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Author Topic: Selling the war
M. Spector
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Babbler # 8273

posted 17 February 2007 08:48 PM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The Harpocons are using our tax dollars to get advice on how to peddle their lies about the war in Afghanistan to a skeptical public.

They spent $76,000 last November to consult focus groups on what sells and what doesn't.

According to the Toronto Star Canada's New Government™ plans to use words like rebuilding, restoring, reconstructing, stability, security, hope, and opportunity to make us feel good about our country's military attacks on Afganistan.

You won't be hearing them talk about "freedom, democracy, and liberty" in one breath; the focus groups told the government that those words, used in combination, sound too "American". And of course the last thing Harper wants is to sound like a shill for George W. Bush.

The focus groups were part of a public relations study done by the Strategic Counsel for the government. Among other things, it reported that public support for the war stood at 35% in late December.

Said Dawn Black:

quote:
The fact that they would spend $76,000 to try and get arguments to sell the war in Afghanistan to the Canadian public ... really indicates that the war is not saleable.

From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
remind
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posted 17 February 2007 09:34 PM      Profile for remind     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
New bunch, same as the old bunch, Harper hypocrisy in action:

quote:
In November 2003, Auditor General Sheila Fraser called the previous Liberal government to account for buying polls – in contravention of government policy – that monitored party image, voting intentions and approval ratings of political leaders.

From: "watching the tide roll away" | Registered: Jun 2004  |  IP: Logged
a lonely worker
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posted 17 February 2007 09:46 PM      Profile for a lonely worker     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Unfortunately this new bunch seems to have a friend in Sheila Fraser who has suddenly appeared to have lost her voice on issues like this. I guess she likes the new bunch better.
From: Anywhere that annoys neo-lib tools | Registered: Jul 2005  |  IP: Logged
tostig
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posted 18 February 2007 03:22 PM      Profile for tostig     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by M. Spector:
The Harpocons are using our tax dollars to get advice on how to peddle their lies about the war in Afghanistan to a skeptical public.

They spent $76,000 last November to consult focus groups on what sells and what doesn't....


Those Right-wingers just love to keep throwing money at problems, don't they? Maybe, someone ought to remind them to "do more with less" as they had been preaching for the last 13years.


From: Toronto | Registered: Jun 2005  |  IP: Logged
M. Spector
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Babbler # 8273

posted 20 February 2007 06:09 PM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The war just got a little harder to sell.
quote:
Canada and its allies in Afghanistan are waging a losing war against the Taliban that’s killed thousands of innocent civilians, harmed the reputation of coalition forces and fuelled support for the insurgency, says a new report on the conflict by the Senlis Council.

The results of that research were released on Wednesday in a 186-page report titled, Countering the Insurgency in Afghanistan: Losing Friends and Making Enemies.

The report is an indictment of the war’s conduct by NATO governments, especially through 2006, the first year of Canada’s mission in the volatile province of Kandahar.

In particular, it says coalition governments have failed to heed the fundamental rule that a counter-insurgency can’t be won at the point of a gun, but rather with policies to win the trust and confidence of local people.

Instead, the council says failed coalition policies — such as the bombing of villages, the poppy eradication program and the lack of school or hospital construction — are directly responsible “for the rise of the insurgency.”

MacDonald says coalition governments have shown a “blatant disregard for established counter-insurgency theories,” and their continuing mistakes have generated an army of “resentful and poor young men who cannot feed their families.

“Through these misguided policies, the international community has turned southern Afghanistan into a recruitment camp for the Taliban.”


Source

From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged

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