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George Bush’s “Major Speech” Resets the Terror Trap!
![]() Will America Take the Bait?
A TvNewsLIES Analysis - October, 2005
The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. – Heinrich Himmler
On the morning of October 6th, George W. Bush made a not-for-prime time “major” speech before a select group of supporters. For those unfamiliar with the National Endowment for Democracy, rest assured that it is a highly controversial, tax-supported group that tries to influence elections in foreign countries. What a perfect audience for the President!
The speech was redundant and unremarkable, despite being hyped as significant’ and highly important. There was little new rhetoric and not an iota of comfort for a nation consumed with concern about the morass and turmoil in Iraq. There was, however a concerted effort to capitalize on a strategy that worked so well in the President’s rush to war in 2003: make them afraid.
The speech this morning was carefully constructed to prey upon the innermost fears triggered by the attacks of 9/11. It pulled out every available stop in an effort to use those alarms to gain support for staying the course in Iraq. The speech this morning was designed to once again lure Americans into the insidious and sinister Bushco Terror Trap.
OILING THE SPRINGS
In case you missed it, the tactics started early in the week. George Bush and Dick Cheney both got the word out last Monday: Without provocation, Bush’s senior aides warned that “a quick exit for US troops could sow a deadly harvest of future terror attacks on US soil.” At almost the same time, Cheney cautioned that Iraq could become a staging area for large-scale terrorist attacks on the United States if troops are withdrawn too early. They had tossed the public some food for future thought.
The next opportunity came at Tuesday’s press conference. The President was asked only ONE question about the war, yet he managed to repeat “terror” or “terrorist” SEVEN times during his exchange with reporters. “We also got [sic] to continue to make sure we meet our obligations to prevent further terrorist attacks,” Mr. Bush reminded us. “Iraq is a part of a global war on terror,” he insisted, without challenge or explanation, as usual.
The stage was set, subtly and craftily to try to win back waning support for the war. The main performance would be on Thursday, when the President would give his ‘”significant” speech to the nation. It would be “the latest shot in a volley of addresses on Iraq by top administration figures” ahead of a referendum on Iraq's draft constitution on October 15. With little fanfare, but with calculated measure, the Trap was being put into place. It was oiled and refurbished and ready to go.
And then it was almost speech time, and the nation waited. They could not have known that the Terror Trap was alive and well and about to be elevated to a new level of prominence.
THE EARLY SUCCESS
Before analyzing the Thursday speech, let’s take a look back at the glory days of The Terror Trap. It was first assembled and used immediately after 9/11. The Bush cartel took full advantage of a nation stunned by tragedy to cash in on their fears. References to terror and more terror were inserted into every major speech. Terror alerts and terror threats were etched into the American psyche, and the invasion of Iraq was hyped as the first major battle in the War against Terror.
The Trap worked brilliantly, at least for a time. And then, as the lies that led to war began to lose their luster, the strategy had to change. The Terror Trap was put aside in favor of a series of other justifications – each different, each deceptive, and each designed to defend the bloodshed and the horror and the chaos in Bush’s failing war of choice. Twenty seven different rationales for Bush’s war were documented in a brilliant thesis by Devon Largio in 2004*, and each, in turn, was accepted as reasonable by most of the nation.
It is important to note that Largio’s study concluded that, ”one…rationale …became very important to official sources and the media: the imminent threat that Iraq posed, though the words “imminent threat” did not appear in official statements of the administration [it] became the catch-phrase in the media and the public.“
Not surprisingly, fear of another strike on American soil lured millions of Americans into the Terror Trap. Convinced that Saddam Hussein was a serious menace, they gave a trembling nod to the invasion of Iraq. Every high level spokesperson in the Bush administration had warned Americans that annihilation by mushroom cloud or biological warfare or some other WMD was only moments away. Aided and abetted by the corporate media, the administration used fear of terrorism as an effective strategy to garner support for the illegal and immoral war it had planned long before 9/11.
In their rush to war in Iraq, the Bush/PNAC war planners learned one thing for certain: fear, however illogical, is a formidable persuader. The Terror Trap worked like a charm the first time around. This morning it was taken out of mothballs and set again.
SWITCHING BAIT
Thursday morning came and George Bush had a serious problem. This speech had to win support for the war in Iraq, but that could not be done by talking about what was really happening on the ground. So, with a cunning sleight of hand, Mr. Bush opted NOT to talk about Iraq at all.
He talked about terror and terrorists and plots and attacks. He talked about evil extremists out to kill everyone, everywhere on earth, and he talked about never backing down and never giving in and never accepting anything less than complete victory. It was the same old, same old.
