi will say anything for his buddy Bush; they are practically the same scumbag in two different skins. Burlesconi is buying a chip in the big game with his ridiculous claim about his conversation with Qaddaffi. There is simply no way in hell that a dictator would so baldly admit of such a thing to the Italian PM. The story is clearly a fabrication. Give it about 2-3 weeks and some lame excuse for how the story was gotten wrong will come out. Of course, by then the idea the Bush's "doctrine" worked to frighten Qadaffi into collaboration will be set in the public mind and the facts simply won't matter to most people. The pattern of this media-op is so common with the GOP that one could with justification claim that it is S.O.P. to lie early and loudly, and let the opposition debunk you later.

The loud assertion of the lie, which bolsters your claim or policy, will linger well enough to largely overcome any later debunking. Of course, the debunking can always be dismissed as obfucation and political maneuver by your opponents. Goebbel's advice to lie loudly, often and big works all the better in a corporatized media environment where the electorate has a very short attention span.

posted by Michael Bryan @ 12/24/2003 03:02:00 AM