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It
was a moment of harmonic convergence, when the fibbers of
the left and the prevaricators on the right were aligned in
perfect cosmic harmony. Never mind who lied us into war, averred impeached
presidential liar Bill Clinton:
"What
happened, often happens. There was a disagreement between
British intelligence and American intelligence. The president
said it was British intelligence that said it. . . . British
intelligence still maintains that they think the nuclear story
was true. I don't know what was true, what was false. I thought
the White House did the right thing in just saying, 'Well,
we probably shouldn't have said that.' You know, everybody
makes mistakes when they are president. I mean, you can't
make as many calls as you have to make without messing up
once in awhile. The thing we ought to be focused on is what
is the right thing to do now. That's what I think."
Leading
Democrats were shocked, but Clinton's comments are hardly
surprising to the nonpartisan mind. For a confirmed sociopath
there is no such thing as truth or falsehood: all that matters
is what advances his ambitions and momentary desires. What's
astonishing is that the neocons are wearing Clinton's endorsement
of lying tactics as a badge of honor.
Opponents
of the war, sniffs
Charles Krauthammer, are trying to "change the subject."
the subject being, in his view, the improved "strategic
realities" of the postwar Middle East. The former Liar-in-Chief,
avers Krauthammer, "has injected a note of sanity" into the
discussion, because
"Everywhere
you look the forces of moderation have been strengthened."
If
that is the message Krauthammer and his fellow war weenies
are getting from the news of the latest casualties in Iraq
five killed
in the last 24 hours then they'd better check to see
if their antennae are out of kilter. As shouting Shi'ites rally
in their thousands, demanding that we get
out of their country or face the consequences, one has
to ask: These
are voices of "moderation"?
Oh,
but that is "changing the subject," which ought to be focused
exclusively on the "moral reality" of Saddam's overthrow.
Excuse me, but it is not Krauthammer's prerogative to determine
what is the subject. That privilege, if it belongs to anyone,
should go to Lynn Bradach,
the mother of a Marine killed in
Iraq over the weekend, who
says:
"I
want everything to come out about why decisions were made.
And I don't want to hear, `Well, you know what, it's over
now, the decision was made.' You know what? If you make a
wrong decision, you have to pay for that. I want to make sure
that changes are made or people are held accountable for what
happened."
Krauthammer
and the rest of the Chickenhawk Brigade have
no right to lecture anyone, especially not Ms. Bradach and
the families of the fallen. Everything they said about the
aftermath of this war has turned out to be flat out wrong:
they said we'd be welcomed as "liberators," but a look at
the
growing list of American casualties quickly dispels that
illusion. They said we'd find the infamous "weapons of mass
destruction" but we've now searched every single suspect
site, and the holy grail of WMD still eludes us. They denied
the protests of their own officer corps, who said we'd need
more troops for the occupation, because it wasn't politically
convenient to acknowledge what they knew to be true. In light
of their dismal record, there is only one decent course open
to Krauthammer and the rest of the War Party, at this point,
and that is to shut up..
The
only "moral reality" that matters, to Americans, is the one
where their sons and daughters are dying every day. The parents
have a right nay, a sacred duty – to ask: did they
die for a pack of lies? Increasingly, they are asking just
that question, which is why deputy defense secretary and leading
warmonger Paul Wolfowitz was recently queried by Fox News reporter
Brit Hume:
"Well,
what about public support for the war? Don't you believe that
whatever military significance it may or may not have, that
politically, these continuing reports of American deaths are...
"WOLFOWITZ:
The reports of deaths are terrible. Any American death is
a terrible thing, but I think the American public understands
that when you're fighting a war against terrorists, when you're
fighting for the security of this country, that sacrifice
is something that you have to expect."
But
the lack of a connection between what is happening in Iraq
and the security of this country is precisely what's in dispute.
Illusory
WMD, the Niger-uranium forgeries,
the nonexistent
Iraqi connection to Al Qaeda who cooked up this stew
of disinformation, and fed it to the White House?
The
President, by all accounts, bypassed the broccoli proffered
by the CIA and the State Department, and instead went for
the rich confections conjured up by the Office
of Special Plans (OSP).
Set
up by Paul Wolfowitz, and run by Abram Shulsky,
classical scholar
and intelligence
expert, the OSP may turn out to be the last domino to
fall in the ongoing Washington blame game. First it was George Tenet
who nobly offered to fall on his sword, by formally taking
full responsibility for not deleting the reference to Niger
uranium from the President's state of the union speech. But
everyone knew better. Then it was Robert Joseph who
was slated to take the fall, but he was soon replaced
by Stephen Hadley. Now it looks like Condolezza
Rice is the latest sacrificial offering. But we ought
not to stop there
.
At
the end of the paper trail lurk the real authors
of this war, and it's high time we flushed them out. Let's
find out exactly who knew what, and when.
Let's dig all the way
down to the core of the War Party, and find out just who
forged those documents that all the intelligence available
to the President could not unmask as phony. Seymour Hersh
has already given us an
overview, and others have provided
more details, of just how the OSP operated and its foreign
connections. The Democrats in congress are calling for
a full-scale investigation. The hunt is on. Tally ho!
Like
squid who sense danger, the war weenies are emitting clouds
of obfuscating rhetoric and lying rationalizations, like this
effusion from Wolfowitz:
"The
nature of terrorism is that intelligence about terrorism is
murky. I think the lesson of 9/11 is that if you're not prepared
to act on the basis of murky intelligence, then you're going
to have to act after the fact, and after the fact now
means after horrendous things have happened to this country."
More
lies, and threats that's the only recourse the War Party
has now that we're hot on their trail. Wolfowitz is right
about the murkiness of the circumstances that permitted a
small cabal to drag a reluctant nation into war. The murk,
however, is being generated by this administration and its
amen corner in the media. Let's shine the light of a congressional
investigation into the cave-like darkness of the decision-making
process so we can see, at last, the buried truth.
NOTES
IN THE MARGIN
It's
pathetic, really, to see Bob Novak, who was right
to oppose this war, now attempting to "refute himself,"
as Al Hunt of the WSJ put it on "Capital Gang" last Saturday.
This is "not a quagmire," says Novak, "it's not Vietnam."
Say, what? Now that everything he predicted before
the war is coming to pass, Novak, the partisan Republican,
sounds like fellow Gang member (and neocon shill) Kate O'Beirne.
And maybe, just maybe, all the smears
directed his way by the odious David Frum had
some effect, in spite of Novak's vociferous protestations.
Oh,
wait
. It seems I spoke or wrote too soon.
The
above was written as the show was in progress, but a few moments
later, when they got to discussing the news about the deletion
from the congressional report on 9/11 of a section supposedly
having to do with Saudi Arabia, Novak was back in fine form,
denouncing this rather fanciful interpretation of blank
pages as "Israeli propaganda." Oh ye of little faith!
I might have known that Novak would be the last person on
earth to be intimidated by the neocons. Go, Bob, go!
To
the many readers who have written to me asking about the status
of my book, The Terror Enigma: Israel and the 9/11 Connection,
I have some good news. The August issue of Chronicles magazine
is out, with my precis to the book. This won't appear on their
website, so you must purchase the August issue. I'll let you
know when the full book version is scheduled.
–
Justin Raimondo
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