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Iraq: Troop Movement, Not Troop Withdrawal
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) made the following statement on June 30, 2009 regarding the announcement that U.S. troops have left the cities and towns of Iraq and turned over formal security to Iraqi security forces:
The withdrawal of some U.S. combat troops from Iraq’s cities is welcome and long overdue news. However, it is important to remember that this is not the same as a withdrawal of U.S. troops and contractors from Iraq.
U.S. troop combat missions throughout Iraq are not scheduled to end until more than a year from now in August of 2010. In addition, U.S. troops are not scheduled for a complete withdrawal for another two and a half years on December 31, 2011. Rather, U.S. troops are leaving Iraqi cities for military bases in Iraq. They are still in Iraq, and they can be summoned back at any time.
This is not a great victory for peace. On May 19, the Christian Science Monitor reported that Iraqi and U.S. military officials virtually redrew the city limits of Baghdad in order to consider the Army’s Forward Operating Base Falcon as outside the city, despite every map of Baghdad clearly showing it with in city limits. In fact, according to Section 24.3 of the “SOFA” U.S. troops can remain at any agreed upon facility. The reported reason for this decision is to ensure U.S. troops are able to ‘help maintain security in south Baghdad along what were the fault lines in the sectarian war.’
This troop movement should not be confused with a troop withdrawal from Iraq. In reality, this is a small step toward Iraqi sovereignty as Iraqi security forces begin assuming greater control over security operations, but it is a long way from independence and a withdrawal of the U.S. military presence.
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77 Comments so far
Show AllIt figures. It's just a semantical tactic used by the propaganda meisters to trick us into believing that something encouraging is happening. I don't believe the U.S. will ever leave a country in which it's established a military presence, until the empire falls under the burden of its own debts and incompentencies.
Sioux Rose
JOHN: Well-said. Similar "semantics tactics" were utilized by the Bush hit-team in suggesting victory in surge after surge; that is when not applying similar Orwellian language jijitsu to domestic polices under glorious sounding (always false in practice) banners such as: "No child Left Behind," or "Healthy Forest Initiative," or "prescription drug benefit plan," etc. One wonders what Ph.D. psychologists have taught politicians that buzz words merit the intended result, that is winning the public's allegiance to the officially preferred course of action. Alas, it's so much easier to change the wording than to actually change policies and the complex logistics they entail. Just like editing a manuscript, a simple keystroke is all that's needed to sway the masses this way or that. Too bad Truth, along with the really needed things get lost in the verbal shuffle.
Is it politically correct to be anti-semantic?
Enough of being "politically correct". It would be much better if they would be honest with their semantics rather than cowardly and dishonest about it. Is that too much to ask?
Hey Jen, I thought "anti-semantic" was funny!
And really if they told the truth all the time we wouldn't have need of semantics at all.
We all need a crash course in "How to spot insidious yet beguiling phrases intended to influence us to act against our own interests".
Chapter one would be called: "If their lips are moving..."
The closest area to your "semantic tactics" is "neuro-linguistic programming" or NLP. Google it, Wiki has some stuff. Advertising, sales, PR, scriptwriters, speechwriters, etc., all can use NLP both in short and long-term strategies. It's a physio-psychological approach to communications techniques and strategies. Brain research is increasingly playing a part. Certainly there are extensive and detailed semantic and logical analyses using NLP which produce detailed list of potential semantic ambiguities and broadly implicit words, "buzz words" (a 1970's term?) that can be deliberately exploited.
Does anybody know of any govt agency or government-contracted private company devoted to Language Policy in the USA? I'm not talking about language education - I'm asking about deliberate language manipulation. - - Obvious example: Take the word, "liberal", which seemed to suffer enormously starting during the Reagan years. Strong negative meaning associations were created while completely ignoring history - and today, a significant portion of the meaning of "liberal" has come to represent the worst characteristics of rapacious Caapitalism. There's the Orwell, for you. I think that obviously was a deliberate intention and one that furthermore removed "us" from the definition itself leaving "us" with no adequate manner to describe "ourselves" without resorting to clumsy, embarrassing, multi-word descriptions. What do you think?
