went into full-on Orwellian propaganda mode, even when it was very clear that Hussein was in no way involved in the 9/11 attacks. And of course Saddam Hussein was a miserable dictator but as every person with any knowledge stated at the time if we removed Saddam Iraq would become dangerously unstable...and we all know what happened (see refugee crisis and current disaster in Syria...sigh). I lost whatever "idealism virginity" I still had when our media (mostly) silently allowed Dick Cheney to threaten the country with the grotesque and very fraudulent "mushroom cloud" lie.
We had elderly relatives who were quaking in fear after Cheney's pronouncements and completely believed in the WMD deception. They were terrified by 9/11 (living of course in a state and place that would never be a target), and they weren't capable of really putting it into any context (Bin Laden became some sort of super-villain mastermind who had unlimited power in their minds -- it wasn't rational but then of course they watched Fox). So when Cheney started his "mushroom cloud" campaign they were terrified and believed it entirely. I loathed how our media fed the stories -- at least until it became apparent that Iraq was a quagmire and there were WMDs.
I remember my friends in Europe were telling me about the very different and far more measured and realistic reporting there. I participated in a large, very peaceful protest on the campus of my university at the time (there were many students and faculty present, and it was great to see them all there), and I was deeply against the war. But our media was so singleminded in its support for Bush and the terrible idea of the Iraq War. And now we have the media obediently reporting on Trump as some kind of war hero president. Ugh.
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