The War Of Propaganda

First: The Masters of Propaganda Continue:

Iranian President Ahmadinejad wants reparations for damage to Lebanon:

President Ahmadi-Nejad said that Iran calls for an end to the current hostility in Lebanon and the aggressor should pay reparations for the damages it inflicted on civilian infrastructure of Lebanon. He called on the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) to bring to justice Israeli officials for the war crimes they perpetrated against civilians of Lebanon and Palestine.

Second: Journalists HELP Islamists Win The Propaganda War:

Michelle Malkin calls it "fauxtography" in her post. And all it does is assist Militant Islam with their own propaganda war against Western Nations. To wit:

It's the story that the journalistic elite would rather just go away. In the aftermath of Reuters' admission that one of its photographers, Adnan Hajj, had manipulated two war images from Lebanon after bloggers smoked out his crude Photoshop alterations, and all 920 of his Reuters photos were pulled, evidence of far more troubling photo staging and media deception in the Middle East continues to pour in.

Such as the above photo amply illustrates. Again, let me be blunt: with a name such as Adnan Hajj, are you, clear thinker you, even remotely shocked? And yet Reuters happily trots out bunches of photos then, only later, after having been caught in the scam, grudgingly pulls them -- luckily, all of them (that I can determine).

And our journalists are assisting in the Propaganda Scam On The West:

Washington Post photographer Michael Robinson-Chavez, who was at Qana, huffed: "Everyone was dead, many of them children. Nothing was set up." But last week, a German television station aired damning video footage from the scene showing a lead propaganda director (dubbed the "Green Helmet Guy") positioning a young boy's corpse, yanking it from an ambulance, placing it on two different stretchers for the cameras and pushing bystanders out of the way for clearer shots.

Chavez was indignant that people should think things were staged. Imagine! Staged photographs by possible Left-leaning papers attempting to make money "working" interests against the United States? In the 40s and 50s this would have been completely unthinkable.

Now it's a given and commonplace.

Third: Never Let The Facts Intrude Upon Good Propaganda:

The facts: Hezbollah kidnapped the original two Israeli soldiers on July 12th in an unprovoked and premeditated attack.

• The attack also took the lives of eight Israeli soldiers and took place under cover of a barrage of Hezbollah rocket fire.
• The attack was carried out across the internationally recognised northern border between Lebanon and Israel.
• Hezbollah is part of Lebanon 's Government. Even if the Lebanese Government didn't know the attack was planned, Hezbollah's action constituted an act of war by one sovereign country against another
• Hezbollah's very existence violates international law. Under UN Security Council Resolution 1559 of 2005, The Lebanese Government was obliged to disarm and disband Hezbollah. It did not do so, and Hezbollah is now an active part of the Lebanon government itself.
• Neither Hezbollah nor Lebanon have a legitimate territorial claim against Israel. Israeli withdrew completely from South Lebanon in May of 2000.
• Israel had to respond because territory is not at stake, but Israel 's right to exist is.
• Hezbollah rejects Israel 's right to exist. If Hezbollah or other groups believe that they can use the territory they control to attack Israel with impunity inside Israel 's recognised borders, there will never be peace. Period.
• Israel did not wish to see this escalation. It has been forced upon Israel . And while Israel wishes to free the kidnapped soldiers, it is not responding to the kidnapping alone. It is responding to the rejectionist ideology which underlies the kidnapping.

Never let the facts get in the way of an excellent stream of Propaganda.

I repeat: the US and Israel do not know how to play the Propaganda Game. And I submit that propaganda is damned near as important as dead Islamists.

BZ