Government has hired Wall Street ad people for this work. Some kernel of those campaign ad people get retained between campaigns, and I suspect those are our people.
Thanks for "NLP."
Frank Lutz advised Bush to change "global warming" to "climate change." As for a company, I guess the winner is AKPDmedia.
For PhD shrinks teaching politicians, google "Edward Louis Bernays", one of Freud's nephews.
Walter Lippman's books are good source documents too. Heren's one:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper2/CDFinal/Lippman/cover.html
Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent gives a great review, but of motives and institutional structures more than techniques. They wrote in the late 1980's, but with a little imagination and text for marketing students, one can apply many of the ideas to Web-centric situations.
This is the book, not the rather cool Zeitgeist docu-bio about Chomsky:
http://www.amazon.com/Manufacturing-Consent-Political-Economy-Media/dp/0375714499/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246488497&sr=8-2
Jeff Cohen's CABLE NEWS CONFIDENTIAL is a brisk, lively, and easy read by a founder of FAIR who found himself tripping though the belly of the TV media beast. Google Video will find you some of his lectures, too. He does deal peripherally with techniques, though his primary aim usually seems to be just to make us all realize that this thing is done very deliberately and that it's crucial.
http://www.jeffcohen.org/
I'd like to see a Net-savvy update on all this, though. Things are getting refined. Does anyone know of any?
All you media folk, here's one for my wish list:
I was lucky to hear Cohen rant for about 40 minutes straight as he channel-surfed one day about 30 years ago. Man, what a slap in the head! I'd known I'd been lied to, but I'd had no idea how, how much, or how pervasively. I'd LOVE to see something like that done in digital media by someone with similar preparation and insight.
Offhand, I'd like to see it work like this. Run the clips. Run the clips with commentary. Stop the action and arrow to things. Replay them.
Or, simpler, provide a text in HTML with pics and diagrams and embed a few sample videos.
I must say, there's a difference between knowing as general principle that you're being lied to and being able to say, "Bang! Right there. I'm supposed to believe XYZ, but no one has committed him or her self to saying it."
This kind of thing deserves to be part of English courses and Critical Thinking courses. After all, we're not always being liked to in text.
Sioux Rose you think of "jiu-jitsu," a Brazilian pastime catching on around the world. Hope you are well many times, asked a mutual friend to forward you a few pics...hehehe,
"If you're lost,
any road'll take you home."
Siouxrose wonders:
"One wonders what Ph.D. psychologists have taught politicians that buzz words merit the intended result, that is winning the public's allegiance to the officially preferred course of action"
Frank Lunz for the Republicans
George Lakoff for the Democrats
Poet
VIVA!!Dennis Kucinich. Thanks for being the singular truth teller and gadfly on so many issues and occasions. Your spirited voice from last summer's Democratic National Convention, can still be heard in my mind, saying "Wake up, America, Wake Up America" Watch it on Youtube by entering Dennis' name. Hopefully at some point soon he will join with other progressives and create a new party/movement so that we actually have two parties, not the two headed monster that rules for the rich and powerful now.
He is NOT the Singular Truth Teller, do Not forget about Ron Paul!
and also Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney!
Kucinich just happens to be the Cingular Truth Teller of the Democratic wing of Congress.
How about Bernie Sanders from Vermont!
Ron Paul??? He might be a loose cannon Republican who, like a broken clock, is right twice a day. But he is certainly no progressive - and not deserving of being mentioned in the same sentence with Kucinich, McKinney and Nader.
We need everyone who is for peace and is not afraid to speak truth to power.
new things are happening http://votersforpeace.us/index2.php
"But he is certainly no progressive "
I wouldn't be so sure about that. In addition to being consistently against the war and its funding, he is also for ending the ban on Cannabis. See HR 1866 aka Hemp Farming Bill. He may not be much of a progressive but he does come up with great ideas and can overlap with the progressives just like some libertarians so I wouldn't write him off.
