Buying the War
Buying the War, a recent Bill Moyer’s special, is a stinging indictment of how the media, almost without exception, bought the White House spin on Weapons of Mass Destruction, the al Qaeda link with Saddam Hussein, and other specious evidence presented by Vice President Cheney, Defense Department official Douglas Feith and others. How can we be certain that a similar spin is not being attempted on the current situation in Iraq?
The film’s title comes from the joke: "Why does a dog wag its tail? Because a dog is smarter than its tail. If the tail was smarter, the tail would wag the dog." Related to Wag the Dog, the dog seems to be the president (who we never see) and the tail represents his PR assistants, who immediately assume responsibility for damage control. The expression "the tail wagging the dog" refers to any situation where something of greater significance is driven by something lesser.
Wag the Dog seems far-less-absurd than when it was first released. Recent events reinforce my distrust of both government information and the credibility of the principal media sources. Our country as a whole is the victim of this lack of government-media integrity.
Perhaps it is time for Mr. Levinson to consider a Wag the Dog sequel. I suggest several possible story lines:
- Did President Reagan authorize the invasion of Grenada in 1983 because:
- A leftist government and a Cuban construction battalion posed a serious threat to U. S. vital national interests? or
- Such an invasion would divert attention from the killing of 241 American military in Beirut? or
- It was imperative to protect the source of half of the world’s nut meg supply to assure Xmas egg nog?
- Did President G. W. Bush initiate the invasion of Panama in 1989 because:
- He was surprised that General Noriega, who had been on the CIA payroll for over 15 years, was a scummy character? or
- There was a local security situation that threatened U. S. vital national interests? or
- He wanted to alter his image as a “wimp?”
Writers of fiction would be hard pressed to top some of scenarios that have been spun in White House “pageants.” Who, for example, could have imagined a Watergate script in which a White House official delivered $75,000 in a garbage bag to a gum shoe awaiting him on a park bench or that Gordon Liddy, in a meeting with former Attorney General John Mitchell, proposed ‘taking out’ those who opposed the president? When The Washington Post doggedly pursued a Watergate story that other papers ignored, Mr. Mitchell threatened to put Post CEO Graham’s “tits in a wringer.”
As the cartoonist wrote in 1998, there may not be much difference between watching Wag The Dog and viewing the evening news.
