I ran across a long Washington Post article, "Among Top Officials, 'Surge' Has Sparked Dissent, Infighting" that reveals much about the politics of the surge.
It's well worth the read. But this section grabbed me.
Another new arrival in the West Wing set up a rapid-response PR unit hard-wired into Petraeus's shop. Ed Gillespie, the new presidential counselor, organized daily conference calls at 7:45 a.m. and again late in the afternoon between the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the U.S. Embassy and military in Baghdad to map out ways of selling the surge.
From the start of the Bush plan, the White House communications office had been blitzing an e-mail list of as many as 5,000 journalists, lawmakers, lobbyists, conservative bloggers, military groups and others with talking points or rebuttals of criticism. Between Jan. 10 and last week, the office put out 94 such documents in various categories -- "Myths/Facts" or "Setting the Record Straight" to take issue with negative news articles, and "In Case You Missed It" to distribute positive articles or speeches.
Gillespie arranged several presidential speeches to make strategic arguments, such as comparing Iraq to Vietnam or warning of Iranian interference. When critics assailed Bush for overstating ties between al-Qaeda and the group called al-Qaeda in Iraq, Gillespie organized a Bush speech to make his case.
"The whole idea is to take these things on before they become conventional wisdom," said White House communications director Kevin Sullivan. "We have a very short window."
Petraeus was doing his part in Baghdad, hosting dozens of lawmakers and military scholars for PowerPoint presentations on why the Bush strategy had made gains. Many Republicans and even Democrats came home impressed, and suddenly even critics were agreeing that Petraeus had made some progress in security even though the Iraqi political situation remained a mess. Petraeus also persuaded intelligence officials to revise some key judgments of a new National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq to reflect security gains.
Nothing has changed -- except perhaps they have stopped paying columnists to carry their water. Our government has spewed propaganda for decades, of course: Radio Free Europe, for example. But this administration has turned the nozzle of the propaganda hose on us. And of course, it has been effective: Just how many still believe Saddam had a hand in 9/11? Bush has shown that "...and you can fool some 30% of the people all of the time.
But of course, the MSM doesn't report receiving this propaganda, no it seems most use it, abetting the evildoers.
I wonder what Jefferson, with his faith in an informed electorate, would think of all this? Is democracy doomed here? Have we become a fascist state?