Spinning The War

It's obvious now that Israel had a prior agenda and is carrying it out in Lebanon with cold precision. After laying out the bogus reasons for all this stupefying destruction, they don't even bother to reference the missing soldiers any more. Dutiful newsfakers will remind you that somewhere in the distant past there was a reason for these war crimes but Israel seems to be far beyond caring to make excuses for their actions.

Most of the dead are innocent civilians. The latest targets appear to be private enterprises in an effort to completely destroy an entire nation's economy:

"The production facilities of at least five companies in key industrial sectors - including the country's largest dairy farm, Liban Lait; a paper mill; a packaging firm and a pharmaceutical plant - have been disabled or completely destroyed. Industry insiders say the losses will cripple the economy for decades to come."

Such a ferocious blitzkrieg in the information age is going to have serious blowback when stories and images make their way out of the devastated areas. Some Lebanese and Palestinian blogs are doing a good job of letting the world know what's going on. Al Jazeera is staying on top of Gaza and Lebanon.

But then there are the Israel apologists. Since most right wing news outlets and talking heads are rabid endorsers of our march to authoritarianism, they will find any excuse and use any trick in the propaganda 101 playbook to exonerate and rationalize both Israel and our domestic fascists, who are basically tied at the hip. So what can they do to mitigate those scenes of human misery and destruction courtesy of zionist largesse? How can they counter the bad press? I took a look around.

The wingnuts are getting giddy over all this warfare and the possibility that it will spread. Limbaugh actually said the spreading devastation from the invasion is "a gift to the world". Audio-MP3

Fox news on AM stations at the top of the hour looks at it as if we're Israelis and that's all that matters. O'reilly pretends to be neutral, but can't.

The AP and Reuters report stories with their usual sly narrative and passive terminology. Thus Israelis capture and Hezbollah kidnap, Israelis "enter" Lebanon and "push" forward, like they're hiking in the woods.

Coulter - attack the democrats. Just keep smashing Lebanon - parts are still standing.

Then I found what seems to be the talking point du jour. Some days ago it was revealed that the state department's policy was that if an american wanted to be rescued from the war zone he or she had to pay for it. And that the US was slow to help it's citizens. There was understandable outraged backlash and now the government will get you out for free. Wingnuttery jumped all over this because they could defend Israeli actions and federal inaction at the same time. They must be a little sensitive after Katrina.

Limbaugh had Debbie Schlussel on his talk show to pull out of her ass the assumption that those americans trapped in Lebanon were automatically Hezbollah supporters, just like everybody else living there. Why, since they were there and so were Hezbollah, if the fighting rages around them they deserve their fate. Michelle Malkin waded in with her brand of racist hate to make sure you know they're all evil. Limbaugh went on to question why anybody would want to be there at all, as if the whole place was contaminated. Which is the point - lump them all together and taint them with a large brush. It makes it easier to reconcile what Israel is doing to them.