Scott Ritter--"Not Simply Result of Bad Governance--IT'S CRIMINAL!"

[kpete]

It's criminal
Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2006-03-21 13:24. Media
By Scott Ritter
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/ritter/33788

As America reaches the third anniversary of President Bush's decision to invade and occupy Iraq, there is for the first time the unsettling realization brought about by the clarity of acts that emerges only after the passage of time that something horrible has happened.

This awakening of collective awareness on the part of the American people is reflected not only in the numerous polls which show President Bush's popularity plummeting to all-time lows, largely because of the war in Iraq, but also the collective shrug of the shoulders on the part of the one-time cheerleaders for the war in Iraq -- the mainstream American media -- when covering the hollow rhetoric of the President as he tries to rally a nation around a cause that has long since lost its allure.

No amount of flowery language and repeated pulls at the patriotic heartstrings of America, no repeated assault on the senses and sensibilities through repetitious referral to the events of 9/11 can jump start a second phase of the kind of mindless nationalistic fervor that greeted the erstwhile Cowboy President when he first herded a compliant America down the path of war with Iraq three years ago.

Looking back on the string of unfulfilled objectives, broken promises, squandered dreams, shattered bodies and eviscerated lives that was and is the war in Iraq, one thought emerges plain and clear. This isn't simply a result of bad governance. This is criminal.

more at:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/9434

[tomp]

1. learning the lesson?

why do i keep thinking vietnam?

because we never properly summed up the lessons of that atrocity and called it what it was. by we, i mean the american people as a whole. and the failure to learn that lesson was a primary factor in how bush got away with the invasion of iraq.

now we have the "what-the-hell-do-we-do-now?'" commission with baker, giuliani, o'connor, simpson, hamilton, et al, to whitewash the whole thing and to help america forget again, to help america NOT learn the lesson again.

the american people may understand that iraq is "messed up" but they may never really "get it", because most people can never say,"i was wrong. i'm sorry. now i see i was foolish enough to trust that asshole bush. my entire world view needs correction." no, if there is any out for them, they will not say that. the "wthdwdn?" commission is designed to let those people off the hook. if those people don't have to really learn the lesson nothing will have changed.

it's called political cover. and anyone who supports what most assuredly will be a whitewash of bush crimes, a plea for "healing", will be as complicit in the crimes of bush as gerald ford was for nixon's, for "(ext-)ending our long national nightmare" and preventing the learning of the lesson.

is it criminal? yes. will they get away with it? most likely.

[Toots]

2. Some of the people can be fooled all the time

"Fool me once shame on you, fool me eh uh um um well I can't be fooled again." The voice of America

[Hubert Flottz]

3. It is indeed criminal and the GOP in congress are as guilty as...

Bush! They have helped Bush cover up every crime he hs committed so far!