Mixed Metaphors From The Newswire: After "Breakthrough" On Iraq, "W" Earns A Ciggy

All I can say is: Ahh.

Doing a search on "George Bush" on the Yahoo Newswire this morning, these two military shots (particularly the first) were sprinkled throughout the thicket of presidential news conference images.  Reflecting how thoroughly the President's stock got tied up in the war funding battle with the Dems (at least, retrospectively -- and according to the White House and the MSM), the choice to float these photos plays like political choreography.

According to the caption in image one: "A US marine crosses through an opening of a wall in an industrial area during a dismounted patrol in the southern part of Fallujah."  In image two: "A US marine smokes a cigarette at a military camp in the restive city of Fallujah."  (The second line in both captions indicates that Bush is about to sign the legislation committing dollars to the war.)

The first image -- playing the pic against today's NYT political memo, "Winning on Iraq, Bush Turns to Immigration" -- creates a heroic analogy between this G.I. pushing through the wall and the President coming through on the funding battle.  As the Times write-up alludes, however, it's not that rubble and major cracks aren't still everywhere, but that (citing unnamed Republicans):

...[P]assage of the spending bill now gave Mr. Bush some breathing room.

(image 1: AFP. Fallujah.  undated.  image 2: AFP/Roslan Rahman.  Fallujah.  undated.  Via YahooNews)

Comments

[lytom]

Not much of an inspiring image of establishing freedom in Iraq...That illusion is gone and cannot be brought back...
It is the war machine that actively seeks the destruction of a country that is unashamedly advertised and supported.
It is the destruction and not only of Iraq, but bit by bit of Middle East that is in the plan...only Arabs do not see it! Unite!

[ummabdulla]

lytom: "It is the destruction and not only of Iraq, but bit by bit of Middle East that is in the plan...only Arabs do not see it! Unite!"

Oh, I think every Arab sees that. But you're right - they haven't united... yet. When they do, it will probably be not as Arabs but as Muslims.

[tina]

Ummabdullah, it is a popular wish that the Ummah will all get together and give America and the West a severe thrashing, and drive them from all Muslim lands (I think only the fringe aspire to a worldwide caliphate). This wish, popular among even Western liberals because of its anti-colonial bent, ignores two things...the reality of globalization and the interconnectedness of world economies (IOW we can't live without each other any more, not without sliding backwards economically and technologically), and the divisions between Muslims. Muslims in Pakistan are killing each other, Muslims from Algeria to Afghanistan are slaughtering each other, Darfur ditto, Iraq is in a civil war every bit as much as it is in a war against America, and almost all victims of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism are Muslims.

The state of the Ummah has just a ton of problems that can't be set at the feet of the West, unless you count the fact that a lot of this fighting has to do with some Muslims, who belong to certain political parties or hold certain social ideas, being called toadies of the West by other Muslims.

[Darryl Pearce]

"the reality of globalization and the interconnectedness of world economies"

...time for me to go read Jared Diamond's "Collapse" again.
...and read Wm Butler Yeats' poem "The Second Coming" again.

Wow, everything old is new again.

[boxcar]

The top image is wonderful in contrasting the dems attempt at a quick rebound -- after falling like a bunch of Hussein statues on caving for the War Spending Bill (Diane Feinstein? Really?) -- by trying to quickly slam an immigration bill.

The caption on the first image could read:
"Stop Illegal Immigration".

box

[weisseharre]

s/n-ub,ot,ap,ip(e)

[Kim S]

Wow, smoking is dangerous. (wink wink)