Rekna

Rumsfield issued a series of memos nicknamed the snowflake memos. They were nicked named such because they came from him like snowflakes, tiny but often. Apparently he was issuing memos into the double digits each day.

The controversy of these memos is in their content.

He said

sell the war with bumper sticker statments (Edwards was right about the "War on terror" being a bumper sticker slogan)

link Iraq with Iran (Are you sure the administration doesn't want to attack Iran?)

Keep elevating the threat

Talk about Somalia, the Philippines, etc. Make the American people realise they are surrounded in the world by violent extremists

from the reality of the work, effort and investment that leads to wealth for the rest of the world. Too often Muslims are against physical labour, so they bring in Koreans and Pakistanis while their young people remain unemployed

Go out and push people back, rather than simply defending (referring to the media)

He wanted to redefine terrorism as a "worldwide insurgency"

The memos paint a picture of a racist man who was hell bent on keeping American's afraid and using that fear to justify the war and possibly future wars against Iran. The white house has backed away from these memos but I find it hard to believe that they didn't know that this was the way Rumsfield worked and they themselves didn't condone it since this is exactly what people have been saying their strategy has been since the beginning.

If you ever wondered why the white house claims executive privilege on every document that they touch these memos show why. I have no doubt that memos, documents, and deliberations among the white house staff are riddled with this type of rhetoric.

Ustwo

Rumsfield worked hard and issued memos.

You don't agree with the administration policy.

I'm mean I'm shocked that someone who thinks Kucinich would be a good president would find fault with a republican administration.

A quick google for 'snow flake memo' came up with this as a first hit, which I think is an interesting take on Rummy, then and now. Its from the Washington post so it lacks the keen leftist slant most are accustomed to but seems well written highlighting where Rumsfield succeeded and where he screwed up.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...801072_pf.html

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GonadWarrior

What a controversial statement!

How horribly accurate.


No one has wondered that since 1993.

Rekna

2 problems, 1) I never said I think Kucinich would be a good president. 2) What the hell does that have to do with anything. Ohh wait it's just Ustwo blowing smoke as usual.

An article from 2005 that doesn't deal with the latest memos leaked. Not to mention that article is very poorly written. It is talking about a "memo" but doesn't say what was said in the memo (at least not in the first part of the article, i didn't finish reading it because it was long winded and I couldn't figure out what memo it was referring to).

He was playing on Americans fears. "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" Except under this administration and what would be Giuliani's administration. And please we are under a world wide insurgency? I didn't realize my neighbors were try to overthrow the world, and so is Canada, and Mexico. The world is doomed, the sky is falling the sky is falling..... And then of course you have to throw up the Clinton defense. How is anyone supposed to have an intelligent discussion with people like the first 2 posters? They ignore the entire post and respond with talking points. I notice neither of them even touched on the blanket racist statements Rumy made.

GonadWarrior

Thread so far:

Rumsfeld issued memos intended to help support his positions.
Rekna disagrees with those positions. No other politicians engage in spin.

AAAAA+ thread. Would read again.

Rekna

GonadWarrior's posts in this thread:

BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH

AAAAA+ responses



My concern is how he and this administration used fear purposefully to get the American people to follow their policies unquestionably. They still do it. Just yesterday Bush said that if congress doesn't approve the AG Americans will die.

ratbastid

This is really just more evidence of what we already know--that the administration's favorite tactic is the manipulation of the electorate's fear. Problem with that is, eventually the fear receptors in the brain get saturated, and further poking at those buttons elicits ever smaller response. And at some point, it just gets funny.

roachboy

there's another way to think about this.

1. is it the case that any military involvement requires a marketing campaign?
2. if any war requires a marketing campaign, what distinguishes one from the other?
it is obviously in the nature of marketing to persuade political actors/consumers (and in this there is no meaningful distinction between the terms) to support the action.

it seems to me that if it is the case that any war must be sold, then it is all the more incumbent on the administration that is doing the selling that the sales job not be predicated on false information, on generating and maintaining hysteria, on misdirection: on lies in short.

this because any marketing campaign runs close to the true/fiction division.
because marketing war is a problematic business.

what we have with the rumseld memos is exactly what rekna and ratbastid say above: confirmation of what anyone who has been awake and not in the camp of those who for whatever reason supported the iraq debacle have already known, have known from 2003, have known from 2001. the "war on terror" is a charade. the notion of the "terrorist" a self-serving fiction. the notion of "islamofascism" a conservative meme, cheap sloganeering to keep the backwater stirred up. that the center of bushworld has been the marketing of itself through the marketing of hysteria. that links between iran and iraq were simply devices to maintain and intensify hysteria. that the centerpiece of this hysteria is a flirtation with racism. that the right understood itself as standing to benefit politically (and its patronage network financially) from this hysteria and its lovely racist core.

that the marketing of the iraq debacle was a top-down affair.
that the secretary of defense understood as part of his function to suggest ways to manipulate the american public.
that there still are conservatives for whom all this is ok.
disturbing stuff.

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MrTia

i'm pretty much against physical labor too. does that make me a potential terrorist?

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