Friday, November 24, 2006

Who is to blame?

Glenn Greenwald has a very good post about how the Bush Administration tried its damnedest to link the surge in Iraqi violence to the insurgency's desire to have the Democrats win the elections; and with the bombings yesterday, this certainly is not true.
Ponder how corrupt and misleading their coordinated pre-election claim was: All the increased violence in Iraq was just about the midterm election, not a sign of a spiraling civil war. It was just The Terrorists who hate Bush, because he is so tough with them, trying to help the Democrats. Nothing was really that bad in Iraq. Once the elections are over, it will all subside, because it's only about that.

The only thing worse than government leaders lying to their citizens so blatantly about a war is lying in order to benefit themselves politically for cheap electoral gain, so that's exactly what Bush officials and Bush followers do.
I agree whole heartedly that the Bush administration is completely detestable for attempting to do this, but I also think there is a special room in hell for the press. As I.F. Stone said "All governments lie", and we need the major news outlets to ask very simple, yet essential, questions. In the reports of the violence yesterday, there was no mention made of the pre-election exhortations of Bush, Cheney and the like. Without press accountability on this matter, these madmen will continue to push ridiculous notions. This isn't just plain old incompetence, it is willful negligence.

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