Tuesday, March 25, 2008

While you were watching dancing with the stars


Frontline's recap of the Iraq and Afghani wars, Bush's War, should be required viewing for anyone who will vote in the next ten years. As evenhanded as it can be, it clearly demonstrates the criminality of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz. And the isolation and ineffectuality of Colin Powell.

You can watch the entire first part online at the Frontline website, and if you consider yourself a thinking American, you should.

2 comments:

Paul Bourque said...

I saw that, and found myself yelling at the television set throughout the program. We, as a country, were duped by the fear-mongering Bush Administartion.

Anonymous said...

I haven't watched the Frontline piece yet, and I do still intend to, but my hopes were lowered a few notches by this rather scathing critique by Ray McGovern, former intelligence officer and CIA analyst.

Among other complaints was the lack of much new information for those of us who have been paying attention. This is offered up as an exemplary nugget of what could -- or should -- have been included:

"Despite recent acknowledgements from the likes of Alan Greenspan, Gen. John Abizaid, and others that oil and permanent (or, if you prefer, “enduring”) military bases were among the main objectives, Frontline avoided any real discussion of such delicate factors. Someone not already aware of how our media has become a tool of the Bush administration might have been shocked at how Frontline could have missed one of President George W. Bush’s most telling “signing statements.” Underneath the recent Defense Authorization Act, he wrote that he did not feel bound by the law’s explicit prohibition against using the funding:

“(1) To establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq,” or

“(2) To exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq.”

So the Frontline show was largely pap."


His guess at the cause of Frontline's failings?

"Like so many others, Frontline has been, let’s just say it, cowardly in real time - no doubt intimidated partly by attacks on its funding that were inspired by the White House."

Is the Fourth Estate in foreclosure?

--Pete T.