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3 Apr, 2016

Wars, the War on Terror, With Us or Against Us – Juan Cole – Truthdig

Thirteen years after the illegal US invasion of Iraq, it is worth considering its full impact on this country and on the region. Bush-Cheneyism had a number of key pillars, among which these were prominent:

1. Aggressive unilateral warfare, with the domestic advantage of making the public rally around the flag. 2. Conspiracy-theory amalgamation of various threats into one (‘Saddam supports al-Qaeda’) 3. A vague, endless war on terrorism used as a means of scaring the electorate and creating a market for the securitization of politics (replete with color-coded terrorism alerts) 4. An insistence on a black and white “you are with us or against us” 5. Smearing regime critics as terrorist sympathizers 6. Broadly hinting around that one ethnic or religious group is the enemy;….

Read the rest: Juan Cole: How Bush-Cheneyism Made Mideast in Its Image: Wars, the War on Terror, With Us or Against Us – Juan Cole – Truthdig