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WORD
COUNT
660
JUNE 4, 2008
YOU
MEAN THEY LIED ABOUT THE WAR? – by Donald Kaul
President George W. Bush is puzzled. And sad. So is Karl Rove, his
former political strategist; as is Ari Fleischer, his former chief
flack, and Dana Perino, the current chief flack, and Dan Bartlett,
former counselor to the president. All puzzled. All sad.
The
object of their puzzlement and sadness is, of course, Scott McClellan,
another former chief flack, who has written a memoir that casts doubt
not merely on the president’s motivation for taking us into war in Iraq but
on his grasp of reality.
The
book is called “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and
Washington’s Culture of Deception” (Public Affairs, $27.95) and it tells
the story of an administration that convinced itself (and argues yet)
that Iraq was a threat to our national security that had to be dealt
with. No evidence to the contrary---and there was plenty---was admitted
and instead of leveling with the American people the president relied on
propaganda to sell the war.
In the
process, McClellan says, Mr. Bush made “a decision to turn away from
candor and honesty when those qualities were most needed.”
The
Bush loyalists immediately circled the limousines and began taking
potshots at their former colleague---sounding more hurt than angry, as
though their pet Labrador had bitten them on the ankle.
“This
doesn’t sound like Scott, it really doesn’t,” Rove told Fox News. That
sentiment was echoed by any White House type who could reach a
microphone. Puzzled. Sad. Not the Scott McClellan they knew. You would
think they were reading from the same script or something.
I
believe I can clear up their puzzlement for them.
“Of
course he’s not the Scott McClellan you once knew. When you knew him, he
was a lying weasel in the employ of the president. He is now a turn-coat
weasel out on his own, trying to make a buck by telling the truth for a
change.”
McClellan is critical not merely of the Bush White House; the national
press corps comes in for its ration. He writes: “If anything, the
national press corps was probably too deferential to the White House and
to the administration….The collapse of the administration’s rationales
for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never
come as such a surprise….In this case, the ‘liberal media’ didn’t live
up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better
served.”
How
sharper than a serpent’s tooth is the scorn of a weasel once held in
contempt. He’s right of course (although the press is reluctant to
admit it) but it should be noted that the American people were in no
mood to hear discouraging words about the war in its early stages.
Fox
News scored a huge ratings triumph over its competitors by providing the
most flag-waving, jingoist coverage of the invasion. That was a lesson
that did not go unlearned at the other networks.
Washington,
never forget, is a town that runs on BS. It is rare indeed to find a
major politician, Democrat or Republican, who will speak candidly on a
controversial topic. They will not tell you the truth about the Medicare
financing problem we’re facing, they will only promise you more
benefits. They will not tell Iowans that corn ethanol is a bad idea or
Kentuckians that tobacco is a killer or West Virginians that coal is a
dirty fuel or Westerners that guns kill people or anybody that gasoline
should be expensive in order to discourage its use.
Because
people, in general, don’t want to hear the truth. They, like the
president, prefer sweet lies.
Many
observers are pooh-poohing the impact of McClellan’s book on the
presidential election but I don’t. Now when John McCain accuses Barack
Obama of being inexperienced and naïve, Obama can say: “I’m naïve?
You’re the one who was bamboozled into supporting this miserable war and
you haven’t figured things out yet. If that’s experience, spare me. And
read Scott McClellan’s book.”
--
Don
Kaul is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-losing Washington correspondent who,
by his own account, is right more than he's wrong. Email:
dkaul2@earthlink.net -- A
photo of Donald Kaul is available at
www.minutemanmedia.org
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