Had media done their job, there’d be no Iraq War

David Prejean

Do you get the feeling the mainstream media are not telling you the whole story? Let’s look at the post 9/11, pre-Iraq invasion period (September 2001 to March 2003). The Bush administration was beating the drum for war with Iraq as a vital part of the war on terrorism. While the administra-tion said they had solid intelligence, others (most of the rest of the world) had doubts. If the mainstream media had been doing their job, we all might have had more doubts and maybe wouldn’t have created the disaster that is Iraq today.

What the mainstream media didn’t tell us was the key players in the Bush administration who were pushing for the Iraq invasion (Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Scooter Libby and John Bolton) were also members of an organization formed in 1997 called The Project for the New American Century (PNAC, www.newamerican century.org). The goal of PNAC was to advocate the projection of U.S. power around the world and, as its statement of principles says, “… shape a new century favorable to American principles and interests.” It promotes the aggressive, pre-emptive foreign policy Bush has adopted since 9/11. PNAC also has been strongly urging regime change in Iraq since its formation.

Knowing this adds perspective to things like the “cherry picking” of intelligence by the Office of Special Plans, the yellow cake from Africa line in the president’s State of the Union speech (the infamous 16 words), and the bogus links between Iraq and al-Qaida. These “facts” would have been more suspect if we knew the key players had long wanted Saddam overthrown.

The Bush administration knew exactly what it was doing - no one could be that incompetent - namely, manipulating the post-9/11 feelings of the American people to push us into supporting the invasion of Iraq.

Why did the media not tell us? My only guess is that, post 9/11 we were a country that was fearful and bent on revenge. Seventy-two percent of the public thought that Saddam Hussein was personally involved with 9/11. If the news media started to explain the difference between a secular ruler (Saddam Hussein) and a radical Islamic fanatic (Osama bin Laden), eyes would glaze over, remotes would start clicking and the all-important viewers would tune out. And they can’t sell advertising without viewers.

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