Bad Things Need Remembrance Too
It's something like a marathon, but I watched Frontline's "Bush's War" yesterday and recommend it. While we've marched through this dismal progression piecemeal, having to be dragged through it from the beginning right up to the present is worth the pain. I'm going to touch on a few points, there are any number more that are important, but these are the ones I felt I needed to hold onto hard, never forget.
Some things I took special note of this time through:
While buzzing around us everywhere are comments about the McClellan revelations, this series aired a segment that dealt with the intention of putting this country into war with Iraq back in October of 2003.
FRONTLINE traces the roots of the Iraqi war back to the days immediately following Sept. 11, when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered the creation of a special intelligence operation to quietly begin looking for evidence that would justify the war. The intelligence reports soon became a part of a continuing struggle between civilians in the Pentagon on one side and the CIA, State Department, and uniformed military on the other -- a struggle that would lead to inadequate planning for the aftermath of the war, continuing violence, and mounting political problems for the president.
The role of Rumsfeld and his shakeup of the Pentagon are behind us now, and forgotten is the fact that his drive to get information formed a large part of the basis for our program of torture. Young, inexperienced agents in charge of extracting information were pressured to get the goods, and get it by whatever means it took. Later they were called bad apples, but it was under the Yoo, Gonzales and Rumsfeld auspices that the usual restraints were removed, and demands made, that induced them to use whatever tactics they could to get that prize, the information that would make our trooops "safe". Pictures of Abu Ghraib shocked the world, but they were no surprise to the Secretary of Defense. The torturers were acting under his orders.
The strategy of occupation by 'light' presence from within the Green Zone had actually been challenged by the successes of a "clear, hold and build" approach by Col. H.R.McMasters, and subsequently rejected by the cretin in chief after his meeting with al Maliki (to look him in the eye). Of course, it later was returned to practice by the Surge operation under General Petraeus, as if it had been just invented.
When he met with al Maliki, the cretin in chief made all sorts of optimistic statements about the successes of the government we'd installed. Only as deaths mounted and attacks inside the Green Zone showed us up as ridiculously impotent did he return to assessing the failed government in Iraq as the failure it was.
The constant recycling in and out of stories made the afternoon of watching a long series of disillusion, as the war has been to those of us who watched and learned.
The sad long story has so many bad memories, it was a pall on the afternoon. Still, I recommend it.
This is a story none of us must ever forget. The country can't afford to forget.
Public broadcasting has never been put to better use.
Some things I took special note of this time through:
While buzzing around us everywhere are comments about the McClellan revelations, this series aired a segment that dealt with the intention of putting this country into war with Iraq back in October of 2003.
FRONTLINE traces the roots of the Iraqi war back to the days immediately following Sept. 11, when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered the creation of a special intelligence operation to quietly begin looking for evidence that would justify the war. The intelligence reports soon became a part of a continuing struggle between civilians in the Pentagon on one side and the CIA, State Department, and uniformed military on the other -- a struggle that would lead to inadequate planning for the aftermath of the war, continuing violence, and mounting political problems for the president.
The role of Rumsfeld and his shakeup of the Pentagon are behind us now, and forgotten is the fact that his drive to get information formed a large part of the basis for our program of torture. Young, inexperienced agents in charge of extracting information were pressured to get the goods, and get it by whatever means it took. Later they were called bad apples, but it was under the Yoo, Gonzales and Rumsfeld auspices that the usual restraints were removed, and demands made, that induced them to use whatever tactics they could to get that prize, the information that would make our trooops "safe". Pictures of Abu Ghraib shocked the world, but they were no surprise to the Secretary of Defense. The torturers were acting under his orders.
The strategy of occupation by 'light' presence from within the Green Zone had actually been challenged by the successes of a "clear, hold and build" approach by Col. H.R.McMasters, and subsequently rejected by the cretin in chief after his meeting with al Maliki (to look him in the eye). Of course, it later was returned to practice by the Surge operation under General Petraeus, as if it had been just invented.
When he met with al Maliki, the cretin in chief made all sorts of optimistic statements about the successes of the government we'd installed. Only as deaths mounted and attacks inside the Green Zone showed us up as ridiculously impotent did he return to assessing the failed government in Iraq as the failure it was.
The constant recycling in and out of stories made the afternoon of watching a long series of disillusion, as the war has been to those of us who watched and learned.
The sad long story has so many bad memories, it was a pall on the afternoon. Still, I recommend it.
This is a story none of us must ever forget. The country can't afford to forget.
Public broadcasting has never been put to better use.
Labels: Bush Legacy, Donald Rumsfeld, Election 2008, Iraq War
posted by Ruth at 1:00 PM
3 Comments:
C'mon Ruth, you ever hear the word OIL mentioned in the 4 1/2 hours of program? It was definitely anti-cheney with all the dark shots and ominous background noise. Now who would want you to hate dick cheney and not think about OIL? cia maybe? Add this to the secret budget items for psy-ops mentioned a few posts down, right alongside the pbs special on ghwb. I tell you my friend, anyone who talks for 4 1/2 hours about Iraq and NEVER mentions OIL is trying to get you to believe a fiction.
Not enough people remembered Vietnam except for the neocons, who occasionally chanted "this isn't like Vietnam" and "we won't lose this like Vietnam." With a nod to larry above, this is just like Vietnam, only with oil and with no draft (yet).
Larry, there was an emphasis in the program on actually reported news and personnel, oil wasn't mentioned so much but then neither was the veterans' care. What was intensive, and what I particularly appreciated, was a review of our policies in Iraq and how they were carried out. I don't think the story of what went on inside the country can be explored until we leave. Which I hope will be soon.
Anon, if the draft is seriously begun, that will be the death knell of the war. And I would love to see it.
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