The cover story in today's Seattle Times is entitled, "Bush works to shore up support for terror fight".
Curiously, this article is not about anti-terrorism measures, at all. It talks about the decision of Spain to withdraw from Iraq, and the likelihood that our occupation partners are likely targets of terrorism.
These two independent items are linked together by this Bush talking point:
"...President Bush tried to shore up the global anti-terror coalition yesterday, as well as support for Iraq.
It is important that the world society, international community, stands shoulder-to-shoulder and shows its solidarity to fight against these terrible attacks," Bush said after an Oval Office meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.
"Terrorists will kill innocent life in order to try to get the world to cower," Bush said. "They'll kill innocent people to try to shake our will. That's what they want to do. And they'll never shake the will of the United States."
Here is the whole article:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001880948_spain17.html
The implied argument of this piece is that participation in the Iraq occupation is equivalent to fighting terrorism. For this propaganda to make its way into a widely-read newspaper (even a Republican rag like the Seattle Times) is disturbing.
Please call Jim Mallory at the Seattle Times National/International News copy desk and tell him what you think of this.
The newsroom phone is: (206) 464-2200
Please post it in a comment if someone can get his direct line.