Saturday, March 14, 2009

The past is a different country.

Today, Scott Wilson of the WaPo reports that Obama is taking a new political tack, blaming Bush. Obama vowed to "an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics," in his inaugural speech.

Wilson writes: "It hasn't taken long for the recriminations to return -- or for the Obama administration to begin talking about the unwelcome 'inheritance' of its predecessor," and then begins his hatchet job making sure to interview the GOP's new voice of reason Eric Cantor who says: "It is the Obama economy and the Obama stock market. This is about today, and he's assumed his post."

Yes, lets move on by all means before someone remembers who's been running the country for the past eight years.

I wrote this in response:

Is a news story or an editorial? Gosh, president Obama has invoked the word "inherited," a dozen times or so to rightly point out that he can't fix this "mess" that was eight years in the making, in just 60 days.

What a partisan! To the barricades!

How many times did the Bush administration (including Ari "Mr. Credibility" Fleischer) use the words "September 11 2001" to bludgeon any critic who dared question them?

I seem to recall a Washington Post editorial from Feb. 6 2003 -- the day after Colin Powell's dog and pony show at the UN with his dire warnings of Saddam's robot planes flying over Manhattan -- titled "Irrefutable" which stated:

"It is hard to imagine how anyone could doubt that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction."

Now, there's some credibility for you!

This despite the reporting of their own reporter, Walter Pincus, who consistently questioned the intelligence claims of the administration.On March 18 2003 Pincus wrote an article titled: "Bush Clings To Dubious Allegations About Iraq," writing that:

"As the Bush administration prepares to attack Iraq this week, it is doing so on the basis of a number of allegations against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that have been challenged -- and in some cases disproved -- by the United Nations, European governments and even U.S. intelligence reports."

Alas, a voice in the wilderness. The Washington Post was too eager to sell Bush's trumped up war to its readers and any such nay-saying was in bad taste. If only the Post had been as interested in delving into the obvious flaws in Bush's case for war as they are now about Obama's failure to turn the clock back to January 20 2001, he wouldn't need to be reminding us about who drove us into this ditch in the first place.

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1 Comments:

Anonymous apciv said...

I ran across your blog searching for a quote by Daniel Ellsberg from the documentary Hearts and Minds. Your site popped up and it looks like a good one. Here's the actual quote. You were close:
"It is a tribute to the American people that our leaders perceived that they had to lie to us, it is not a tribute to us that we were so easily misled."
cheers.

11:39 PM  

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