We watched the first part of the two-part Frontline series Bush's War on PBS last night. Oh my. I knew things were bad and that the entire premise for getting into the war was a web of lies, but I had no idea just how awful and manipulated the entire process leading up to the war was. I was especially enraged by the way the rest of the cabinet & the warmongers in general (Rumsfeld, Cheney, Tenet, Wolfowitz & others) purposefully kept Secretary of State Colin Powell & NSA Condoleeza Rice in the dark about developments and plans. Completely inexcusable. And the lie-ridden National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) orchestrated by Tenet in the CIA is appalling--the "source" for the information regarding the Iraqi capabilities for nuclear and biological weapon development was not reliable, according to the Germans who had actually had contact with the source. NO AMERICAN ever made contact with the source, and the Germans warned us about the source's unreliability and actually didn't officially allow the U.S. access to the information. It's easy to see why they didn't want us to see it. And what really really burns me up is that the cabinet then decides that Colin Powell should present these "intelligence findings" to the U.N. and the world at large, because he has the highest rating of anyone in Bush's group. Powell confronted Tenet of the CIA to verify the data in the NIE and Tenet told him bold-faced lies. The whole document presents the idea that there are multiple lines of intelligence supporting the data, when in fact there is only one spurious source. Powell required that Tenet sit behind him in camera view during the presentation to the U.N., and maybe he always looks this way, but Tenet looks particularly squirmy and shifty-eyed while Powell is speaking. Over and over, both Powell and Rice (but especially Powell) tried to be the voices of reason and moderate action, and over and over they were given lip service and led to believe their ideas were being given due consideration. And it's obvious that Cheney is the puppeteer behind it all. He and Rumsfeld are old buddies who go back nearly four decades.
It just makes me sick. These men have no souls. To want to get into a war so badly that you will base your case on unsubstantiated lies is atrocious. Yes, Saddam Hussein was an evil, awful man, but the Bush administration played on the fears and paranoia of the American people to get into a war that has cost trillions of dollars, 4,000+ American lives, untold innocent Iraqi lives, and the end is nowhere in sight. Before the war started, Army Chief of Staff General Shinseki testified that it would take a force of several hundred thousand to maintain security after the war was completed. This was scoffed at and viewed by Rumsfeld and others as ridiculously high. Unfortunately, it has become apparent that Shinseki was right. According to Wikipedia, up to this point 297,000 troops (U.S. and international combined) have been deployed to Iraq since 2003. Those aren't all at one time, but that number is mind-boggling. And we're not close to finishing or having a "secure & free" Iraq.
Sigh...
If you have time/interest, you can watch the full show either by going through the video chronology or just watching it in its entirety. Link to Bush's War
See, I told you it was a tirade!
11 comments:
My blood pressure just shot up about about 20 points. I saw this show was coming but I couldn't bring myself to watch it. I just had a conversation with my sister-in-law about this very thing. Look, I don't know who is right here and I never know who to believe between politicians and reporters. But I do remember, from the very get-go, feeling very uncomfortable with the decision to invade. It felt hasty. It felt shady. It felt wrong--at least at that point with the evidence (or lack thereof) presented to the UN. And I seem to remember the rest of the world saying, "just hold on, let's get some concrete evidence before we go in." But then all of the sudden, there we were. And here we are.
As much as it pains me to say this, some wars are necessary and I'm glad that in the past our country took a stand and entered into some of them, even if it happened to be against popular opinion. They were noble causes and our involvement helped carry out justice. But this war does not appear to be one of those times.
Before the war the French Foreign Minister stated "let us not forget that having won the war, one has to build peace." We can't leave until we do that. Our actions created as much if not more chaos than existed when Saddam Hussein led the country and it is our duty to put it right for the people of Iraq.
I agree that we do have an obligation to at least leave Iraq better than we found it (I'll call that Good Camper Foreign Policy), but I don't think the men in charge have the foggiest idea of how to do that.
And I'm still completely cheesed (as I was at the time) that we've essentially given up on Osama bin Laden.
good post. the iraq war was/is unbelievable. and it's unbelievable how many people still "support" bush et al.
on a happier note, cute easter pics.
Oh dear. I really should watch this show but I'm already sick to death of the whole war (and no one wants to hear me rant about how I felt like the lone voice of reason years ago when I said it was all a bad idea and it seemed like I was the only one in Utah who didn't vote for Bush). Sigh. How frustrating. I think I'll go back and look at your lovely Easter pictures again and your Pieta photo. I need a little cheering up.
Thanks Dean & Julie! (About the Easter pics, that is.)
Thanks Dean & Julie! (About the Easter pics, that is.)
excellent post mindy. i just wanted to add an aside. apparently colin powell refused to give the speech to the UN as it was written and insisted that certain "facts" of "evidence" were removed. he still wasn't happy about it, but there were a few items he just would not put out there. from what i've read he was pretty upset about the fact he was expected to just sit there and lie to the UN. he knew that a lot of the evidence in that speech was just a bunch of bull. i've read accounts of him being extremely upset about what was being asked of him to say.
Hiya, Mindy! This is where you leave a link to the falling Georgie site, you know. ;-)
amen, girl, amen. couldn't have said it better myself...
Hey Kleine Mindy,
I haven't yet seen Bush's War, it sounds great. You'll have to check out Bill Moyers "Buying the War", which was also on PBS and outlines how the press basically gave Bush a free pass to invade.
-Ben Morgan
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html
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