All tyrannies are similar in one respect; they require a steady flow of propaganda to promote the interests of the state.

That same rule applies to dictators, whose “strongman image” is vital to the maintenance of autocratic government and must be supported by a “cult of the personality.”

This is particularly true of George Bush, who has been the centerpiece of the most prodigious public relations campaign in American history.

Our Betsy McCall executive is either dressed up in flannel shirts and Stetsons, or flight-suits and goggles; whatever it takes to elicit greater public support and project the picture of a bold and decisive leader.

This is nothing new; there’s a long tradition of inflating the virtues of the “Dear Leader” while exaggerating his manliness and steely resolve.   more »

Charles Krauthammer, guiding light of the neocon faction, predicts shock and awe waged against Iran in his latest op-ed in the CIA’s favorite newspaper, the Washington Post.

First, Krauthammer lays out the cost of this action—astronomical gas prices, precipitating a vicious recession, attacks on occupation forces and the installed government in Iraq.

Next, he basically tells us all of this is necessary because “there is the larger danger of permitting nuclear weapons to be acquired by religious fanatics seized with an eschatological belief in the imminent apocalypse and in their own divine duty to hasten the End of Days.”

Deterrence is impossible, Krauthammer explains, because Iran revels in a “millenarian fanaticism glorying in a cult of death,” in other words, there will be no stopping these suicidal Muslims, determined to wipe both Israel and the Great Satan, the United States, off the map.   more »

Wars, especially modern electronic wars, are very murderous, but they are also synonymous with big cost-plus contracts, big profits and big employment for those who produce the required military gear. Wars are the paradise of profiteers.

Wars are also a way for mediocre politicians to monopolize both the news and the media in their partisan favor by whipping up patriotic fervor and by pushing for narrow-minded nationalism.

Indeed, to inflame patriotism and nationalism is an old demagogic trick used to dominate a nation.

When that happens, there is a clear danger that democracy and freedom will be eroded, and even disappear, if that development leads to an exacerbated concentration of power and political corruption.

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were a bonanza for the American military-industrial complex. This was an event, a "New Pearl Harbor," that some had openly been hoping for. The reason?

These attacks gave the perfect pretext to keep military expenses, which had been expected to fall after the demise of the old Soviet Empire, at a high level.   more »

For all that, there was no appeal for him to stay. Indeed, when he said it was "right to let go", his audience clapped. That's because yesterday Blair also offered a reminder of why he had to leave - and why they will be relieved when he has.

It came in the passage about international affairs. Suddenly the applause died as the prime minister announced that terrorism is unconnected to foreign policy, and only enemy propaganda would say otherwise.

Blair is one of the very few people left on the planet who still believes this: even the CIA now concedes that the invasion of Iraq has fuelled terrorism rather than curbed it.

So when Blair said that a withdrawal from Iraq or Afghanistan would be "a craven act of surrender", he said it to silence.   more »

The Sept. 25 edition of Time magazine illustrates how the U.S. news media are gearing up for a military attack on Iran. The headline over the cover-story interview with Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is "A Date With a Dangerous Mind."

The big-type subhead calls him "the man whose swagger is stirring fears of war with the U.S.," and the second paragraph concludes: "Though pictures of the Iranian president often show him flashing a peace sign, his actions could well be leading the world closer to war."

When the USA's biggest newsweekly devotes five pages to scoping out a U.S. air war against Iran, as Time did in the same issue, it's yet another sign that the wheels of our nation's war-spin machine are turning faster toward yet another unprovoked attack on another country.

Ahmadinejad has risen to the top of Washington's -- and American media's -- enemies list. Within the last 20 years, that list has included Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic, with each subjected to extensive vilification before the Pentagon launched a large-scale military attack.   more »