9/11 Symbolism Murky Backdrop for Report on Iraq

[babylonsister]

9/11 Symbolism Murky Backdrop for Report on Iraq
by Joe Garofoli

The nation will receive a long-awaited Pentagon report on the war in Iraq today - the day before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Even though the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission said there was no credible connection between the terrorist attacks and former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the anniversary of the attacks and the debate about what to do next in Iraq are once again blurring together in the media blender.

While Congress and the nation hear today from Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, television viewers in four states will see an anti-war ad featuring children dressed in military fatigues, training to be soldiers in an “endless war.”

Part of a $12 million summerlong anti-war campaign funded by liberal organizations such as MoveOn.org and private donors, the ad is running over the next week in four states represented by pro-war senators. It is focused partially at “security moms” - swing voters who supported Republicans in 2004 because the GOP appealed to their post-9/11 concerns, but who now may be disenchanted with the direction of the war. It never mentions Sept. 11. Instead, the ad’s deep-voiced narrator warns that if Republican senators don’t vote to stop the war, “Should we start training our children now?”

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/10/3751/