And another thing

Read Shakespeare's Sister for the latest memos coming out about Iraq. It's pretty sickening. Stuff like this:

• Memo from Peter Ricketts (Political Director, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office) to Jack Straw (UK Foreign Secretary), March 22, 2002

For Iraq, "regime change" does not stack up. It sounds like a grudge between Bush and Saddam. Much better, as you have suggested, to make the objective ending the threat to the international community from Iraqi WMD...

And cup holders...don't forget the cup holders....I'm sorry. I lost myself for a moment. I thought we were selling a car not talking about invading a foreign country. It's so easy to get those two things confused.

I know I am ridiculously--what's the word--not naive, maybe idealistic--ridiculously idealistic sometimes, but is it too much to ask that we don't market war. (For more on marketing and Iraq, see last December's post that talks about a government advisory board report on marketing the "US brand" to Middle Eastern Muslims with gems like this:

How will the U.S. define the role of its "brand" in terms of the needs and wants of key target audiences?
. . .
What images, icons and symbolic elements will help communicate and enrich this "brand" meaning?

Have I mentioned lately that I hate Capitalism?