Bush Lied, People Died

June 19, 2003 5:34 PM

The First Casualty. The New Republic is one of the few left-leaning political journals who supported the war on Iraq. Now it seems like they've come to their senses and have written a very exhaustive story on how exactly Team Bush manipulated evidence to support the war on Iraq: "Rather, interviews with current and former intelligence officials and other experts reveal that the Bush administration culled from U.S. intelligence those assessments that supported its position and omitted those that did not. The administration ignored, and even suppressed, disagreement within the intelligence agencies and pressured the CIA to reaffirm its preferred version of the Iraqi threat. Similarly, it stonewalled, and sought to discredit, international weapons inspectors when their findings threatened to undermine the case for war."
posted by owillis (11 comments total)

The New Republic hasn't been the same since Mon Mothma stepped down, and Leia was left to lead the senate. Also, the whole Yuuzhan Vong crisis didn't help.
posted by armoured-ant at 6:02 PM on June 19, 2003

Great article, owillis. Thanks.
posted by homunculus at 7:24 PM on June 19, 2003

This is a good, in-depth piece. Great. But as with Mark Bowden, it's too little, too late from an outlet that played a part in downshouting the concerns of those of us who kept pointing out the lies as they were occurring.

What I'm saying is, it's great that they're making up for their former chauvinism by doing a little bit of digging. But they owe all of us a lot more - especially the soldiers who are dying daily in a mission that's supposedly already "accomplished."

I say Bowden, the New Republic and everybody else who's just now coming to their senses owe A) an apology to the entire world for their short-sighted contribution to a war with devestatingly permanent effects; B) a commitment to actually reporting, exhaustively, on the lies that are still spewing out of this administration on an hourly basis; and C) a cash payout to a peace-oriented nonprofit as both remuneration and punitive damages. Think I'm kidding? I'm not. Anything less than this is crocodile tears.
posted by soyjoy at 8:10 PM on June 19, 2003

The Editors are still prowar.
posted by donth at 8:49 PM on June 19, 2003

The New Republic is left-leaning?
posted by eustacescrubb at 9:09 PM on June 19, 2003

Nice democracy you got goin' there, guys. Really slick.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:58 AM on June 20, 2003

What eustacescrubb said.
A long standing typo perhaps?
Ah, yes, The New Republican!
I hate to think what they're "left" of, Falwell perhaps?

Thanks for the link owillis. Still a great article but even a broken clock...
posted by nofundy at 4:45 AM on June 20, 2003

Now it seems like they've come to their senses ...

or they're gearing up for an election (also see, John Kerry).
posted by probablysteve at 7:43 AM on June 20, 2003

Thanks for this article owillis - it's well done, if long overdue.

To any of my fellow newer mefiosos/as who may be unfamiliar with the owillis blog, I would recommend it as a great source for tracking current political events.

And speaking of current events, and just because there is no other thread for it, yippee on yesterday's challenge to the FCC's attempted power play. It even takes a swat at the old existing rules, and may portend bad news for Clear Channel, awwww. Just goes to show what can happen when the people get mad and decide to speak out.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:29 AM on June 20, 2003

To those I referenced above, Crispin Sartwell sez:

So for God's sake, please don't pretend now to feel betrayed or anguished by sudden doubt. Your self-deception is as much to blame as the administration's lies.

posted by soyjoy at 12:24 PM on June 20, 2003

And Josh Marshall sez:

So let’s not kid ourselves by pretending there’s some new debate about whether the White House hyped and misled the public about the scope of Iraqi WMD or an al Qaeda link. We knew that.

The real question is whether top administration officials hyped and misled themselves too, and why so many otherwise sensible people went so long pretending this wasn’t a problem.

posted by homunculus at 12:34 PM on June 20, 2003