Sunday, February 04, 2007

Propaganda mythology: Stabbed in the back and "Taleban Jack"

The classic 'stabbed in the back' meme, dating back to Nazi Germany, is being dusted off to inoculate the right wing from blame for their disastrous war in Iraq.

It wasn't that it was idiotically conceived, illegal, badly planned, executed on the cheap, sold out to business interests with White House connections and micro-managed by incurious demagogues blinded by ideology - if it fails, it was those darn liberal protestors fault!

The same myth can be found in Canada as represented by the infantile nick-name "Taleban Jack" for Jack Layton that spread across the wingnut blogosphere in a suspiciously organized fashion. To their eternal dishonour even some Liberals have bought into this deliberately disingenuous mischaracterization of Layton and the NDP's position and claims that their position has changed. Meanwhile Prime Minister Harper can freely associate with bloody handed warlords without getting labeled 'Taleban Steve'.

If - when? - the Canadian mission in Afghanistan fails, there will be a lot of reasons, including ignoring the history of the region and losing the support of the Afghan people for failing to do the kind of nation building work the NDP is calling for. It will not be the fault of Jack Layton, the NDP or the peace movement.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well said, and I fully agree!

~a 'peacenik'

(Annamarie:)

Alison said...

What we'll be doing, Cliff, is shoving this up their beaks at every opportunity:

"QUEBEC CITY - Malalai Joya, the youngest member of the Afghan National Assembly, today appeared at the NDP Federal Convention in Quebec City supporting Jack Layton and the NDP's criticism of the NATO-led mission in southern Afghanistan.

Joya, who was elected in 2005 in Farah province, has worked to protect women's rights and is the head of the Organization of Promoting Afghan Women's Capabilities. She brought a clear message: foreign troops in Afghanistan have not achieved any fundamental changes."

continue...

EUGENE PLAWIUK said...

Thanks for the links, and it is interesting that the Karzai government is now talking about Talking To The Taliban. And apparently directing the NATO forces to do the same in some Pashtun villages.

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