Deeply Concerned

Scott McClellan declared the White House "deeply concerned" over reports that the U.S. military has been planting psych-ops stories masquerading as news in Iraqi newspapers. Clever by half: if the White House had OKed the propaganda, of course they'd be concerned if the plan for that progaganda became public knowledge. McClellan made a true statement whose intent was propaganda itself.

Remember how in the aftermath of Katrina voices in conservatism talked of using the New Orleans rebuild as a chance to put conservative policies into action, to use the rebuilding as a labratory to test and prove the efficacy of their ideas? If they envisioned that opportunity for New Orleans, imagine the testing ground they imagined Iraq could be. Iraq provided a chance to create a government - and by government I don't mean the government for public viewing, I mean (to borrow Groom's term) the junta - of a conservative's most fervid dreams. Control of the press, the right to imprison anyone at anytime for any reason, to deny that prisoner habeus corpus, to torture; the freedom to decide, without open competition or transparency, job contracts, the rewarding of patronage, the rewarding of the powerful by the powerful of more power. Etc.

There is an old adage: morality is not what you do when people are watching, morality is what you do when you think no one is watching.