this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2026
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United States | News & Politics
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The War on Terror had a massive, long-term propaganda campaign behind it to win public support. They didn't bother this time. The media are trying but they didn't let the propaganda campaign cook long enough, so actual public support is very low.
It helps at the start of a war, for sure.
For me, the WoT is a symbol of the powerlessness of the people and, by extension, the vote at the federal level. It was massively unpopular toward the end of Bush's term, and Obama became less popular over the course of his term because rather than ending the wars like he promised, he expanded them, and then by the time he was gone we were bombing seven countries at once. (That we know of.)
This one, however, has been bungled from the start, but you'll still hear every pundit who isn't on alternative media throwing their hands up and saying: "Well, we're in it, so now how it has to continue indefinitely," even though it's abundantly clear that this war is botched and the best choice is to stop it now. (Obligatory recommendation: Watch Breaking Points, very good alt media agency and one of their reporters even punched Jesse Watters in the face once.)
I'm also sure Donald would rather hear about what a shitty war leader he is every day than the fact that he molested kids.
The difference, here, is that the wars were popular in the beginning for Bush. The people wanted war in Afghanistan and Iraq, because the regime put in the effort and spent the time necessary to propagandize the population. The wars became unpopular.
In this case, the war started unpopular. That's the difference. Wars aren't inherently popular, there needs to be a mass mobilization of the propaganda networks to drum up support for war. They have the whole thing backwards, they're forcing the war on us and the pundits are trying to convince us its good after the fact. That absolutely won't work, it's all downhill from here.
Time will tell. I'm not sure I trust our country to give enough of a shit for it to matter.