nbc nightly news....richard engel...iraq war wasn't worth it. soldiers are telling him this.

[spanone]

soldiers he's kept in contact with.......

nbc nightly news

and iraqis are telling him that other than toppling saddam, it wasn't worth it.

of course they didn't acknowledge that we were lied into going into this war.

[Maccagirl]

1. As a sidebar

end every story with a STFU to all Republicans criticizing Obama for getting the hell out-finally.

[ClarkUSA]

2. Oops... I unrec'd instead of rec'd. Sorry.

The MSM will never ever accuse Republicans about lying us into the Iraq war. But now Rev. Wright... now that was a REAL story!

:sarcasm:

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Made that up fer ya

[ClarkUSA]

10. Thanks.

:hi:

[Swagman]

21. didn't plenty of Democratics go along with the lies?

apart from a few notable exceptions ?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

24. Roughly half and half.

IIrc, 60% against, 40% for.

[mwb970]

31. Anyone who didn't go along with the lies was branded a traitor.

Many Democrats are spineless and couldn't stand the thought of being called weak on "defense".

[willhe]

45. dems are cowards

they went along with it so the cons wouldnt say dems voted against fighting terrorist. look how the pukes are the vote against jobs but dont give a flying f___k. the problem with america is the cons can sell a bridge to nowhere while the dems sell fixing a busy bridge to somewhere

[stevenleser]

57. Less than half "went along with it" so, that's hardly an indictment of "the dems" nt

[bluestateguy]

3. He is one of the few MSM reporters who covered the war well

and without the rah rah frat house patriotism that was so prevalent during the war's first years.

[LuckyLib]

46. And an actual case of a modern day reporter who not only is fluent in Arabic,

but smart enough to dig underneath the propaganda.

[slipslidingaway]

4. We were lied into going to war? There should be an investigation. n/t

[annabanana]

19. heh . . . . . . . . . n/t

[pscot]

29. We aren't supposed to look backward

Lest we notice what's been sneakin up on us.

[ooglymoogly]

42. +1 nice turn of phrase to nail it.

[sad sally]

53. Just what Sec of War Clinton said this a.m.

Her answer to the question was her Senate vote to authorize military action in Iraq: "I honestly don't think this is a time to be looking back. I will leave it to history to debate and argue over the merits and demerits of what the United States did over the last decade."

In other words, no accountability for an illegal war, torture, looting, missing billions - move along, folks, nothing to see here.

Except for the 4,478 dead Americans, 33,169 wounded (official number), 320,000 veterans with brain injuries, 318 coalition troops dead, 1,487 contractor employees dead, 348 journalists dead, over 1,000,000 Iraqi people dead (from conservative estimates by The Lancet, a medical journal that's kept records, $804 billion spent by the mic, at least $18 billion "missing," prisoners still held without charges....no looking back...

[slipslidingaway]

59. They cannot look back, too many Dems were complicit or stupid. n/t

[slipslidingaway]

58. Lol, always a great strategy! n/t

[sendero]

5. You think? n/t

[frazzled]

6. Richard, you're about 7 or 8 years late in revealing this

I love it when reporters--even ones like Richard Engel--decide to finally come clean with the reporting after everything is over. There were many opportunities from the beginning of the war (and even before) to have stated these facts. It means nothing now. How cowardly.

[Old and In the Way]

11. Engel was a reporter first, I think.

Darn good one too, I think. He speaks Arabic which certainly helps in his knowledge of the true Iraqi sentiment. I think now that it's winding down he's finally providing a greater amount of opinion and both in the military and within the country. I imagine the job of opining was not his job...straight reporting on what was happening on the ground was his job. NBC lacks from no number of talking heads to provide the framing.

[Amonester]

23. NBC M$M is part of the 1% who profited and still profit from it.

He could also "reveal" that to the aveRage 'muRkun ...

[AmirDal]

28. These reporters cannot speak the truth when wars are popular, even it they wanted. Editors & Owners

determine what goes on the air or else they let the offending reporter find another profession.

[Chipper Chat]

32. Of course. Engel wanted to keep his job!

Any rational person watching his reports the last several years could read between the lines and know his true sentiment. Well, except John Bolton-like Murcans of course who were frothing at the mouth that Engel wasn't trashing those nasty folks with brown skin enough.

