I forced myself to watch Scott Pelley’s interview with Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © on 60 Minutes last night. I say “forced” because I normally refuse to watch propaganda opportunities the Mainstream Media provides for Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © . As a rule, the premises are facile, the staging overdone and horribly obvious, and the questions resemble softballs more than actual journalism. Pelley’s interview was little different, but it was an interesting exercise in the anatomy of self-delusion. Yes, Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © has lied and continues to lie about the reasons for going to war in Iraq and his conduct of the war. He continues to believe that we are THIS close to “victory”. Most Americans now recognize the lies and the propaganda as total BS…but the truly frightening things is that Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader truly seems to believe everything that comes out of his mouth. He honestly believes that he is leading this generation’s Crusade, a glorious battle pitting the forces of Good (Christians) against the forces of Evil (Radical Islam).
Four years later, Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © is STILL flogging the (long-since discredited) talking/propaganda point that Saddam Hussein was pursuing weapons of mass destruction. Though NOT A SHRED of evidence has been uncovered over the past four years that would demonstrate the veracity of this assertion, WMDs are still a regular feature of Administration propaganda-speak…though the propaganda points are much more subtly massaged.
Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader is determined to go his own way. Impervious to any advice that doesn’t fit his narrow definition of his role in this great apocalyptic ideological war, he seems to determined to follow his own path in Iraq…regardless of how many of our sons and daughters come home in flag-draped boxes.
What truly angers me is that even Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader’s © admission that mistakes were made rings hollow. Yes, he says, mistakes were made, but we’re going to essentially continue to do what we have been doing (the very definition of insanity, no?)…though we ARE hoping for different results.
Pelley should be ashamed for allowing himself to he used by CBS, Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © and the White House propaganda machine. Clearly cowed by the trappings of power, and wanting to show proper respect and deference to the office of the President (and understandable and admirable desire), Pelley lobbed little more than the journalistic equivalent of 57-MPH curveballs at Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © . Pelley made no effort to ask the questions that any reasonable American wants answers to:
Why is this Administration’s rationale/marketing campaign for the war in Iraq constantly being tweaked? Or is the “justification phrase of the week” a legitimate way, in your mind, to govern?
Why are no photos allowed of coffins carrying American soldiers?
How long will you continue extending troops, some of whom are in their third and fourth tours? (To his credit, Pelley did ask this question, though he could and should have pursued it more aggressively. To his shame, Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © spewed some meaningless crap about how he’s grateful to be working with a volunteer military.)
Why were neoCon hawks like Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith allowed to overrule the judgment of generals on the ground once the war began?
Why was Paul Bremer allowed to institute his de-Baathification policy, when an imbecile could have seen that senior army and government officials with too much time on their hands and a surfeit of anger was a recipe for disaster…or in this case, an organized insurgency?
Why was there no meaningful planning done for what would come after the Iraqi government fell?
Why was the war prosecuted on the cheap? Why did Adminstration hawks insist that the war could be fought and won with far fewer troops and material resources than the generals felt were necessary BASED ON THEIR MILITARY EXPERIENCE AND JUDGMENT?
Why were those generals and officers on the ground in Iraq who told the truth about what was happening cut off at the knees and replaced by officers who would do what they were told and keep their mouths shut?
Why did Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © empanel the Iraq Study Group and then s—tcan the panel’s recommendations?
Why are we throwing yet more of our son’s and daughters into this poorly-planned and shoddily-executed Babylonian meatgrinder?
Pelley got to rub elbows with the President, CBS got to advance their agenda and curry favor with the Administration, and the White House got some free propaganda (Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © reads books!! WHODATHUNKIT??). In the end, no one acquitted themselves well. Pelley looked like a Republican shill, and Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader© looked like a smirking used car salesman with a tenuous grip on reality and an even more precarious grip on the truth. It left me feeling frankly saddened and demoralized. Based on what I saw last night, it seems clear that our sons and daughters aren’t coming home anytime soon…perhaps not until 2009, when Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © can hand this clusterf—k off to a Democratic President…who will then be blamed by Republicans for mismanaging the war in Iraq.
This sorry excuse for a President can openly lie with a smile smirk on his face- because he seems to believe everything he says. Life in his safe Presidential bubble has been good for Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © . It’s just too bad that it hasn’t been nearly so good for the more than 3000 young Americans who have been murdered in the service of Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader’s © lies and propaganda.
Wasn’t Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © the same man who rode into Washington pledging to restore “honor” and “integrity” to government?
NOW CAN WE IMPEACH THE MURDERING, LYING BASTARD???
