PBS on Iraq: A Compilation of Deceit

[laststeamtrain]

PBS on Iraq: A Compilation of Deceit

By Morgan Strong
March 30, 2008

There have been five agonizing years of this war in Iraq. Five terrible years of bewilderment and rage.

Commemorating that anniversary, Frontline, the PBS investigative series, allotted four-and-one-half hours over two nights to an in-depth analysis of the war in Iraq and how it came about.

What the broadcast revealed was nothing new. Others have engaged the subject as thoroughly as did Frontline. What we did see in this broadcast, however, was a compilation of the deceit, pettiness, treachery, arrogance, ignorance and stunning callousness by those who took us into this vile war.

The key figures who promoted the war were Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Lewis Libby. Those names were not new, but a new motive for the war was revealed: the recognition of Israel by a new democratic Iraq.

<snip>

Those American officials who promoted the war hoped that a Chalabi-led Iraq would recognize Israel and a new era in the Middle East would begin. Libby, the Vice President’s chief of staff, and Cheney – along with Perle, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld – endorsed the idea of Chalabi running Iraq and convinced a hopelessly befuddled Bush.

What is perhaps equally startling, and thoroughly depressing, is the common pettiness of the five – Libby, Cheney, Perle, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld – as they fought desperately to launch this war in Iraq. They would let nothing and no one stand in their way.

<snip>

Bush is depicted in the broadcast as a passive incompetent controlled by Cheney, though whether or not the President was manipulated is largely irrelevant. As the chief constitutional officer of the United States, he bears the ultimate responsibility.

<more>

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/032908b.html

[acmavm]

1. The LAST paragraph of this article:

<snip>

How did these people come to govern us? How did such incompetents and ideologues gain our fealty?

<snip>

I didn't think that program was that effective or hard-hitting. They white-washed a lot of the criminal activity of that crew. And they sure gave bush** a pass.

But it was sure as hell better than the nothing that we've gotten over the past few years.

[barbtries]

2. i felt the same way

there was an awful lot of bush and cheney as true believers instead of the murderous greedy cynical lying sacks of shit they really are. but i hope millions of people watched it just to learn that the reasons for the war were a hoax. too many still to this day entertain the fictions that there were WMDs and that saddam had something to do with 911 and that we're in iraq for the right reasons.

[SteinbachMB]

3. Old news

but fascinating viewing, nonetheless.

[BlueManDude]

4. It's telling that the one thing that pissed Bush off was the murder of the contractors at Fallujah.

All the other deaths (Us and Iraqi) didn't seem to bother him.

[Doctor_J]

5. One thing that bodes ill for the country ever recovering from this

is that it is now common knowledge that the Bush Crime Family lied, cheated, stole, killed, and committed treason thousands of time over during the last 6 years, and there still doesn't seem to be any way to hold them accountable. That's why IMO this whole sorry debacle is going to end in another civil war.