And let us not forget, that during the elections it was RON PAUL who brought together ALL the Third Party Candidates, Ralph Nader, Cynthia Mickinney, Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party and Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party.
Besides, these days, being a True Constitutionalist (like Ron Paul is) is the most Progressive thing out there!
Ron Paul for President 2012
oh and by the way (this isn't a bash at Dennis Kucinich) But Ron Paul gathered Way More MOney and Support and Votes during the election than did Mr. Kucinich!
Economically Ron Paul is the opposite of a progressive. His Libertarian policies would allow more concentration of wealth and more poverty.
Dennis,
Thank you for the vision and the courage to speak truth to power again and again.
You are absolutely correct!
Why would the Military Industrial Complex just abandon the bases that they built in Iraq using tax payer money? They wouldn't.
Those bases are built for a reason, to be used. To House Soldiers, Weapons and Vehicles. To keep them there to protect "U.S. Interests" and to be strategically placed to strike nations such as Iran, as soon as the Zionist puppet masters decide to make a go for it.
Kucinich and many others are 100% right, there is no withdraw, just a shift, a shift from the streets of Iraqi cities to the newly built bases. A shift from most of the forces being inside of Iraq into Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Obama and the Military Industrial Complex masters have NO Intentions of Leaving the Middle east, there is Oil there, there is Heroin and they are also Strategic placements for WAR! Americas gross National Product!
Dennis is so right. Thank you for all you do, Congressman. There are very few of your kind in our government any longer.
You, of all people, Mr Kucinich, should be all too well aware that, like its corporate sponsored version of "freedom and democracy", U.S. geopolitical strategy is based almost entirely on hypocrisy and semantic distortions.
Unfortunately, as Chris Hedges pointed out so eloquently in his recent article (suggested reading at http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/29-2 ): The Truth Alone Will Not Set You Free. For that you will need, at the very least, to dump your allegiance to the political facade of the corporate power structure's Democrat Branch.
At least Dennis (and Barbara Lee) are some of a handful of Democrats that speak the truth; I do agree with RVs assessment as well. The current corporate-sponsored Duopoly power stanglehold must be broken in order for any meaningful change to happen.
If more Democrats would pay more attention to Nader, Mckinney, Kucinich, Sheehan, etc ... the party would be taken seriously. It is great to know that at least a few good pols in Washington stay sharp and clear to the point and don't allow window dressing to fool them into deviating from their original thoughts. I was especially impressed with Kucinich mentioning not only troops but also contractors in Iraq. This is exactly what the anti-war movements also need to include. Thank you Dennis Kucinich. :)
I campaigned for and contributed to Dennis Kucinich. This latest statement is one more reason why I will continue to support him.
Thanks Dennis Kucinich,Best wishes to you and your lovely wife.Thanks for telling the truth in a world filled with prevaricators and stay well.Try to avoid small planes please.
peace
Thank you Dennis, for an official statement of the obvious.
All the pundits spread the illusion that this troop movement is significant. I say bullshit.
Break out the flags, clear Main Street, the troops are coming home, let's have a parade! War is over.......What's that? They're not coming home? No parade? No victory march? No bottles of Champagne poured on the victorious troops? What a gyp.
War is peace. The base is outside of city limits because the city limits were re-drawn. Hope is audacious.
The United States will not be leaving Iraq until the Iraqis throw us out, which is inevitable since Iraqi quislings will not be able to maintain power for more than a few years after 2011. How the USA resists being thrown out will be, as they say, interesting.
Dennis Kucinich, you are the most honest, most learned, most spiritual and most incorruptible leader in Washington, DC . To me, you recognise that the great human conflict of our times is not a conflict between Christianity and Islam but a conflict between the rigged unsustainable system of corporate capitalism and the need for a true liberation of the human spirit. And this is only possible with more and more Democracy, in the U.S. and throughout the world. As you know, the world capitalists hate democracy.
