They sold us a President, now they're selling us a War

[Doug Millison]

Quite a few of you contacted me offlist, interested in the article I
mentioned yesterday, in the October 8 issue of Time magazine.  The article
doesn't appear to be on the Time.com web site yet.  At least one of you has
suggested that I hate the U.S. government, but after reading this article,
I have to say I just love it -- who needs satirists with this crew on
board! Even Pynchon might have a hard time topping this scenario:

Selling a Long and Slow War

The President's two most trusted White House aides Karl Rove and Karen
Hughes, last week quietly began soliciting ideas from G.O.P. consultants
and public-relations executives for ways to keep Americans focused on the
war effort even as the life of the nation struggles to return to normal.
Proposals include everything from benefit concerts to patriotic TV ads to a
special web site giving up-to-the-minute war-progress reports.

One possibility:  a televised megaconcert with performers celebrating
American values like freedom and democracy. Bush advisers both inside and
outside the White House throught the star-studded telethon that aired Sept.
21 was, as one put it, "very nice, but alittle too Hollywood and New York"
-- i.e., liberal. The White House-sponsored event would be aimed at
"educating a new generation of Americans on what the war is all about."
Think Lee Greenwood instead of Fred Durst, Brooks and Dunn in place of U2,
Tom Selleck rather than Brad Pitt. And way fewer candles.

The White House also has to fidn ways to show that things are happening,
that the war is being waged and won. Bush is conscious of the problem. When
he discovered the Treasury Department was slated to announce that the
Administration had frozen the assets of Osama bin Laden and 27
organizations linked to his terror network -- a relatively minor initiative
-- the President nixed the idea. Instead, Bush himself made the
announcement, from the Rose Garden, declaring the move "a major thrust of
our war on terrorism."--by James Carney/Washington


....You can find the story on page 20 of the October 8, 2001, issue of Time.