Actually, there was nothing major, or significant, or really new in what he said. In fact, when it was over, you had to wonder why he had bothered making the speech at all. But then again, there had to be a reason for the speech, - and upon taking a closer look, there it was: the newly renovated, freshly repainted and remodeled Terror Trap.
TVNL maintains that this ‘major’ speech given by George Bush used four shrewd and deceptive techniques designed to create a new and expanded justification for the Bush/PNAC wars. Each was subtly interjected to refocus the nation’s attention on a larger and far more insidious danger they could imagine on their own. Each was cleverly woven into a speech designed to inspire and exploit the nations fears while it said almost nothing of substance at all.
Let’s have a look.
- ERASING IRAQ: In a strange way, this morning’s speech was actually quite momentous. In less than an hour George Bush managed to perform a miracle: he completely erased the war in Iraq. He made no attempt to explain it, justify it, or even refer to it. There was no hint that the bloodshed and the chaos in Iraq would end anytime in the near future. There was no mention of an exit strategy or a timeline for bringing home the troops. The message: Listen up, America: we simply have to stay in Iraq. Terrorists have made that country their base for global domination. Forget the other excuses; this is why we’re staying the disastrous course. The old Iraq War is no more. A more devastating one has started. Deal with it.
- EXPLOITING 9/11: Hello, world, was the message, better beware. Those same evil extremists who brought you 9/11 are now planning to destroy humanity in general. But don’t you worry; George Bush won’t let that happen. Our brave young men and women are dying in Iraq right now to save the planet from total annihilation by nameless, unidentifiable, radical terrorists. That’s why we’ll stay the course.
The speech warned of an insidious, united enemy that was responsible for every single act of terrorism everywhere in the world from the WTC to Bali and Chechnya. These perpetrators of 9/11 were now out to ‘enslave whole nations.” But first, of course, these Islamic, radical, extremist, militant terrorists want to launch another assault the American people. Are you trembling, yet?
- RESURRECTING JOE MCCARTHY: Hell, if terrorists won’t frighten you, maybe communists will. It was almost pathetic to hear George Bush invoke that old bugaboo in order to further demonize Osama bin Laden and other radical Islamists. What a desperate attempt to revive old fears by unearthing an enemy long since dead and buried. It seems that his speech writers were forced to dig deeply into their bag of dirty tricks for that one. But maybe reminders of the communist threat would strike a bit more fear into the hearts of Americans if all else failed. It couldn’t hurt.
- REFUSING THE BLAME: And finally, the President’s speech was a declaration of our total innocence and unquestionable purity as a nation. Not a single action by the US or its allies, we were told, contributed in any way to the murderous deeds of our enemies, ever. George Bush assured the nation that neither our presence in Saudi Arabia or Lebanon, nor anything else we have every done, motivated any attacks against us, now or in the past. Israeli presence in the West Bank, he went on to say, had nothing whatsoever to do with terrorist attacks anywhere. These evil Islamic leaders have endless ambitions of imperial domination, Bush explained, and they wish to make everyone powerless except themselves. His message was clear: Fear this radical scourge, America, but trust me to rid the world of these evil extremists. We’re making real progress, folks; just hang in there.
WILL IT WORK?
At this very moment George Bush and his PNAC puppeteers are well into the third year of their failed and disastrous war in Iraq. At this very moment, the American military death toll is closing in on 2000. At this very moment, the majority of Americans believe that the war was a mistake. And, at this very moment, George Bush and his misbegotten handlers are beginning to panic.
The White House really has no choice but to try and counter the waning support for the war in Iraq. They know is out there and they understand the power of fear and how to exploit it. More speeches will follow. All the speakers will echo the War on Terror theme. The question now is: will it work? Will Americans once again take the bait laid out for them? Or, do they now understand that the war in Iraq has nothing whatsoever to do with the threat of terrorism that permeates so much of the world?
Will Americans refuse to be trapped another time? Only time will tell.
Ironically, so much of Bush’s speech can be turned right back onto him. So many of the accusations George Bush made in his speech were accurate depictions of his own policies of empire and global domination. But fear easily trumps irony in a world gone mad, and there’s no way of knowing at this moment which way this nation will go.
Hopefully, we’ve come full circle, and greater sources of information have made more Americans less vulnerable to the snares of their government. If that is the case, the nation will be able to see through the smoke and mirrors of the Bush administration. If that is indeed the case, despite all the effort, the renovated Terror Trap will be an utter and historic failure.
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