Rumsfeld, We Can See Clearly Now 
On Monday, December 5th, 2005 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave a speech at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced Studies.
The goal of this speech was rather direct, especially for Rumsfeld, who often requires an interpreter so that the rest of us can understand what he's really saying most of the time. Rumsfeld broke from character a little to ensure the public that things in Iraq are going great, despite the negative poll numbers caused by all the "pessimistic... elites in our country."
Propaganda 101: Mastery of the Dark Arts explains The Numbers Game as a technique of propaganda that "involves influencing people through the use of statistics, formulas and poll data. This raw data is arranged in a way that exposes the controller's agenda in the best possible light. All conflicting data is ignored or downplayed in order to maximize this techniques potential."
Rumsfeld begins by giving a dizzying array of statistics, "...63 percent of the people in the news media thought the enterprise would fail; so did 71 percent of the people in the foreign affairs establishment; and 71 percent in the academic settings or think tanks." He then added that, "...opinion leaders from the U.S. military are more optimistic about Iraq by a margin of about 64 percent to 32 percent favorable."
Although Rumsfeld plainly admitted in the above statements that the so-called liberal media is less pessimistic of the 'war' than his own military by a margin of one percent, it would appear that he said something all together different. The idea behind this sticky web of words is to confuse the real data so that he can inject the `media' demographic into other groups that can be easily brushed aside as elitist liberal caviar lovers. This sets the tone of his speech - the need to implement a full-scale propaganda campaign that will convince more Americans to come onboard his bandwagon.
When a politician, especially Rumsfeld, starts throwing out numbers, you can be sure that the pictures he paints with them are truly deceptive. Numbers appear simple because we might assume that numbers don't lie. Actually, numbers can and are used as a primary method of propaganda to mislead people.
The Secretary later used a form of ambiguous Testimonial Propaganda. He said, "A distinguished academician, I don't have the exact quote so I won't name him, said something to the effect that the situation in Iraq is terrible, and it's never been better." Do you think it is any wonder that he didn't have the exact quote? He has laundry lists of statistical information right in front of him but the entire might of the Pentagon spin machine was unable to dig up a quote? What he is really saying here is, two out of three smart people agree that everything is just terribly great in Iraq.
The actual quote from this mystery-distinguished academician is quite revealing as well. The underpinning insists that we should all ignore any negative rhetoric about Iraq and focus only on joyful Iraqi children playing games or learning arithmetic.
I was overjoyed when Rumsfeld later defined propaganda quite well along with his expectations for its use on Americans. He stated, "If one is viewing events through a soda straw, they should know that they are by definition selectively focusing on some facts that may highlight their view and not seeing some other perspectives. A full picture of Iraq comes best from an understanding of both the good and the bad and the context for each."
Rumsfeld, have you no shame? Let's just pull that `soda straw' away from our eyes for a minute and have a look at the real big picture. I see a situation where we were deceived into fighting a war based on Card Stacking Propaganda in order to marginalize the fact that a corrupt and illegitimate government is raping our country - redistributing wealth on a scale never before imagined. Who will pay back the debts they are creating? The middle class will have to pay them back in the form of heavy taxes some day. I see an administration that likes using torture and unlawful incarceration - acts that are vile abominations against the human being and our Constitution. I see a "full picture" that includes corruption in the corporate arena and the `Conservative' government that has become so prevalent that the idea of more indictments isn't even arousing anymore. I see a corporate government enacting legislation that has rolled back decades of environmental protections and civil liberties.
Thank you Mr. Rumsfeld, I think we can all see clearly now.
"All warfare is based on deception."
Sun Tzu, The Art of War.
This and other articles on propaganda are available at Mind Your Noodle
KEYWORDS: rumsfeld, propaganda, media, spin, speech, blog, jason galde
Sign up for a Complimentary Member Account... Join the community! It's fast. And it'll allow you to take advantage of all this site's great features!
| < Bad Logic - Great Propaganda | An Exit Strategy from Iraq > |
