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A Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community
About Me :
I'm a grownup nerd living in the Boston burbs. I write computer programs for a living and plays for fun.
I'm married to a wonderful woman, and we share a nice little house with our daughter and our cats.
I'm a humanist, a technologist, an artist, and an idealist. I believe in reason, freedom, love, equality,
and democracy. (Did I mention that I'm
an idealist? I did, OK.)
I'm also a pragmatist and an empiricist. I reject ideology and dogma, especially when they conflict with
practical facts (i.e., pretty much always). I particularly hate willful ignorance, which tends to go hand-in-hand
with ideology and dogma.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Tell Me Again What They Died For?
A philosophical question: if a deceitful pretext for stampeding a country into war falls in the forest, and the major media don't pay any attention, does it make a sound?
With practically no media attention, the Bush administration has finally called off even the pretense of finding the Weapons of Mass Destruction which were the reason Bush told us we had to rush into war in the first place. (See the transcript of Bush's 2003 State of the Union address; scroll down about 2/3 to find the lies about Iraqi WMDs).
I don't understand why there aren't any huge, screaming front-page headlines in newspapers across America:
NO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION IN IRAQ
It Was All Bullshit
Just In Time For Inauguration
Sorry About All The Dead People
"But It Got Me My Second Term," Bush Quips
At the exact same moment when the media are still in a full lather over the broadcast of the 60 Minutes story about Bush's missing year in the service (neatly summarized by Kos), they are completely unconcerned about the parade of lies promulgated by Bush to justify his splendid little war. You couldn't even find the story on the New York Times without digging for it. You'd think that when the administration finally gets around to telling us it was all bullshit, that'd be a big story. Apparently, if you thought that, you'd be wrong. Because, after all, nobody died and mountains of money weren't squandered because of CBS's less than careful sourcing of their story; while, in fact, thousands have died and hundreds of billions of dollars have been pissed away on the basis of Bush's lies. Is it such a big surprise? The media are controlled by the Right, and they have their agenda. They got their war and they're not going to let any inconvenient facts spoil the party. So just like they let Bush off the hook when it comes to his service in the Texas National Guard, they're going to let him off the hook for lying us into a disastrous quagmire in Iraq.
So here's my question now: If the WMDs are finally, officially bullshit, what the fuck are we doing in Iraq?
A lot of people think it was all about oil. I'm sure a lot of people stand to make a lot of money from Iraqi oil, but I don't think that was enough. After all, what's in it for George? Well, how about a second term? Bush's own biographer claims that Bush intended to invade Iraq from the very beginning of his term, with the expectation that a war would goose his popularity and get him a second term.
Looks like George got his wish. Lucky us! (Especially 1,300 lucky dead Americans and 100,000 lucky dead Iraqis!)
Will George W. Bush ever, ever, be accountable for anything he has ever done in his life?
0 comments
A philosophical question: if a deceitful pretext for stampeding a country into war falls in the forest, and the major media don't pay any attention, does it make a sound?
With practically no media attention, the Bush administration has finally called off even the pretense of finding the Weapons of Mass Destruction which were the reason Bush told us we had to rush into war in the first place. (See the transcript of Bush's 2003 State of the Union address; scroll down about 2/3 to find the lies about Iraqi WMDs).
I don't understand why there aren't any huge, screaming front-page headlines in newspapers across America:
It Was All Bullshit
Just In Time For Inauguration
Sorry About All The Dead People
"But It Got Me My Second Term," Bush Quips
At the exact same moment when the media are still in a full lather over the broadcast of the 60 Minutes story about Bush's missing year in the service (neatly summarized by Kos), they are completely unconcerned about the parade of lies promulgated by Bush to justify his splendid little war. You couldn't even find the story on the New York Times without digging for it. You'd think that when the administration finally gets around to telling us it was all bullshit, that'd be a big story. Apparently, if you thought that, you'd be wrong. Because, after all, nobody died and mountains of money weren't squandered because of CBS's less than careful sourcing of their story; while, in fact, thousands have died and hundreds of billions of dollars have been pissed away on the basis of Bush's lies. Is it such a big surprise? The media are controlled by the Right, and they have their agenda. They got their war and they're not going to let any inconvenient facts spoil the party. So just like they let Bush off the hook when it comes to his service in the Texas National Guard, they're going to let him off the hook for lying us into a disastrous quagmire in Iraq.
So here's my question now: If the WMDs are finally, officially bullshit, what the fuck are we doing in Iraq?
A lot of people think it was all about oil. I'm sure a lot of people stand to make a lot of money from Iraqi oil, but I don't think that was enough. After all, what's in it for George? Well, how about a second term? Bush's own biographer claims that Bush intended to invade Iraq from the very beginning of his term, with the expectation that a war would goose his popularity and get him a second term.
Looks like George got his wish. Lucky us! (Especially 1,300 lucky dead Americans and 100,000 lucky dead Iraqis!)
Will George W. Bush ever, ever, be accountable for anything he has ever done in his life?
