The Honest Propagandist

The words of uber-joke Jeff Goldstein, via TBogg:

For a few retired US generals to be calling for Rumsfeld’s resignation publicly even as we are embroiled in that battle sends a message to our enemies that the general’s believe we are losing. And, as everyone with a shred of intellectual honesty knows that not to be the case—that the only way we can lose is if the public will is sapped—calling for Rumsfeld’s ouster now not only sends the wrong message to Americans, but it likewise sends the wrong message to Iraqis, the vast majority of whom are optimistic about the direction of the country.

Intellectual honesty, eh.  Look, when someone is explicitly stating that they must say we are winning the war in order for us to win the war, and that it helps our enemies to say that we’re not winning; can we really trust their “intellectual honesty” when they say they think we’re winning?  I don’t think so.  Because even if he does believe that we’re winning, he’s already admitted that he’d say that even if he thought we were losing.  He just told us that.

And that’s one of the problems with running a propaganda campaign: You’re an idiot if you actually tell people that you’re running a propaganda campaign and that they need to lie if they don’t have positive news.  And Jeff Goldstein’s an idiot.  Because he’s just telling us that he thinks the war is subjective and should be influenced by the proper lies.  And when several military generals state publicly that we need to do something new in the war, and a confessed propagandist with no military experience or inside information disagrees with them and says that we don’t need any changes because we’re already winning; it’s pretty clear that the propagandist is lying.  And so in this recent blog post, Jeff Goldstein has implicitly admitted that he’s a liar and that we can’t trust him.  What an idiot.

But then again, maybe he has a point.  After all, who can really say that retired generals are the best arbiters of whether we’re winning the war?  Especially generals who were stuck in the thick of things and for whom the dangers of war may have distorted their view on how successful this mission is.  They say that distance often puts things in better perspective, and there are few who are as distant from the reality of Iraq than Jeff Goldstein.  

Besides, if these generals aren’t savvy enough to understand the importance of propaganda and lying about the success of your military in order to aid that success; then maybe things are better that they’re now retired and Rummy’s still there plugging away.  I think that Rummy and Goldstein share the same intellectual bunker, so it just makes sense that we continue trusting in their brilliant Peter Pan offensive.  It’s gotten us this far, and if we change strategies now, we’ll just confuse the enemy.