Democracy for Vancouver

The Defense Department will pay private U.S. contractors in Iraq up to $300 million over the next three years to produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to “engage and inspire” the local population to support U.S. objectives and the Iraqi government.
…
The Pentagon still sometimes feels it is playing catch-up in a propaganda market dominated by al-Qaeda, whose media operations include sophisticated Web sites and professionally produced videos and audios featuring Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants. “We’re being out-communicated by a guy in a cave,” Secretary Robert M. Gates often remarks.

But Defense Department officials think their own products have become increasingly imaginative and competitive. Military and contractor-produced media campaigns, spotlighting killings by insurgents, “helped in developing attitudes” that led Iraqis to reject al-Qaeda in Iraq over the past two years, an official said. Now that the insurgency is in disarray, he said, the same tools “could potentially be helpful” in diminishing the influence of neighboring Iran.

Remember when I said they weren’t incompetent, that all of the disasters of BushCo had a sick, cynical motive behind them?

Jeebus, maybe they really are as deep and thoughtful as Sarah Palin.

We invaded and overthrew a rigidly secular Sunni minority dictator in a majority Shiite country. During the first Gulf War we saw Shia slaughtered by the tens of thousands, with the lucky ones - the refugees - driven into the welcoming arms of their fellow Shia in Iran.

We have propped up a Shiite puppet, al-Maliki, whose government gets overt aid and comfort from the government of Iran.

The man who made Bush’s prima facie case for war, Ahmad Chalabi, openly feeds information to Iran.

But a few million dollars of happy horseshit propaganda is going to “diminish the influence” of Iran?

Maybe I was right and they’re not incompetent after all. Maybe this $300 million in propaganda is brilliant reverse-psychology. Maybe Cheney’s grand plan is a merged Shiite super-state to take on Wahhabist Sunni Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan, a World War this time centered in the Middle East - and if the war moves north to Russia, so much the better.

When the smoke clears, and all those pesky towel-heads have killed each other, we can finally rescue our precious oil that they’ve been squatting over these last hundred years.

Or, maybe Cheney’s just Goldfinger:

James Bond: Yes, well, I’ve worked out a few statistics of my own. 15 billion dollars in gold bullion weighs 10,500 tons. Sixty men would take twelve days to load it onto 200 trucks. Now, at the most, you’re going to have two hours before the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines move in and make you put it back.

Auric Goldfinger: Who mentioned anything about removing it?
…
James Bond: You plan to break into the world’s largest bank, but not to steal anything. Why?

Auric Goldfinger: Go on, Mr. Bond.

James Bond: [thinking] Mr. Ling, the Red Chinese at the factory, he’s a specialist in nuclear fission… but of course! His government’s given you a bomb.

Auric Goldfinger: I prefer to call it an “atomic device.” It’s small, but particularly dirty.

James Bond: Cobalt and iodine?

Auric Goldfinger: Precisely.

James Bond: Well, if you explode it in Fort Knox, the… the entire gold supply of the United States would be radioactive for… fifty-seven years.

Auric Goldfinger: Fifty-eight, to be exact.

James Bond: I apologize, Goldfinger. It’s an inspired deal! They get what they want, economic chaos in the West. And the value of your gold increases many times.

Auric Goldfinger: I conservatively estimate, ten times.

James Bond: Brilliant.