Update: The Pentagon and Propaganda

In the category of You Heard It First on Enduring America:

Giles Scott-Smith of our Holland Bureau, 29 November 2008:

When referring to the dominance of the Pentagon, it is not just a matter of weaponry or the questionable deployment of US marines. Looking to develop its role in the field of ‘strategic influence’, the military has also greatly expanded its activities in communications and media, with questionable consequences.

Walter Pincus in The Washington Post, 12 December 2008:

The Pentagon's inspector general said yesterday that the Defense Department's public affairs office may have "inappropriately" merged public affairs and propaganda operations in 2007 and 2008 when it contracted out $1 million in work for a strategic communications plan for use by the military in collaboration with the State Department.

Alternative News of the Day: Vegetarian Kitten Shock

This has absolutely nothing to do with US Foreign Policy, but we were getting depressed about the latest news from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Zimbabwe. (Hat tip to Holly Golightly from Birmingham)

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JIFNEddeZI4[/youtube]

The Torture Blame Game: Better Late than Never?

Most newspapers note the report of the Senate Armed Services Committee concluding that top Bush Administration officials, including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers, authorised torture in the name of the War of Terror.



Of course, the report doesn't use the T-word, couching its findings:

Senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees.

Nor does the report implicate the originator of the "aggressive techniques", Vice President Dick Cheney, who began seeking authority for such an approach within days of 9-11. Because the report starts its narrative from a Presidential memorandum signed 7 February 2002, it omits the story --- told in articles and books by Jane Mayer, Philippe Sands, and Barton Gellman amongst others --- of how Cheney's office led the attempt to circumvent Congress and the courts to expand Executive power for detention and torture.

The 250-page report is still classified, but a 19-page unclassified executive summary has been released.

Zimbabwe Update: The Ripples Reach America

Almost a week after Enduring America noted that the Zimbabwe story was absent from the US media, in contrast to coverage indicating Sudan as a priority for the Obama Administration, reporters for the New York Times and Washington Post have noticed the crisis in the country.



The Times story is more dramatic with the headline "Cholera is Raging, Despite Denial by Debate" and a personalised story of the five youngest children dying in a family. The Post story is less subjective in framing, "Mugabe Calls Cholera Crisis Over as Deaths Rise to 783", as it --- unlike the Times --- notes:

Kenya's prime minister, Raila Odinga, and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu have called on African nations to use force to depose Mugabe. This week, President Bush, echoing calls from France and Britain, said it was "time for Robert Mugabe to go.

Beyond that reference, however, neither story offers any indication of a change in US policy towards intervention.

A Red, White and Blue Christmas

During the course of some research this morning I came across this beauty- the Whitehouse.gov Christmas 2008 site. The theme is 'A Red, White and Blue Christmas', and while Enduring America has no problem with the colours red, white and blue (after all, it's the colour scheme of everyone's favourite US foreign policy and politics blog*), I mean, really. Santa. Dressed as Uncle Sam. Taking the Pledge of Allegiance. In his sleigh. In the Oval Office.





Visit the site and you'll also be treated to a nice picture of some American flags handily stored in, well, a drum:



And finally, eschewing more traditional options (like the word 'and'), George and Laura join their names using a pipe. Which is just weird:

May your holidays be filled with joy and happy memories.

George W. Bush | Laura Bush

I suppose though, with just 39 days left in the job, they can do pretty much what they want.

*For those of you nursing a mulled wine hangover I meant this blog.