[ooglymoogly]

44. Richard was not the famous person he is today through most of the war.

Whenever he was asked however, he stood tall and honest. To insinuate otherwise is a bit disingenuous. Rachel put him on whenever she could and her special on Iraq put him on top of his game. He might have got there a lot sooner if he had been less honest and less brutal about the fraud being perpetrated on the American people. I count him as one of the few true journalists of the small cadre of an endangered species.

[malaise]

7. Duh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We all knew this. :hi:

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. The water is wet and the sun rises in the east.

That said don't expect too many media types to even touch that one.

[donheld]

12. Halliburton, Blackwater & Exxon Mobil would disagree

Bastards

[PatrynXX]

18. they'd be the reason we are being kicked out of the country

ie no protection for the people who stay behind because hey those three muddied what was legal and illegal by getting away with it. Because they were not held accountable... there would be no way to protect anyone staying behind..

[Lone_Star_Dem]

13. I wonder what would have made it worth it in their eyes?

I've never really understood what the "socially acceptable" reason for the war was supposed to be to the average American after 4, 5, 6 years, etc. I know they played on the mass fear following 9/11, but that shit wore off the majority of shell shocked Americans years and years ago. Hearing about the latest thwarted "terrorist" plot in this country is now so common place it goes in one ear and out the other of most Americans without registering, let alone eliciting an emotional reaction.. Even saying we can't leave Iraq in such an "unstable mess" hasn't resonated with the masses once they finally started looking around at what a mess we were in here at home. How can a person serving in the military feel their time, trauma and the lives of their fellow service people was worth it when there was no defined overall mission for them to accomplish?

[flamingdem]

14. Our soldiers?? What about the million dead Iraquis?? Maybe he should poll them nt

[sibelian]

49. That would highlight a human experience that isn't American.

So I'm not holding my breath.

[caseymoz]

15. So, the liberals were right, AGAIN.

Nine years before conservatives, the armed forces and the press figured it out!

[colsohlibgal]

16. What About The Stupendous Amounts Of Cash Missing?

I'd check Darth Cheney's banks accounts first, Wolfowitz and the rest of that neocon rat pack's soon after.

If we do somehow get back to a free and open democracy no telling what truths may emerge...some of them, I'm reasonably sure, quite shocking...to some, not so much to others of us.

[annabanana]

20. I know some local schools that could REALLY use a billion or two. . . .n/t

[Swagman]

22. a billion ?..you mean a trillion don't you?

..the billion went missing after it was delivered in a container.

[Muskypundit]

17. You would think this would be said after the first 100,000 civilian dead mark

He is just not talking to the right people though. He is asking the opinion of combat vets; he needs to go to the FOB and ask Private deskjobie about how he feels about killing and war.

[GoCubsGo]

25. I'm not surprised that they won't acknowledge the lie.

It's really hard to spend all that time in a bloody hell hole, watching your friends and innocent civilians constantly getting killed or maimed, and face the fact that you were forced to experience that over a lie. Can't say I blame them. If it were me, it would likely drive me batshit crazy.

[tularetom]

26. Depends on who you are

It sure as hell was worth it to cheney and his trained monkey who used it to get a second term and it was worth it to the super rich assholes in the USA who made out like bandits because they got a second term. It was worth it to the Halliburtons, Brown & Roots and Blackwaters of the world who stole billions of taxpayer dollars in return for killing Iraqis and US troops. It was worth it to the gullible pompous asses in the liberal media who made tons of money belittling anybody who opposed the stupid war.

And it was probably worth it to Iran, who will sooner or later capitalize on the instability we created next door to expand their influence in the region.

For the rest of us, definitely not worth it.

[patrice]

40. Also worth it to the Kochs who bought Brownbackistan with the profits made off of Iran:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-02/koch-brothers-flout-law-getting-richer-with-secret-iran-sales.html

[Crowman1979]

27. Hell, I would have had a more obscenity-laced opinion about the Iraq war.

[donquijoterocket]

35. I'm sure

A lot of the GIs did it's just that Engel can't transmit those verbatim.
I once watched a reporter in the sun and fun capitol of southeast Asia take close and copious notes of the conversation stimulated by a question he'd asked then say I can't say anything like this. Even the paraphrases might have violated some journalistic standards somewhere.

