Then and Now

Now is Always the Key Time in War Propaganda

Here is a link to Glenn Greenwald's blog post criticizing "now key time" type rhetoric in discussions of the Afghanistan and Iraq war. Some k-ish case defense to accompany a militarism argument perhaps... An excerpt is reproduced below.

Good luck to all at the TOC. Debate well!
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War propaganda from Afghanistan
By Glenn Greenwald, Apr 27, 2010

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The New York Times yesterday excitedly declared that the imminent Battle of Kandahar "has become the make-or-break offensive of the eight-and-half-year [Afghanistan] war" and is "the pivotal test of President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy." As Atrios suggests, there never is any such thing as "make-or-break" because we never leave no matter how completely our war and occupation efforts fail. That's what led to the countless Friedman Units of the Iraq War: the endless proclamations that The Next Six Months will be Decisive, only to be repeated at the end of the six-month period of failure as though the prior one never happened.

Just consider what's being said now about how the Kandahar offensive is the "make-or-break" battle of the war and the "pivotal test" for Obama's war strategy by comparing it to what was said a mere two months ago about the now clearly failing assault on Marjah.