March 04, 2004

Anger over Bush Commercials

Some families of Sep. 11th victims as well as Democrats are upset that President Bush used some clips of Ground Zero in his new campaign ads. Watch them yourself and see if he really was exploiting the deaths of three thousand people. They were tastefully done. There were no pictures of the planes crashing into the twin towers, and there weren't any shots of the towers crashing down.

To critics it seems Sep. 11 has to fall into the memory hole, or only victims and their families have the right to use those horrible images. Lucy Willett said, "He [Bush] should not be allowed to use those images at all." That's poppycock! Sep. 11 was an attack on all Americans. It attacked our way of life, our freedom, and our prosperity. All who witnessed those horrible events will forever be scarred. All Americans have a claim on those images and memories. Also, that fateful day changed America's foreign policy in a profound way. The post-Cold War era ended, and the nation was at war. Our national innocence was lost when we realized there were people out there with the desire and capability to kill thousands of our fellow citizens. President Bush saw this change and reacted decisively. No longer was international terrorism looked at as a task for law enforcement. No longer would the U.S. tolerate nations that harbored and helped terrorists. Because of al-Qaeda's alliance with the Taliban, Afghanistan became the first point of response. That nation's people were liberated from oppressive rule. Next came Saddam Hussein's Iraq. She too was liberated. Libya read the writing on the wall and gave up its WMD development instead of risking being another causalty to Bush's muscular anti-terrorism strategy. In any evaluation and defense of the President's first term, Sep. 11 plays the pivotal role.

For an off-beat, yet correct perspective, read Michele's post. Now, let's take Bush's critics to their logical extreme. If Bush can't use Sep. 11 images, then John Kerry has to stop mentioning his Vietnam War record. No longer should either candidate use women, children, grandmothers, grandfathers, dogs, cats, baseball games, picnics, American flags, eagles, soldiers, policemen, cars, trucks, trees, sappy West Wing-type string arrangements, celebrities, mountains, valleys, lakes, rivers, clouds, flowers, bugs, newspaper headlines, or anything else as a means of persuation. The only ads that should run are 30 seconds of static with only the candidate blandly reciting a portion of his platform. (In the case of Kerry, he can't help but speak blandly.) Not even a whisp of "exploitation" or "manipulation" should be allowed because voters are nothing more than helpless sheep incapable of analyzing what they're watching.

"Sept. 11 Families Outraged by Bush Campaign Ad"

"The Use of 9/11 Imagery" [via PoliBlog]