Evil Iraqis Murder Babies

This shows how low the US will stoop!

This does not show anything: lies were component of propaganda for centuries in all parts of the world, and dehumanizing the enemy is a necessary part of preparing the soldiers' psyche to war.
Dlowan, I want once more to apologize for misunderstanding: I interpreted your statement as follows: while Germans did not bayonette the Belgian babies in 1914-18 but were falsely accused by the British media, and 25 years later the Nazis actually did this thing. It was 1:00 a.m. in Israel when I read this, and that might have influenced my comprehension. Right now, after having re-read your statement, I understood that you referred to another Nazi atrocities, committed anywhere they were involved in actions against civilians, but not specifically to bayonetting the Belgian toddlers.

Heavens, Steissd, don't worry! I am often rather elliptical and quick in my writing, and it can be hard to follow.

Actually, Steissd, Ernst Rohm and his brown-shirts were the first bully-boys on the streets of Germany after WWI, and Hitler, after his dismal attempts at a political movement in Bavaria, first began to copy the Brown Shirts, and then to cooperate politically with them. Finally, of course, he absorbed them, and purged them to eliminate potential rivals.

The Cunning Coney's comments about the effect of "the Big Lie" on public perceptions no longer holds up, though. The addicted television viewer has a memory about as long as a list Republican social programs. If they haven't heard about it on the news within the last week, it doesn't exist. The lead story Stinger is using was exposed within days during Gulf War I, and was forgotten even more quickly. These are the golden days, the salad days for political manipulators. Most people in the US know just about as much about the world as they can recall from the previous evening's news report; and the local news--with it's car crashes, burglaries and abandoned infants--holds a more prominent place in their attention.

Steissd
You stated "lies were component of propaganda for centuries in all parts of the world, and dehumanizing the enemy is a necessary part of preparing the soldiers' psyche to war. "

You mean to tell me that you think that lying to soldiers is the right thing to do simply to get them in the killing mood? That insane thinking and I can't believe that you said that!!!

Unfortunately, it is the truth. You have never undergone, I guess, a primary training and motivation meetings in any army in course of any war; but the following things happen: officers and sergeant-majors try to incite hatred toward the enemy by all the means possible. Maybe, otherwise, it will be very hard for the soldier to shoot at another human being (I do not mean civilians, BTW, mainly this refers to enemy's soldiers). Your reaction shows that some truth is too hard for the people to be perceived.

I do not think that mediamen that invented a story of German soldiers killing babies in Belgium were extremely evil people by their very nature, or were nurtured to be evil: they had a task to increase motivation of the British soldiers going to fight.

I just happen to think that the truth is important!!!

If I was a soldier and was told something like that and it wasn't true, I would feel betrayed in a huge way!!!

steissd

No matter what justification or rationalization you offer for governments telling a lie, the simple fact is that it is still a lie. Since politicians keep asking us, the voters, to trust them, their desire to gain our trust is incompatible with their willingness to lie. They can't have it both ways. How can we trust people who tell us lies?

You feel that the public are unable to deal with the truth. That knowing the whole truth is too much for their 'psyche'. If that is the case, then how about the 'psyche' of politicians? If they are able to survive the trauma of knowing the truth, then why should the public be any different? Unless of course you feel that politicians are superior human beings!

If the truth about something such as a military operation is so horrific, that the public need to be shielded from the truth, then perhaps we shouldn't be doing something that is so horrific. If the government is afraid of how we might react to the truth, we should be concerned about what they are doing in secret, rather than be happy that we are being kept in the dark.

Politicians work for the electorate, not the other way around. When politicians make decisions, they are acting on our behalf, in our name. Perhaps it's time that we knew what our employees are doing, in our name. If difficult decisions have to be made, then personally I would prefer to know all the facts, not just the facts that the government are willing to reveal. That way we can avoid feelings of guilt or anger, years after the event, when we finally discover that we have been lied to, and fooled into supporting something that we would not have supported, if we had been told the truth.

Well, I've been a soldier, conscript and a a rserve officer in the 'alarm reserve'.
I've never heard such as described by steissd besides in some bad 'B-movies'.
Actually, this would be impossible in Germany at all: members of the forces are "citizens in uniform" with the same rights and duties as any other citizen. 'Official lies' used this way would be completely unlawful.

No direct lies are necessary in such cases, Mr. Hinteler. The sheer disinformation in the style of the British media of the beginning of the 20th century is obsolete, and it is used mainly by the Muslim media. It is necessary to present the real facts about an enemy in concentrated form, and to apply proper accents. That is all, ususally this is enough to incite hatred toward enemies; in most cases an enemy himself provides enough negative PR material for the propaganda officers of the counterpart. The hoax of Kuwaiti girl was really unnecessary and excessive: there was already a good reason justifying the military action, and such a reason provided Saddam himself by occupying Kuwait.

Right on Stinger!

Personally, I'm not so weak that I couldn't handle any truth put in front of me and I don't know all that many people who are that weak.

Hmm, then Americans are the happiest people in the world, if they have a possibility to ignore the world news. I would like Israelis to be able to have the same attitude...

I remember these things Setanta!

I, sadly, remember them all too well, myself, Cunning Coney. There's a couple of other threads here which allege that Americans do not understand irony. This is, of course, nothing but Euro-centric snobbery, i doubt not heavily laced with envy. However, it is true that so many, far too many, Americans want to know no bad news which might affect them. To see others as victims of their own stupidity, or some one else's cupidity, allows the comfortable armchair spectator to "tut-tut" and relish the knowledge that they are safe and sound. Bad news, on a local, national or international level, must be fed such consumers in a palatable form which will allow them to roll their eyes heaven-ward and sigh, "There but for the grace of the Almighty Dollar . . . "

OK, rant over . . .

Show me anyone that likes bad news, Setanta. But in Israel listening to the bad news helps to prepare to the worse developments...

I did not know Hill and Knowlton was an arab company. Thanks for making it clear to me.
The girl(Nayirah) testified before the House of Representatives' Human Rights Caucus. I am sure American govt officials knew that her testimony was false. A few key Congressional leaders and reporters also knew who Nayirah was, but none of them thought of sharing that minor detail with Congress, let alone the American people. So this is not about the way the Arab world uses PR. This is about an american PR firm, paid by arabs, but selling war to the american public. And the press and politicians were part of the deal. They knew about it.

"Paid by Arabs" are the keywords. The client pays and gets what he paid for. I do not justify the unscrupulous owners, but the idea belonged to their customers. BTW, the words "Arabs" and "American" are usually being spelled with a capital letter at the beginning, these are names of ethnic group and of the sovereign nation.