[mwb970]

30. "Toppling Saddam" wasn't worth it either.

We took out the only thing that was holding the country together. Now it's ripe for a takeover by Iran. And after 8 years of nation-building, Iraq STILL has electricity for only a few hours a day.

This must have been the stupidest war we ever fought. I'm glad nobody I know had to die for this mistake. Others weren't so lucky.

[begin_within]

33. So can we get our $2 trillion back? And who has it?

[WinkyDink]

39. It's buried in Crawford, TX.

[Enthusiast]

34. How was Bush going to cowboy around

with no Iraq War? "That's why I didn't get Saddam, son, I saved him for you."

[robbob]

36. Up here in Canada

I'm often switching between listening to the CBC and NPR while driving around Montreal, but usually I'm listening to NPR because I like to keep tabs on the crazy.

So the other day the news comes on about Obama ending the US presence in Iraq and bringing the troops home. I was shocked when the announcer went on to mention that the war had been launched over false claims of WMD, had received condemnation from the rest of the world, was an illegal action, and had probably cost some astronomical amount (40 trillion?) that no one was even sure of.

I was all pumped that these simple truths were getting out to "the people", then I looked down at my radio and realized I was listening to the CBC. I'm sure none of these issues receive even a passing mention on NPR, or anywhere else in the MSM, right?

[jimlup]

37. As if we live in some vague "democracy"

We don't not even vaguely a democracy any more.

Sorry - yeah thanks for posting this! I'm just so cynical about the Iraq war and can hardly say anything nice while talking about it.

Worth it or not depends directly on your measure of the value of US imperialism.

[WinkyDink]

38. OF COURSE "IT" wasn't worth the deaths and destruction, FGS! we accomplished NOTHING of real value;

just untold wealth for the War-Mongering Class.

[patrice]

41. NO!!! (more) BLOOD!!!! FOR FUCKING!!!! OIL!!

[swilton]

43. The people told them this in January - February 2003

But no one listened!

[Hanks]

47. When you think about it,

No war is really worth it.

[totodeinhere]

48. Of course it wasn't worth it. We had an incompetent nincompoop in the White

House after 2000 calling the shots and it will take a long time to undo his damage.

[ooglymoogly]

50. A nincompoop who made trillions for his cronies, himself

and his family.

He made the top 1% 1000% richer, giving themselves the power to buy governments, including this one.

If you had a soul it would make no sense to sell it so cheap or at any price; if you don't have a soul, it makes no difference whether folks call you a nincompoop; particularly to those raping the country and who have no soul.

Without a soul you cannot see yourself in the mirror or see the grotesque Dorian Gray lurking behind it.

[Ikonoklast]

51. "Total bullshit, I disagree completely!"

"It was well worth it, me and my pals made hundreds of billions of dollars off of you dumb suckers. I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat, err, well, if I had a heart!"

[spanone]

60. k&r...

[Yon_Yonson]

52. It wasn't worth it .. I screamed that at the top of my lungs from the get-go!

.... and I am still saying it!

[sibelian]

54. Wasn't "WORTH" it?

is war an INVESTMENT, then?

[sad sally]

55. Here's a good read from the journalist's point of view.

Reporting Iraq: An Oral History of the War by the Journalists Who Covered It. Comprised mainly of interviews with over 40 journalists who covered the war, Reporting Iraq offers a candid view of the difficulties and complexities of working in an environment so hostile to reporters.

In one episode Rajiv Chandrasekaran of the Washington Post recalls the difficulty of getting any relevant information from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA): "Well, off the record," CPA advisor Dan Senor told him, "Paris is burning, but on the record, security and stability are returning to Iraq." Such double-speak motivated reporters to take great risks to find the facts -- and spurred a wartime environment where journalists have now come to rely heavily on Iraqi stringers who, unlike western reporters, are able move more freely around the country. Reporting Iraq takes a close look at the triumphs, challenges and regrets of reporters working to cover the first three years of the occupation of Iraq.

http://www.alternet.org/story/76219/reporting_iraq%3A_journalists'_coverage_of_a_censored_war/?page=1?du

[northoftheborder]

56. Richard Engel is a hero in my eyes. One of, if not the best journalist of our times.

Plus, he's a handsome fellow!:-)

[Odin2005]

61. My Iraq Vet cousin could tell you that.