IN THE LAST FEW POSTS I've been exploring how a propaganda email first establishes, and then develops, it's conflated categories.

At the end of the the previous post, the conflated picture had been expanded to this:

The email doesn't stop there, however.

There's a little emblem, at this point, to one side, declaring "God Bless Our Troops":

Notice how the emblem ties patriotism, the troops, love, and religion all together in a neat little package.

The net effect of all this is to set up two equations:

Us = People who appreciated those pictures = loving people = people who don't believe we tortured Iraqis = conservatives = troop supporters = religious believers = patriots = the good guys.

Them = People who would hate those pictures = unloving people = people who believe we tortured Iraqis = liberals = troop despisers = atheists = Unamerican = the bad guys.

The email now announces for the first time that it is a "prayer wheel" for our soldiers, and asks you to say a prayer and then forward it to the people in your address book.

This is very clever. If you really are one of the "good guys" how could you break a prayer chain for our troops?

The email doesn't mention the fact that by forwarding it, you will not only be encouraging your friends to support the troops, but also be disseminating a whole series of lies and brainwashing.

There are three remaining touches, however, before the deceptions are finished.

The first is a little homage to the American flag, surrounded by a list of wars:

Once again, the point is conflation. First, to conflate the idea of war with the idea of patriotism. Apparently the flag can't wave "PROUDLY for our FREEDOM" in peacetime.

The second function is to conflate the six wars listed into one concept. Notice that WWII, the war that is easiest to justify and the one most people approve of, is at the top in order to set the tone.

The three wars which there is a great deal of debate over in this country are at the bottom, where they can bask in that tone. The whole idea is to cement the reader's approval of our policy in WWII to our quite different policy in Iraq.

The subtext is to put anyone who would question our invasion of Iraq in the same light as someone who would have sided with Hitler.

So the implied world-view has been modified again:

The world is getting divided pretty firmly here, but the email isn't done. There are two more touches to come.

And one of those is the most frightening yet...