Liar, Liar, House on Fire

I don’t watch Meet the Press with David Gregory because I think Gregory is a shill and a hack. This hardly makes Gregory unique in the US media universe. With Iraq imploding US mainstream media outlets like NBC and CNN are in overdrive, returning the architects of the disastrous 2003 invasion and occupation to the airwaves. There’s Paul Wolfowitz on Meet the Press (sponsored in part by Boeing), one member of a “panel of experts.” Uncle Dick Cheney is everywhere, criticizing President Obama as if it was Obama who made the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, and muttering darkly that immediate US military intervention is needed to save Iraq. Throw in Douglas Feith and a host of former generals and you have a perfect storm of misinformation, spin, and mendacity. 

The hands of the US drip with Iraqi blood.

This is how history is revised, how facts are obscured, and monumental failure made to look like noble success. Millions of people the world over understood that the US invasion of Iraq was a war of choice, tucked conveniently beneath the umbrella of the “War on Terror,” that marvelous catchall for imperialist designs. Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz told whopping lies about Saddam Hussein’s connection to al-Qaeda, 9/11, and his stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. They lied out of their asses. For the most part, the US media swallowed these fictions wholesale and acted as cheerleaders for the Shock & Awe invasion, the deadly effectiveness of US munitions, and the bravery of the soldiers who were delivering “democracy” to the long suffering Iraqi people.

The current coverage focuses excessively on US interests, our collective sacrifice in dead and wounded warriors, and stupendous amounts of money. Rarely, if ever, do the “Panels of Experts” on Iraq include an Iraqi; little mention, if any, is made of the Iraqi dead, wounded or displaced. With straight faces the “experts” and generals and politicians like John McCain demand renewed military action, airstrikes and even troop deployment. There’s a total lack of humility and remorse for what was, and remains, an indefensible blunder. But don’t expect David Gregory or Wolf Blitzer or Brian Williams to make such an admission: they owe their huge salaries to playing nice with the powerful, and treating war criminals like Uncle Dick Cheney with deference.  

Why are people in high places so cowardly, so afraid of the truth? The United States had no reason to invade Iraq in 2003, none; the country had been crippled by economic sanctions, Saddam was contained, and Iraq wasn’t an epicenter of terrorist activity. Look at Iraq today, trace the causes back, up Pennsylvania Avenue, through the front door of the White House and into the Oval Office where sat one of the dumbest men to ever hold the office of president. Bush lied. Cheney lied. Wolfowitz lied. Condoleeza Rice lied. The tragedy is that all of them are still walking around free, and repeating their lies.