Hubris: MSNBC’s Reexamines of Bush’s Iraq War Lies

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow recently aired an hour-long special about the Bush administration’s lies that got us into Iraq. For most of our readers, this will undoubtedly be review (especially if you’ve seen the PBS documentary Bush’s War, which is just a more detailed version of Maddow’s special). Her version isn’t perfect, but it’s notable at least that this was on prime time cable news.

See here for David Swanson’s context and review of the show.

While watching this, as I do whenever I reexamine the blatant lies the Bush administration told to get us into Iraq, all I can think is: “how have these gangsters not been put on trial?”

Update: David Corn, who co-wrote the book that Maddow’s special is based on, writes at Mother Jones about some of the show’s juicy parts:

One chilling moment in the film comes in an interview with retired General Anthony Zinni, a former commander in chief of US Central Command. In August 2002, the Bush-Cheney administration opened its propaganda campaign for war with a Cheney speech at the annual Veterans of Foreign Wars convention. The veep made a stark declaration: “There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.” No doubt, he proclaimed, Saddam was arming himself with WMD in preparation for attacking the United States.

Zinni was sitting on the stage during the speech, and in the documentary he recalls his reaction:

“It was a shock. It was a total shock. I couldn’t believe the vice president was saying this, you know? In doing work with the CIA on Iraq WMD, through all the briefings I heard at Langley, I never saw one piece of credible evidence that there was an ongoing program. And that’s when I began to believe they’re getting serious about this. They wanna go into Iraq.”

That Zinni quote should almost end the debate on whether the Bush-Cheney administration purposefully guided the nation into war with misinformation and disinformation.

29 thoughts on “Hubris: MSNBC’s Reexamines of Bush’s Iraq War Lies”

    1. Even without her help, can't people put 2 and 2 together and see the similarity between the Iraq and Iran lies? The total problem is not just these well placed frauds, it is our stupid, lazy society. I hate to be so pessimistic, but how obvious do things have to be?

    2. she wants to keep her job so she must either spew the same propaganda or just not mention anything contestable.

  3. She hasn't done nothing. She's done a lot to help give them credibility to her brain dead viewers. The liberal maxim is war crimes are only reprehensible if done by the opposite wing of our single party.

  4. my favorite aspects of the documentary was how it was on msnbc and they kept showing dick cheney going on meet the press to sell his lies. IT WAS NBC and meet the press that echoed the neo-cons lies and helped sell them. and i also thought it was "hilarious" how they kept showing doug feith and NEVER ONCE made specific reference to the OSP- Office of Strategic Plans which he ran as the official govt propaganda arm of the iraq war for cheney, rumsfeld, wolfowitz, et al.

    1. Remember when MSNBC fired the host of their highest rated show, Phil Donahue, because he might actually be an opposition voice on the tele? Turn them all off!

  5. Same with Libya and Syria. (Qadaafi was preparing to massacre tens of thousands of civilians; Assad began with massacres in Homs, Hama and Houlas and is not preparing to release poison gas all over the Middle East- unfortunately there are children being killed, including probably by the government, but they are engaged in a war where the rebels and invaders were given the plan, aided by special ops, funded, armed, supplied and coordinated by US-NATO, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the GCC (especially Qatar) and assisted by the MSM which has run a parallel propaganda war which lacks any modicum of credibility.

  7. I wonder how often this propaganda piece shows Dems like Hillary or Kerry being big supporters of the war? Or mentions that when the Dems got control of both houses of Congress, we got to watch the Dem leadership shepparding the war money bills through without opposition?

  8. I guess the best excuse anybody can give to prove his innocence is to say that " at that time, I do believe it is true" and he walks a free man. If there is justice in this world, the liars of that war should be, at the very least, incarcerated and at best, hung next to the devils of history.

  9. If she hasn't done nothing then she must have done something. It has been clear to me from the start that Bush was manipulated by Cheney. But it is also clear that the public was hyped. Remember France and how we officially told them that they would not "share in the oil"? Then like morons, some of us boycotted "french fries". We are slipping to the bottom as Republicans. We defend what we don't understand and believe that God is with us. Just plain dumb. (Like our candidate line-up for the presidency.

  10. Despite the fact that George Bush and Dick Cheney both committed genocidal fraud, has ANY "law enforcement" official lifted a single finger to investigate them for their crimes?

    And, even though the mainstream media lost ALL their credibility… ostensibly by being "duped" (ahem) into assisting them in telling the "greatest lie ever told to the American people", there's an amazing lack of outrage amongst them, don't you think?

    As far as I'm concerned, Bush AND Cheney should go be tried for genocidal fraud… and Obama should be arrested for NOT arresting Bush and Cheney! And every single Supreme Court Justice who has covered their crimes under the pretense of "national security" should be tried for COLLUSION.

    1. Ehud Barack Obama hasn't arrested George Warmonger Bush because he's afraid to stand up to him. He thinks if he can't do that, he should become just like him.

  11. Rachel Maddow should also talk about Ehud Barack Obama's lies He wants to start a war with Iran based on the same lies as George Warmonger Bush's. Although the war in Libya was brief, he lied about genocide. Libya was not doing anything to any other nation including those that took part in that misadventure. There were no ground troops, he still violated their sovereignty. No nation bombed the US because of Occupy Wall Street.

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  13. It sure is a crime how we were all DUPED by the three DUPAS. Weapons of mass dece3ption was more like it! ! ! ! Over 3000 killed from our military, over 30 thousand injured.and how many are suffering from post tramatic stress syndrom. and we the American public sit on our hands and don't cry foul, is unbeliveable. We should demand justice for all the families that were ripped apart by the lies of the Bush/Chaney administration. Remember "shock and awe" when the us had the ammunition stockpile in their sights , Rumsfeld didn't order it to be blown up on the contaray. It Just makes me sick how their conspricy pulled it off.

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  19. She hasn't done nothing. She's done a lot to help give them credibility to her brain dead viewers. The liberal maxim is war crimes are only reprehensible if done by the opposite wing of our single party.

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