By Evan Long, on September 29th, 2010% One week after the 9/11 attacks, the first germ-laced letters of the 2001 anthrax attacks were mailed. Early media reports attempted to link “Al Qaeda” to the attacks and a few stabs were made at tying in Iraq. However, it was soon revealed that the anthrax used in the letters had originated with the United States military and “strangely,” the FBI had a hard time investigating any further. More “strangely” still, White House staff took Cipro, an anti-anthrax drug, on the eve of September 11th. [END] Permalink: The Anthrax Attacks of 2001
By Evan Long, on August 30th, 2010% “Enemy Image” is a history of the American media’s presentation of U. S. wars and the U. S. government and military’s fight to control that presentation, beginning with Vietnam and moving on through the 2003 war in Iraq. While early newsreels, with their patriotic narrative overdubs, presented a polished and sterile image of heroic troops bravely fighting like a well-oiled machine, the relatively unregulated television journalism of the later 1960s showed the common soldier up-close and personal, without the touch-ups of Hollywood. Although the film has a curious lack of mention of the late ’90s war in eastern Europe, it does a good job of comparing the Vietnam era to the much more heavily controlled time from the 1980s to today. “Everybody just wants to go home and go to school. [...] The whole thing stinks.” – U. S. soldier in Vietnam [END] Permalink: Enemy Image
By Evan Long, on August 9th, 2010% Starting with Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater and on through George W. Bush, “ With God on Our Side: George W. Bush and the Rise of the Religious Right in America” describes the influence of the Evangelical Christian movement on American politics and especially on the Republican Party. George W. Bush, here, is shown as the ultimate political puppet, a befuddled alcoholic and son of a CIA director duped into undertaking a Christian transformation, then run for President to woo the Christian right more effectively than his somewhat religiously inept father. “I think the prayers of a lot of people tipped that [2000 U. S. Presidential] election. I really believe that with all my heart. And I believe that five to four vote in the Supreme Court which could have gone the other way, I give God the credit, that he wasn’t finished with us yet.” – Jerry Falwell [END] Permalink: With God on Our Side
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