The “Decider” was a Scammer. Who Knew?

By hannah on February 18, 2013 in

Tags: David Corn, Hubris, Iraq, Michael Isikoff

Well, a lot of people knew that the justification for invading Iraq was a hoax and now they’re talking. Actually, they started talking to David Corn and Michael Isikoff for their book, “Hubris,” which has now been turned into a documentary to be shown on MSNBC tonight in the Rachel Maddow time slot (9PM E/P)

David Corn provides a preview in Mother Jones and alerts us to the fact that new information is trickling out, including a declassified document from the Pentagon discussing the “decapitation” of Iraq in November of 2001. (What probably won’t be mentioned is that the Pentagon already had detailed plans for 24 U.S. bases in Iraq on its shelves in preparation for a long-desired foothold in the Middle East, from which the region could be stabilized. If one pays close attention to John McCain, it’s clear that he’s still got a bee in his bonnet about the unstable Middle East).

Jimstaro has a much more expansive preview on DailyKos, and should be consulted as a preeminent voice for veterans.

I, meanwhile, apologize for hogging Bluehampshire, but this effort to speak truth to power is not to be missed. I am not sure, as Rachel Maddow seems to think, that knowing we’ve been scammed will prevent it from happening again, but the hundreds of thousands who died needlessly at least deserve an admission that we did wrong. What we can do for the tortured and maimed and the genetically damaged is still to be decided.

David Corn, Hubris, Iraq, Michael Isikoff

hannah

The program can be viewed in its entirety on the internet. My reaction?

“Perhaps the Cons’ addiction to half truths and ulterior motives just sort of automatically leads to them making stuff up. If truth is what one believes in one’s gut, maybe every thought is ipso facto false. So, the Decider’s decisions cannot be wrong, regardless of the results, because he was following his gut.
Then to, there’s a lot more power in persuading someone to accept a lie as the truth, perhaps because the false can be proved and the failure to do so is evidence of negligence. Certainly, the fourth estate has been negligent.”

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26315908/#50852199
Chris Blodgett

I made sure to watch this last night. As the documentary wore on I could just feel myself getting more and more angry. How it is that the two in charge, Bush and Chaney, have not been charged is way beyond me.

Cons will try and bash ‘Hubris’ as a lefty witch hunt. I really find that hard to believe when many of the people who came forward were part of the Bush years and did so voluntarily.

It is a striking documentary that showed how the media really effed up during that time frame. Getting it right now doesn’t bring back the 4,000+ dead Americans, not to mention the countless TRILLIONS wasted on a war that NEVER should have been fought.
- hannah
  
  True, the warfare should not have been initiated. BUT, when we consider that Congress is supposed to distribute the currency into the economy and the only enterprise for which it is willing to loose the purse strings is foreign aggression, then the Bush/Cheney strategy was, from their perspective (the desire to get more money for their friends) quite clever. Not to mention that being commander-in-chief in war time gives the President dictatorial powers, which Republicans have been after ever since Nixon. The Authorization to Use Military Force gave the executive a blank check and made him the “decider,” another word for dictator.
  The Presidency as a rotating dictatorship is what the Cons’ objective is. They want somebody as a figurehead on whom all glory and all blame can be heaped. The advantage of having such a figurehead is that nobody else has to accept blame for anything.
  - Herb
    
    I think Bush believed in what he was doing. The Neocons were looking for a patsy who could be led around by the nose and they found one in Bush. They set him up and surrounded him with advisors from The New American Century Project. Bush was too dumb to know what was happening.

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