Comments on: Bush and McCain Have a Bad Hair Day http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/ Firedoglake weblog Sat, 18 Feb 2012 01:45:14 -0600 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: earlofhuntingdon http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344624 earlofhuntingdon Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:28:17 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344624 <p>Patrick Cockburn, on the legacy of George W. Bush:</p> <blockquote><p>It has been a war of lies from the start. All governments lie in wartime but American and British propaganda in Iraq over the past five years has been more untruthful than in any conflict since the First World War. </p> <p>The outcome has been an official picture of Iraq akin to fantasy and an inability to learn from mistakes because of a refusal to admit that any occurred….</p> <p>More often, the lies have been small, designed to make a propaganda point for a day even if they are exposed as untrue a few weeks later….propaganda distorts day-to-day reporting in Iraq, but, if the propagandist knows his job, is very difficult to disprove.</p> <p>…[I]t is pieces of propaganda…, often swallowed whole by the media and a thousand times repeated, which cumulatively mask the terrible reality of Iraq.</p></blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/patrick-cockburn-this-is-the-war-that-started-with-lies-and-continues-with-lie-after-lie-after-lie-797788.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.independent.co.uk/o.....97788.html</a></p> Patrick Cockburn, on the legacy of George W. Bush:

It has been a war of lies from the start. All governments lie in wartime but American and British propaganda in Iraq over the past five years has been more untruthful than in any conflict since the First World War.

The outcome has been an official picture of Iraq akin to fantasy and an inability to learn from mistakes because of a refusal to admit that any occurred….

More often, the lies have been small, designed to make a propaganda point for a day even if they are exposed as untrue a few weeks later….propaganda distorts day-to-day reporting in Iraq, but, if the propagandist knows his job, is very difficult to disprove.

…[I]t is pieces of propaganda…, often swallowed whole by the media and a thousand times repeated, which cumulatively mask the terrible reality of Iraq.

http://www.independent.co.uk/o…..97788.html

]]> By: ekunin http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344615 ekunin Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:23:46 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344615 <p>It is amazing how closely our adventure in Iraq follows the story line of our adventure in Vietnam. Both beginnings were based on lies. When the end was clear in Vietnam, as it is in Iraq, government voices claimed our leaving would create a domino effect after which the whole of Southeast Asia would be communist.</p> <p>There was pain after our departure. Pol Pot killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians, but it is not clear our staying would have stayed him. Many South Vietnamese were “reeducated” an uncomfortable but not fatal experience. We are told our leaving Iraq invites chaos. It will be bloody. Arabs see killing as superior to reeducation, but that will stop probably sooner rather than later. We face very expensive oil or perhaps oil shortages which I take personally since I heat my house with oil, but that is hardly reason to keep this atrocity going.</p> It is amazing how closely our adventure in Iraq follows the story line of our adventure in Vietnam. Both beginnings were based on lies. When the end was clear in Vietnam, as it is in Iraq, government voices claimed our leaving would create a domino effect after which the whole of Southeast Asia would be communist.

There was pain after our departure. Pol Pot killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians, but it is not clear our staying would have stayed him. Many South Vietnamese were “reeducated” an uncomfortable but not fatal experience. We are told our leaving Iraq invites chaos. It will be bloody. Arabs see killing as superior to reeducation, but that will stop probably sooner rather than later. We face very expensive oil or perhaps oil shortages which I take personally since I heat my house with oil, but that is hardly reason to keep this atrocity going.

]]> By: selise http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344603 selise Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:18:59 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344603 <p>nothing to say. just thank you.</p> nothing to say. just thank you.

]]> By: MarieRoget http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344602 MarieRoget Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:18:55 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344602 <p>Go for it, bluejeansntshirt- give that critter hell.<br /> If I wasn’t sure before how to make time for going to a vigil @ 7 p.m. tonight, watching GWB lie about Iraq right now on CNN would have been the clincher…</p> Go for it, bluejeansntshirt- give that critter hell.
If I wasn’t sure before how to make time for going to a vigil @ 7 p.m. tonight, watching GWB lie about Iraq right now on CNN would have been the clincher…

]]> By: karnak12 http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344598 karnak12 Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:18:19 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344598 <p>Yes, I did mean here (the U.S.)</p> Yes, I did mean here (the U.S.)

]]> By: DWBartoo http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344592 DWBartoo Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:15:18 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344592 <p>Raven, thank you for sharing those incredibly well-framed words, which, spoken or written by a father, who choosing to see beyond profound grief, has pointed to the genuine promise of a generation which is primed to succeed where our’s has lost it way. Truly, it is our children’s world, now, and therefore, our duty to bequeath to them, as whole and sustainable as we may ‘make’ it, ‘tomorrow’ and by our example, both of good and ill, of success and failure, to allow them to look back on ‘today’ as something of which they are not ashamed, but rather as a time of people, some of whom were parents, who began to understand …</p> Raven, thank you for sharing those incredibly well-framed words, which, spoken or written by a father, who choosing to see beyond profound grief, has pointed to the genuine promise of a generation which is primed to succeed where our’s has lost it way. Truly, it is our children’s world, now, and therefore, our duty to bequeath to them, as whole and sustainable as we may ‘make’ it, ‘tomorrow’ and by our example, both of good and ill, of success and failure, to allow them to look back on ‘today’ as something of which they are not ashamed, but rather as a time of people, some of whom were parents, who began to understand …

]]> By: Scarecrow http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344578 Scarecrow Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:11:41 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344578 <p>In the clip, he doesn’t even say “shiites” — he says he means “extremists.” He has no idea what he was talking about.</p> In the clip, he doesn’t even say “shiites” — he says he means “extremists.” He has no idea what he was talking about.

]]> By: rich2506 http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344565 rich2506 Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:06:48 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344565 <p>My local paper covered the goof on page A10, right opposite the continuation of Obama’s highly-praised speech on racial issues. “McCain errs in confusing two groups. After saying Iran was aiding al-Qaeda in Iraq, he corrected himself, asserting he had meant Shiites.”<br /> Not quite true of course. He didn’t “correct himself,” he WAS corrected and he stated it several times before, meaning it was no slip of the tongue.</p> My local paper covered the goof on page A10, right opposite the continuation of Obama’s highly-praised speech on racial issues. “McCain errs in confusing two groups. After saying Iran was aiding al-Qaeda in Iraq, he corrected himself, asserting he had meant Shiites.”
Not quite true of course. He didn’t “correct himself,” he WAS corrected and he stated it several times before, meaning it was no slip of the tongue.

]]> By: twolf1 http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344563 twolf1 Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:06:11 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344563 <p>Moron Chimp on CSPAN - in 2003, US began operation iraqi freedum. 5 years in, there’s an understandable debate about the war. the answers r clear to me, removing saddam was the correct decision - we can win. (clapping for the troops)</p> Moron Chimp on CSPAN – in 2003, US began operation iraqi freedum. 5 years in, there’s an understandable debate about the war. the answers r clear to me, removing saddam was the correct decision – we can win. (clapping for the troops)

]]> By: Raven http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344561 Raven Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:05:30 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/19/ignorance-and-intelligence-just-another-bad-hair-day-for-bushmccain/#comment-1344561 <p>It’s important to recognize you are talking about the Vietnamese community here in the states.</p> It’s important to recognize you are talking about the Vietnamese community here in the states.

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