The evil of the American Empire must be exposed and confronted in the "belly of the beast of capitalism". You Dennis Kucinich must speak to a higher global consciousness that is emerging in the world that seeks a more just, sustainable and compassionate world. The Earth Charter and the World Social Forum are good examples of this emerging higher global consciousness.
You Dennis Kucinich are very well aware that this paradigm shift of global consciousness is fast becoming the second most powerful force in the world, second only to U.S. military power. It is the only power that can confront the New World Order. This emerging higher consciousness is mostly hidden from U.S. citizens.
Americans (99%?) are not aware that this New World Order is now being advanced by the global capitalists. It is designed for global Corporate Rule and the deindustrialization of the U.S.economy. These global capitalists seek to rule the world, to advance an international world economy based on the cheapest of consumer goods and a system to be ruled by the very few wealthy global corporate elite and all other people including the diminishing middle classes of the world will be oppressed and their heirs reduced to serfs.
Dennis Kucinich, you are the only bonafide choice to lead a radical new Third Party, not a Melba Toast Party........ A new radical Third Party based on the teachings of Saul Alinsky and the great spiritual minds of our day. The U.S.A. needs a rallying call for massive pamphleteering to educate the public and mass public demonstrations to oppose this New World Order and to denounce the unbearable monopolistic usury of Wall Street.
The U.S. Congress must be exposed as pure lapdogs to the global capitalists and Wall Street. The MSM will have no choice but to carry your message when millions of Americans are in the streets.
Think about it Dennis Kucinich. President Obama has already failed the hopes of the progressive wing of the Democratic party. It is now proven that Wall Street owns the U.S. Congress. The "powers that be" control both the Republican and Democratic party. I think you Dennis Kucinich are now wasting your time in the Democratic Party.
American destiny needs you Dennis Kucinich to lead the next American Revolution. I wish I was a Billionaire to financially support you. I hope one or more will come to rescue the United States of America.
"massive pamphleteering to educate the public"
We have the computers and printers to put this into practice. We could also use local neighborhood radio transmitters.
Sounding a little sycophantic there Stephen. I agree with his policies too, but why would he poll better in a third party? Lots of people still support Obama and many that don't think he's a socialist.
It's the right-wing that think Kucinich and Chomsky are "New World Order" shills-I think you're miss-using the term.
No I am not misusing the term New World Order. It is as I expressed. It is not a conspiracy theory as you imply, it is what Globalization is all about, global corporate rule, rough riding over national sovereignty with international trade policies that are rigged for the multinational corporations to deny individual nations the ability to determine their own economic destiny.
The term is usually used by libertarians like Alex Jones that hate Kucinich and Chomsky (see wikipedia). I support global institutions if they are accountable to democracies. I suspect people across the world could come to a consensus on vital issues like secular democracy, basic laws and worker control and if two neighboring countries have the same laws, borders could dissolve. That's world government that I'd support. I'd like to see the U.S join the international court too, We probably share the same views. N.W.O is used to scare people away from the U.N and world court.
Po Thread: The term New World Oder is usually associated with George H. W. Bush when he spoke of the New World Order and the "inevitability" of Globalization.
For your added info, there is the term "subsidiarity" that is usually associated with Catholic social thought. It is so seldom used that it was only recently recognized by spell check.
It means no economic activity should occur on a higher level that can be filled on the local level. This is meant to maintain economic vitality on the local level to strengthen community bonds that grants greater human dignity to local labor and greater meaning in life. This then warrants a preference for local production for local consumption. This is the sustainable economic alternative to Globalization. Globalization is designed to wipe out local economic activity. David Korton recognized this economic conflict when he worked as a U.S. Economic Development advisor for 20 some years in the Philippines and Third World counties and chose to leave and write his most famous book, When Corporations Rule the World.
double post.
