Dear George,
After the Vietnamese ran us out of their country, the Pentagon did a postmortem and decided that the reason the public turned against the war was poor public relations. There were simply too many reporters, too many cameras, and too many images of the dead and the maimed.
The solution was simple: public relations flexed its muscles and became “perception management.” This was a major advancement. In traditional public relations, image was grounded in reality, spun to put reality in as favorable a light as possible. Perception management turned this upside down. The image became reality.
Here’s an example of how it works: I am currently trolling My Space as a twenty-three year old stud muffin, even though I’m a flaccid old fart, grey of hair and wrinkled of face. Should this result in a liaison, all I need do is splash some dye in my hair, shoot myself up with Botox, pop a few Viagra, and I become a twenty-three year-old stud muffin.
By changing image, I change reality, just as you are doing in Iraq.
Every war needs a Hollywood glow. World War II continues to be a Hollywood production to this day. The trouble with Vietnam is that it was too damn gritty. You’ve successfully sanitized Iraq to the point that opposition to the war is based more on perceived mismanagement, than gore and the killing of children. The suffering of a brown skin means nothing to us; we simply accept it as the way of the world.
Keep spinning, George. Each spin creates a new reality. With just a little more effort, History will remember you as the twenty-three year-old stud muffin that screwed the world.
Your admirer,
Belacqua Jones
5:00:03 AM 
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