Selling the Big Lie
Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer and other former Bush administration officials are behind a well-funded group called Freedom’s Watch which is catapulting the propaganda with TV ads. They have been described as a shadow White House communications shop.
Specifically, Freedom’s Watch is spending $15 million to try to make Americans think that the open-ended occupation of Iraq is good for national security because it is aimed at the same terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. Their ads shamelessly exploit the pain of wounded veterans and family members of soldiers who died in Iraq to promote a lie. The objective is to threaten wavering GOP members of Congress in the 20 states where these ads are airing.
From their website:
It’s time for Americans to take action to fight the efforts of anti-victory groups that are undermining the war on terror. Our commercials were developed to help boost support for the war on terror.
“I know what I lost,” says one of those in a TV ad, veteran John Kriesel, who lost both legs in a blast near Fallujah last December. “I also know if we pull out now, everything I’ve given and sacrificed will mean nothing.” Kriesel says, “They attacked us, and they will again. They won’t stop in Iraq.”
Laura Youngblood lost her uncle Henry, a New York City fireman, on Sept. 11, and her husband, Travis, in Iraq. In the advertisement featuring Youngblood, she says, “Congress did the right thing, voting to defeat terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
UPDATE: MediaMatters has more: some media outlets are apparently afraid to point out that Freedom’s Watch is in fact lying. Think Progress recalls that Ari Fleischer has been consistently wrong about Iraq: “Not content having misled the nation into war, Fleischer and his White House front group are now set to argue that the bloodiest summer of the war yet is a sign that ‘that the buildup of U.S. troops in Iraq is working.’”
UPDATE: “It seems the invasion of Iraq fulfilled Osama bin Laden’s wish. That’s why the Americans are losing in Iraq,” says Al Quds editor Abdul Bari Atwanhe.
August 24th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Please don’t let my Homeland, (Fatherland) triumph over the truth!
And I truly say this at the cost of my life, however, I don’t have children. But If I did, I would hope they would support my cause.
Truth over fiction at any cost!
December 7th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
[...] UPDATE: Ari Fleischer’s Republican propaganda group Freedom’s Watch counters with an ad campaign wishing the troops Happy Holidays, as they dodge IEDs and mortar attacks. Support the troops, it’s their war and they love it! Freedom’s Watch ran ads last summer falsely linking the occupation of Iraq to the 9/11 attacks. [...]