Maureen Farrell: The New Right and Old Wrongs - The Quagmire, A to Z

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October 5, 2004

The New Right and Old Wrongs:
The Quagmire, A to Z
by Maureen Farrell

"Yet we were wrong, terribly wrong. We owe it to future generations to explain why." –Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, on the Vietnam War, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, 1995

"It's just wrong what we're doing. It's morally wrong, it's politically wrong, it's economically wrong." -- Robert McNamara, on the war in Iraq, the Globe and Mail, Jan. 24, 2004

"If the Bush administration remains in power, failure in Iraq is a virtual certainty." -- Retired Air Force Col. and former military planner Mike Turner, Newsweek, Sept. 24, 2004

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Now that Operation Iraqi Freedom has become Operation American Quagmire, it’s remarkable how accurately a spattering of journalists, citizens and whistleblowers saw what was really going on beforehand -- a sizable feat considering the media's perpetual airing of WMD and other propaganda.

"There is no evidence of weapons of mass destruction. You never even get that idea floated in the mainstream media. If you bring it up, they hate the messenger. You've ruined everyone's good time," Janeane Garofalo said on the eve of war, in an article on how the prewar "debate" became a cartoon.

And though such flashes of insight are now relegated to yesterday’s news (or tomorrow’s, considering CBS’ decision to postpone a story on the war rationale), it’s important to understand the role hubris, incompetence and deception played in all of this. And while reviewing such things can be as painful as watching replays of that ball going through Bill Buckner’s legs, we need to consider what went wrong, as the consequences of continued ignorance are far graver than any Bambino’s curse.

How did we get here? How were we so readily duped by those who are, technically, supposed to be working for us? With the election fast approaching, we better figure it out. And with that in mind, here's an A to Z guide to help sort through this mess:

A is for Agenda

March 2002: "Saddam Hussein is not a threat to the U.S. . . The experts say that Saddam doesn't have the capacity to manufacture weapons of mass destruction (WMD) -- and even if he could and even if he could somehow acquire that capacity, he certainly doesn't have the capacity to deliver them. . . The whole weapons inspection issue is really just a ruse. The real agenda of the Bush administration is a regime change. . . It has nothing to do with the U.N. or weapons inspectors or even human rights."-- Former U.N. official Denis Halliday, Salon.com, March 20, 2002 (a year before the start of the war in Iraq).

Update: While prewar speculation about the Bush administration's real agenda was rampant, by the time Colin Powell tried to sell the war to our allies, few were buying. "We think the Iraqi people would be a lot better off with a different leader, a different regime," Powell said, mindful that "regime change" violated both allies' trust and international law. "But the principal offense here is weapons of mass destruction, and that's what this resolution is working on. . .All we are interested in is getting rid of those weapons of mass destruction," Powell fibbed.).

Continue reading for B to Z --- http://www.buzzflash.com/farrell/04/10/far04033.html