Fearmongering

It's gotten to the point where I almost feel phsyically ill when I hear Bush speak. It's not so much that I know he's full of shit, it's so many people still can't see it.

So yeah, yesterday's press conference. Absolutely disgusting. Fearmongering at its best. I guess Bush thinks the most effective way to rule is to try and scare the shit out of as many people as possible. With his approval numbers, it's about the only card he has left. Over and over again he reiterated how American children were in extreme danger. Red alert!! Everybody shit your pants!! Very presidential, Mr. Bush. Of course, getting everyone riled with fear is just a way to promote his bullshit "fight them there so we don't have to fight them here" line. Of course it's crap, and Fred Kaplan in Slate state the obvious:

First, the vast majority of the insurgents have nothing to do with al-Qaida or its ideology. They're combatants in a sectarian conflict for power in Iraq, and they have neither the means nor the desire to threaten North America.

Second, to the extent that the true global terrorists could attack us at home, they could do so whether or not U.S. troops stay or win in Iraq. The one issue has nothing to do with the other.

Um, duh. Yet the perverse beauty of what Bush does is that if you state these obvious things, well then, you're not taking the threat seriously. And for the millions of people more concerned with Dancing With The Stars and American Idol than global affairs (understandable and justifiable when considering the I.B.S. which occurs when paying attention to the world), the sort of simplistic rhetoric Bush employs makes a certain sense. It's a wicked circle where the truth becomes unserious and bullshit becomes deadly serious.