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Greg Mitchell: One Year Ago: My Piece on Media and Iraq Killed by 'Wash Post'
http://gregmitchellwriter.blogspot.com/2014/03/one-year-ago-my-piece-on-media-and-iraq.html
March 20, 2014
One Year Ago: My Piece on Media and Iraq Killed by 'Wash Post'
The piece below was written, in only slightly different from, on assignment for The Washington Post exactly one year ago, but killed by the paper's Outlook section. They later ran a piece by their own Paul Farhi claiming that the media actually "didn't fail" on Iraq. When I wrote about this reaction it drew wide attention across the Web. Catch up with that all here.
For awhile, back in 2003, Iraq meant never having to say you’re sorry, at least for the many war hawks. The spring offensive had produced a victory in less than three weeks, with a relatively low American and Iraqi civilian death toll. Saddam fled and George W. Bush and his team drew overwhelming praise, at least here at home.
But wait. Where were the crowds greeting us as “liberators”? Why were the Iraqis now shooting at each other—and blowing up our soldiers? And where were those WMD, biochem labs, and nuclear materials? Most Americans still backed the invasion, so it still too early for mea culpas—it was more “my sad” than “my bad.”
By 2004 it was clear that Saddam’s WMD would never be found, but with another election season at hand, sorry was still the hardest word. But a few very limited glimmers of accountability began to appear. So let’s begin our catalog of the art of mea culpa and Iraq here. Much more in my new ebook, So Wrong for So Long.
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March 20, 2014
One Year Ago: My Piece on Media and Iraq Killed by 'Wash Post'
The piece below was written, in only slightly different from, on assignment for The Washington Post exactly one year ago, but killed by the paper's Outlook section. They later ran a piece by their own Paul Farhi claiming that the media actually "didn't fail" on Iraq. When I wrote about this reaction it drew wide attention across the Web. Catch up with that all here.
For awhile, back in 2003, Iraq meant never having to say you’re sorry, at least for the many war hawks. The spring offensive had produced a victory in less than three weeks, with a relatively low American and Iraqi civilian death toll. Saddam fled and George W. Bush and his team drew overwhelming praise, at least here at home.
But wait. Where were the crowds greeting us as “liberators”? Why were the Iraqis now shooting at each other—and blowing up our soldiers? And where were those WMD, biochem labs, and nuclear materials? Most Americans still backed the invasion, so it still too early for mea culpas—it was more “my sad” than “my bad.”
By 2004 it was clear that Saddam’s WMD would never be found, but with another election season at hand, sorry was still the hardest word. But a few very limited glimmers of accountability began to appear. So let’s begin our catalog of the art of mea culpa and Iraq here. Much more in my new ebook, So Wrong for So Long.
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