News flash! Republicans test-market new meme, mainstream media regurgitates it

“A Qaeda in Iraq, “Al Qaeda in Iraq,” “Al Qaeda in Iraq.” This exact combination of words is appearing over and over all of a sudden, as if it is some kind of formal organization that is the main force we are fighting there. Wolf Blitzer used it today in his interview with Bush. It looks like a “meme” being created to justify the other ridiculous Bush meme, “Fight them there instead of here.” If we hear it over and over and over, we will begin to assume its truth, and make the natural leap to believing the insurgency in Iraq is not indigenous but the work of terrorists drawn like bees to honey. What a fantastic strategy, the old misdirection play. I worked great when Bush and Cheney, not having the supporting information on anything specific in Iraq, made the switch to using “weapons of mass destruction” in the fall of 2003, after the “mushroom cloud” speeches had softened up the ground. Everything I have read suggests the insurgency is overwhemingly populated by Iraqis angry at the occupation of their country by Americans, with Al Qaeda a tiny minority at best, with minimal support from the Iraqi population. The Bush people, of course, realize that thy can fool some people all the time – so we will keep hearing it over and over until this election.