LAST TIME, I SAID THAT the email we've been working our way through had three final touches. These are, to my mind the worst conflations, and the worst distortions, in the entire propaganda piece.

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

It's purpose was twofold:

1. To conflate the idea of war with the idea of patriotism. The flag apparently can't wave "PROUDLY for our FREEDOM" in peacetime.
2. To conflate the six wars listed into one concept, implying that people who would question our invasion of Iraq would also have sided with Hitler.

These, of course, are sheer nonsense when said out loud, which is why the technique of conflation is being used to imply it without saying it.

The second touch is worse.

It's a prayer, which the reader is asked to pray:

'Dear Heavenly Father,
Hold our troops in your loving hands.
Protect them as they protect us.
Bless them and their families
for the selfless acts they perform
for us in our time of need.
Please stop a moment
and say a prayer for our troops
(land, air, and sea) in
Afghanistan, Kuwait ,
Iraq and all around the world.

Here, as elsewhere, the real message is in the subtext.

The idea of religion is being tied firmly to the idea of appreciating the troops, and to their "selfless acts".

The implication, within the categories already established earlier, is that "we" are grateful, and understand selflessness and prayer, while those liberal unpatriotic atheists are ungrateful, selfish, and won't pray for the troops.

But it's worse than that, because the kind of religion involved is a sort of nationalistic, authoritarian religion.

There are many very religious people, Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, and others, who would not pray that prayer, because the entire prayer implies that God is a sort of authoritarian national pet, who would protect our troops preferentially on the battle-field.

Part of that concept, of course, is that our troops are fighting on the side of light in a cosmic war against evil—that no one on the other side is doing anything so simple as protecting their home-land against invaders.

The prayer is illustrated by another picture, this one tying together adorable children, patriotism, and religion:

Once again, cute children are used shamelessly to trigger our emotions, and to weld the ideas of patriotism, love of children, and religion into a single unit.

Notice, by the way, that the prayer being urged on us is, once again, not a prayer to the universal God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam, but a prayer to a nationalistic American God, who can be almost interchanged with the country (as governed by right-wingers, of course).

The traditional God of those three religions is noted for instructing us to love our enemies, and to do good to them—not promising to watch over us while we bomb them.

Pretty shameless?

The worst bit is yet to come...