Bush's Speech & the Politics of Fear.

For those of us who remember 2003, the reason for the war in Iraq was to 'uncover weapons of mass destruction' and prevent Saddam Hussein from using them. It was a question of national if not global security. When that did not happen, well, the administration tried to link the war to the 'global war on terror' and to '9/11', and by repeating it over and over again (with the help of right-wing media), a lot of people believed it. The greatest motivation for such a war was the strongest emotion in humans - fear. As a result peole were ready to buy anything.

Last February polls showed that 64 % of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein had strong links to Al Qaeda (up slightly from 62% in November) and 61 % believed that Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, was a serious threat to U.S. security (down slightly from 63% in November).

Well naturally last night, Bush evoked 9/11 to justify the war in Iraq , trying in a gross fashion to scare people into buying the carnage in Iraq. But things have changed - the 9/11 commission clearly dismissed possible links between Al Qaead and Saddam Hussein a couple of weeks ago, polls suggest that people are very concerned and doubtful about the war and 52 % of them say the administration “deliberately misled” the public about why we went to war.

So it is unlikely that the 'politics of fear' continuously played by this administration and their neo-con allies will work much longer. Their use of the tragedy of 9/11 to justify an enormous 'mistake' (which has resulted in more American and Iraqideaths) and their unwillingness to recognize that they were wrong may even back fire. but it may take time before a majority Americans see what has been plainly obvious to the rest of the world. Hopefully, Bush's latest propaganda speech will be a wake-up call for some.