I'm anti corporate globalization but I've never heard the left use the term N.W.O. I also support worker control but wouldn't subsidiarity negate socialist programs like universal health-care, public schools etc. I just don't see how Libertarian/paleocon and socialist views can be reconciled.
P.S My name is Po Thead (anagram of pot head) but everyone calls me "Po Thread." I'd be surprised if that was being censored.
All the best.
Po Thead, .....Sorry about that misspelling, the "R" subconsciously wants to go there.
The term New World Order is most commonly referenced by the knowledgeable Left. When the term is used by the Right, the term is meant to twist, mislead, cover-up or ridicule the original meaning of the term. George H W Bush's use of the term was accurate, almost a "slip of the tongue", but not fully explained. The New World Order, which is in fact the Rule of Global Multinational Corporations, the elimination of national sovereignty and democratic rule, is the absolute goal of the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, but these groups are well intended to be "outside" of mainstream thought.
As I had mentioned, Subsidiarity means no economic activity should occur on a higher level than can be done as well or better on a local level. Subsidiarity also applies to to the role of government. Government sponsored Universal health-care and Federal aid to local school systems does in most cases serve the community better than if left entirely to the local community. This is what you would call the "essential" role of government for the common good.
Thank you for hanging in on my posts.
According to Wikipedia H.G Wells used the term in a positive way to refer to a socialist world government (even though it was a meritocracy). Einstein and Russell advocated a supra-national world government and were also socialists. The Libertarian-Right are all over the net, they hate socialists and call Chomsky a N.W.O shill because he supports the U.N, world court and doesn't believe the "911 truthers." I think Alex Jones and his minions are very confused-they are against corporate rule but support capitalism, that's why I just use the term "Corporate Globalization" and recommend others do.
Check-out Michael-Hudson.com if you haven't already. Cheers.
Alex Jones has had Kucinich on his show numerous times and seems to have great respect for him, even calling him an "American hero." Saying he hates him is just plain wrong.
I just checked youtube and was surprised to hear him actually being nice to Dennis and Ralph. I don't know how he reconciles this with their positions on the U.N, world court, socialized health-care and gun-control. After I heard his tirade against Chomsky I just dismissed him as a lunatic.
I wonder why a billionare would care...they GOT their money off our backs in the first place!
Veteran '66-68
Yep, it's all about PR window dressing; the perception of substance without substance.
Mr. Kucinich knows they need money to do this (OUR MONEY). He is single minded and has great support. I believe this man will make it to the White house. They will try to "kick him upstairs" so to speak. It won't work. This man is going to make history because he will have a core of support in congress and a massive support at the grass roots level. The only people against him are the noisy paid shills of war profiteering corporations from wall street. Get rid of that 401K, people. You are aiding and abetting war.
Never will the ruling capitalists allow Kucinich to win the U.S. Presidency, he is destined for a higher purpose.
Yes Dennis, we need you to lead a new united movement for truth, justice and peace.
A revolution of common sense.
This is a Good article and you are doin a great job.
The Democratic Party with its old structure of corporate lobbying will never let us do it within the old party.
Try something new, the people are waiting for it now more than ever.
Shalom Brother
"JenniferBedingfield July 1st, 2009 3:33 pm
Enough of being "politically correct". It would be much better if they would be honest with their semantics rather than cowardly and dishonest about it. Is that too much to ask?"
This is an execellent thought and point that should be adhered to by all. And not just this time.
Thank you Jennifer.
I'm glad to help. This thought occurred to me when I was reminded that families are already having to deal with all the stress and pressure in life to the point that they are unable to make time to see what's under the wraps. I don't like to judge a book merely by its book cover but I also understand that not all of us are able to find the devil in the details. It is truly sickening to see people getting suckered and poison-pilled in life like this. I think we are going to face bigger challenges overcoming the slicker ones but we might as well not give up.
P.S.: Like maxpayne, you remind me of Thomas More who I miss a lot. Pleased to meet you by the way. :)