Able Archer

Five Years: Media propaganda

It will soon be five years since the U.S. invasion of Iraq. By any practical measure, things are worse in Iraq than they were in March 2003. Iraq has no democracy; Iraqis are "free" only in a Hobbesian sense. Their country continues to burn and divide itself into factions.

If you ever wonder how it got so bad, consider what the media was reporting on in May 2003:

When this broadcast was made, Iraq had already collapsed. The events of the last four years and ten months are only the consequences of decisions Bush administration officials made in the first two months of the war. No one paid attention; no one cared. The world will probably never know the true number of men and women, American and Iraqi, that have died since.

—Douglas Carlucci

Three of a kind: Bush, McCain, Hagee

For some reason—I suppose it was an effort to please the remaining couple hundred Republicans who still listen to the guy—Senator John McCain traveled to the White House to receive President Bush’s endorsement.

If I was McCain, I’d shake Bush’s hand and say “I hope I see you in December.”

But the meeting had a firm purpose for the White House: distract the press from the administration’s end-run around Congress in a security deal that will keep the U.S. in Iraq for—well, maybe forever.

McCain and John “Great Whore” Hagee

Since the media has given up on it, it seems John McCain won’t be called to account for his "proud" acceptance of John Hagee’s endorsement.

Hagee is known for his wish that Israel enter a conflagration with Russia and the Arab states in order to bring on the Rapture. He is also anti-Catholic, calling the Roman church “the great whore” and “a false cult system.” Hagee also believes Hurricane Katrina was an act of God, and God sent the hurricane to prevent a planned “homosexual parade.”

From Talking Points Memo, here’s a video montage of Hagee’s most bigoted and lunatic statements:

Remember what Reverend Hagee says, folks: “All hurricanes are acts of God, because God controls the heavens.” Hagee is a living example of what's wrong with the Republican Party.

—Douglas Carlucci

Glass house Bush

From the New York Times:

Without using Mr. Obama’s name, President Bush, at a White House news conference on Thursday, assailed his willingness to meet Cuba’s new leader, Raúl Castro, without preconditions, saying that to do so would grant “great status to those who have suppressed human rights and human dignity.”

No one speaks with more authority on the status of those who have suppressed human rights and human dignity than our leader, President Bush.

—Douglas Carlucci