[Texgreen] NYT editorial on the war

[Roger Baker]

I think the thing that really busted the Iraq issue wide open in the  
last month was Bob Woodward's book "State of Denial". Which to me is  
fascinating reading because its about a 99% true, detailed  account  
of how the dysfunctional team of Cheney, Bush, and Rumsfeld  
interacted to mismanage things from the start. They were itching to  
go to war against Iraq.

I have heard Bob Woodward criticized for his first two books that are  
much more favorable to the admin. Thinking it over, I doubt there is  
a way Woodward could have gotten a true account without apparently  
kissing up to these guys by not reporting very much bad behavior  
earlier. This last book provides an abundance of telling anecdotes.  
Anyone reading the details has to shake their head in amazement.  
Knowing their public demeanor, it rings true.

Assuming the Dems win the election, having this sort of scathing  
evidence of public deception in plain view nearly guarantees a strong  
political backlash.  Where will this lead? Wait till things in Iraq  
keep falling apart and oil prices start climbing again. Woodward's  
book might have been titled "Ruthless Oil Junkies in Denial".

You can get a sense of where public debate is headed from the  
following NYT editorial. -- Roger

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<http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102206Z.shtml>

  "... The Iraqi government, which has had a hard time adopting most  
aspects of American democracy, seems to have eagerly embraced this  
administration's lessons on how to deny politically unpleasant  
realities. Just the other day, The Times reported that the Pentagon  
had decided there was nothing wrong with a program in which phony  
"positive news" was planted in Iraqi newspapers. And news reports  
said that the Iraqi government had decided to stop reporting civilian  
casualties to the United Nations so there would be no record of the  
war's increasing toll on ordinary Iraqis.

     The way the Bush team is stage-managing the president's supposed  
change of heart about "staying the course" is unfair to the Americans  
who have taken him at his word that real progress is being made in  
Iraq - a dwindling but still significant number of people, some of  
whom have sons and daughters serving in the conflict. It is a  
disservice to the troops, who were never sent to Iraq in sufficient  
numbers to protect themselves or the Iraqi people. And it is a  
disservice to all Americans, who have waited so long for Mr. Bush to  
act that all that is left are a series of unpleasant choices.

     And it is happening in the midst of a particularly ugly, and  
especially vacuous, election season. There is probably no worse time  
to begin a serious discussion about Iraq policy than two weeks before  
a close, bitter election. But now that the discussion has begun, it  
must continue, as honestly and openly as possible. It is time for the  
American people to confront all the things that the president never  
had the guts to tell them about for three and a half years.