Bush Rides Gulf War Spin

As every savvy mass manipulator knows, it is the propaganda that does not appear as such that works the best. Too obvious a pitch can only fail.

Consider, for example, the GOP's recent show of multicultural diversity -- "It Takes a Potemkin Village." That burst of pseudoamity was such a patent sell that it gave all the op-ed wits and cable clowns an easy opening, which was then exploited by the Democrats in their quadrennial miniseries. The Bush convention was an "inclusion illusion," said Jesse Jackson, and Joe Lieberman cracked wise about Tom Hanks in Philadelphia, and a good time was had by all.

But while it failed to make Bush/Cheney seem as mellow as the Grateful Dead, the show succeeded brilliantly at glorifying the main accomplishment of Bush the Elder -- and at identifying his son with that amazing tour de force. Dick Cheney's role as ready understudy, the feisty testimonials of Generals Powell and Schwarzkopf, and the many blustering allusions to Saddam Hussein were broad reminders of the momentary glory that was Operation Desert Storm. At such belligerent theatrics no one laughed -- no pundits or comedians or Democrats -- because that "operation" still exerts a certain magic. The GOP's politically-correct charade no doubt distracted us from thinking critically about the party's celebration of that war.

By apt coincidence, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait took place exactly ten years prior to the show in Philadelphia, and a little over ten years prior to Al Gore's choice to run with Senator Lieberman, who, in concert with Dick Cheney, Norman Schwarzkopf, Colin Powell, and George Bush, did his utmost to arouse enthusiasm for the war. (Al Gore, too, was a supporter.) In the anniversary spirit, then, we should revisit the original Bush/Cheney production, to get a sense of what a propaganda masterpiece it really was.

The Background

Lest we forget, the invasion of Kuwait had been tacitly green-lighted by April Glaspie, our ambassador in Baghdad, who reassured Saddam Hussein that "we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your disagreement with Kuwait." Whether such encouragement was her mistake or State Department policy is still an open question.

Iraq's dictator had enjoyed immense Republican support. Under Presidents Reagan and Bush, the U.S. government was most receptive to the lobbying efforts of the U.S.-Iraq Business Forum -- a grand consortium of corporate powers established in 1985, that wanted access to the Iraqi market. The Forum lobbied heavily against congressional sanctions on Iraq, despite her leader's grisly record. The Forum (with the aid of Henry Kissinger) also worked to help Iraq out with her debts -- and the Reagan and Bush administrations pitched right in: underwriting loans from Italy's infamous Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, quietly facilitating aid through the Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation, and pressing the Commerce Department to allow Iraq to purchase various lethal goods from U.S. companies.

Thus did the Bush team help to arm the tyrant whom they would soon demonize to shattering effect. Such facts were missing from the pro-war propaganda churned out during the months of Operation Desert Shield; and the issue vanished after 1992, when a Justice Department inquiry went nowhere.

The Build Up

Inside the White House and the Pentagon, there was no doubt that we would stomp Iraq, a third-world country mangled by eight years of inconclusive war against Iran, and -- unlike Vietnam -- ruled by a gangster largely feared and hated by his people. But despite their confidence, from early August 1990 through the next five months, the Bush team and the Pentagon expertly jolted the American people, suggesting often that Iraq might win. War always being "a terrible thing with unpredictable consequences" (as General Powell put it scarily), we might be facing an ordeal in which (as another, unnamed general put it) "many, many people are going to die. And it's important for people to understand that it's not inconceivable we could lose." Far from helping to expose this systematic lie, the antiwar protesters (insofar as you could hear them) merely reconfirmed it, by insisting hotly that this conflict would turn out to be "another Vietnam."