They buy space for a client's agenda in the media.
It is my assertion that every politically charged article you read by AP, Reuters, NYT, CNN, MSNBC, FOX... on every single one of the big news outlets... has been bought and paid for -one way or another - and is designed to influence public opinion in favor of some special interest group or other.
NO EXCEPTIONS.
This is going to be horribly, terribly Politically Incorrect...
I have blogged posts before about the "Rape!" cry that pro-War supporters trot out every time public support wains (I will try to find the link shortly). Here is today's attempt to rally support for the War in Afghanistan. It would seem that the propagandist's have given up on "Wave the Flag"strategies, and work now entirely on the female voting population. Several weeks ago Time ran a cover story about a young Afghani girl who was forced to marry and had her nose and ears cut off when she fled. Stories of forced marriage, child rape, and the subjugation of women in Afghanistan ABOUND in American media. Why not the same issue in Somolia, Egypt, Morocco, the Sudan... and the rest of the Muslin world? Because, at this time, their is no WAR to agitate for in those regions.
American women are now more than 50% of the vote, and it seems that American women are only too willing to send their sons, brothers, fathers, uncles and cousins to die and be horribly maimed in order to protect Afghani women from their culture. How did I arrive at that nasty conclusion? Because market's do not continue that which does not work. This strategy is working for "them" (whoever "they" are). Just use your imagination and start googling.... read the news stories... not a shred about "Democracy for Afghanistan" or "Keeping Afghanistan safe for Freedom", or "whatever Bullsh*t the war profiteers have given up on"... Nope, its all about those poor women in Afghanistan...
I want to say that a feel horribly that mankind has evolved into the disgusting thing it is in that part of the world.
But I am unwilling to lose my son to save Afghanistan.