How The Bush Administration Uses Fear As A Political Tool

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/8799

How The Bush Administration Uses Fear As A Political Tool
by Randolph T Holhut | Jul 18 2007


DUMMERSTON, Vt. — With public support for the Iraq war hovering around 30 percent, the Bush administration is falling back on a familiar strategy it loves to use when it find itself in trouble — scaring the American people.

On Tuesday, the National Intelligence Estimate, which reflects the consensus view of the 16 U.S. spy agencies, was released to the press. It states that al-Qaida is stepping up efforts to sneak terror operatives into the United States and has acquired most of the capabilities it needs to strike here.

President Bush immediately seized upon the report's findings as justification for the continued U.S. occupation of Iraq. Bush still believes that al-Qaida is responsible for the violence in Iraq, something that has been repeatedly proven false.

And, for good measure, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff chimed in last week, saying he had a "gut feeling" that another major terrorist attack was going to happen — even though he admitted that there was no specific threat to justify that statement.

The NIE was released the same day that the Senate planned an all-night session to force a vote on the Iraq war. Coincidence? Definitely not, especially when one remembers all the other times when terrorist threats conveniently materialized exactly when the administration needed a little distraction.

A couple of years ago, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann assembled a list of 10 instances when the timing of the government's terrorist alerts appeared to be more than a little suspicious. Let's take a walk down memory lane and examine them.

more...

[liberal N proud]

1. Only 10 instances where timing is questionable?

Maybe it is psychological but I would have guessed higher than that. They used every time we turned around in 2002 and 2003, molding the people into the fear filled sheep they needed to support an illegal war.

Like me and what I do or I will beat you up!

[babylonsister]

2. The instances in this article were from one of Olbermann's rants;

there are more now. Hopefully KO will do an update soon.

[C_U_L8R]

3. the past week has been crazy

with more hamfisted fearmongering than
could fill the airwaves. Oh the shame.
Our reporters are such republican suckups.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

4. No need to convince me the Bush Administration uses fear as a tactic.

I'm now convinced they paid for and plotted 9/11.

They had been planning Iraq long before 2000. 9/11 was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo convenient for 9/11 to happen, particularly immediately after Cheney had all those nice meetings with the oil barons. Too frikkin' perfect. Either Cheney made a pact with the devil and the devil came through for him, or they plotted and paid to have this done. I didn't use to believe this. Now, however, I would require solid proof that they did not set this up to happen to believe they didn't do it.

[babylonsister]

5. Wow. The jury is still out for me, but I'm not totally convinced

they weren't involved.

[C_U_L8R]

6. Fear: It's what's for dinner

http://www.urbanmedium.com/fear_shirt.html
found on boing boing