12 August 2008
Anti-McCain video
Newly posted at YouTube two weeks ago, this 5-minute video does incorporate some older footage, but does so in a strikingly forthright way.
The key figure is Scott Ritter, former intelligence officer in the U.S. Marine Corps and chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991-1998; his C-Span diatribe against "usable" nuclear weapons for pre-emptive strikes is excerpted in this video.
Other negative commentary comes from General Wesley Clark and from Pat Buchanan, a conservative pundit who suggests John McCain will be a "war president."
I have previously decried the use of "fearmongering" during the Giuliani campaign, and this video may be guilty of the same tactic, although it does not arise from the Obama campaign. In this video the suggested fear is not of a perceived enemy, but of a McCain presidency and further wars.
I think you are correct when you used the term fear-mongering. This video demonstrates the awesome power of marketing manipulation that constantly forces those watching to analyze every piece of information that comes to them.
ReplyDeleteAs to the content of this video, all I can do is quote English philosopher Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing."
I would rather have someone who has stood up against oppression and evil with necessary force, than someone whose only experience in dealing with villainy is to "talk" with it.
As a conservative, I can tell you that America will not use "tactical" nuclear weapons. There is not a military in the world who is capable of withstanding our conventional arms, so why up that ante. With the possible exception of the Japanese, there is no other nation so diametrically opposed to nuclear conflict. That is why conservatives have supported ballistic missile defense for years.
Excellent blog...