The Tortured Logic of Media Propaganda

Here in Tidewater, our local paper reaches new lows in the tortured logic of embedded propaganda as it glorifies the destruction of Falluja and says it gives our Marines a reason to keep fighting in Iraq. I have sent the follwing letter in response.

To the Editor

In the most blatant and twisted example of propaganda I have yet
seen, your article on Marines practicing urban warfare in our
neighborhoods states, "For Marines, the Fallujah battle has come to
symbolize a reason to keep waging the Iraqi war."

A "battle" implies a struggle between roughly equivalent forces. The
destruction of Fallujah was a massacre in which many thousands of
civilians, children and the elderly were purposely murdered. Our use
of banned phosphorus weapons melted people. The destruction of that
city was a brutal and vengeful act of unspeakable horror that will
live in infamy and of which we should be ashamed.

A majority of our soldiers in Iraq say they want to get out of there
as soon as possible and many have spoken out against the needless
horror of a war based on lies. For your paper to assert that our
destruction of Fallujah, our most brutal atrocity to date, is a
reason to keep waging the Iraqi war is more than tortured logic. It
is criminal.

I have no desire to see Marines practicing their tactics in my
neighborhood and many I've heard from feel the same way. What we
want is to see them home and not on the front lines of Bush's
criminal aggression.