All the President’s Liars
Fun new game! Which TV news ‘military expert’ is really a whore for the Bush administration? (Hint: all of them)
Did it work? Were you duped?
Were you calmly and methodically and rather nefariously led to believe that maybe, just maybe, the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan and Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and the rest, right along with tales of soldier suicides and torture and staggering civilian body counts and the utterly disastrous Bush military policy weren’t really all that bad after all?
Did you watch any CNN or Fox News or MSNBC, lo, these past five or six years, listen to the pundits and ponder the wise, informed comments of all the military experts the networks brought on to discuss Iraq policy, then conclude that maybe this war, this appalling invasion might actually be positive, that maybe the surge is working and torture ain’t all that bad and the democracy is taking root and America is proud and perky and victorious once again?
Did you believe any of it? Because oh my God, they sure as hell worked us over like a rabid dog works a hunk of gristle.
Who are “they,” exactly? Why, they’re the newly discovered and rather unexpected fraternity of expert BS artists, a highly specialized group known to gullible Americans as stoic, stern-faced retired generals, colonels, majors, military advisers, former Pentagon officials, the ones you’ve heard and seen on TV news for years, but who are known to the Bush administration as a delightfully dishonest gaggle of preferred liars, lackeys, shills, puppets and mouthpieces for Dick Cheney and Donny Rumsfeld and Dubya himself.
The truth is as sad as it is revolting: You have been lied to, again and again, perhaps even more than you imagined, in a rather unexpected way, perhaps like no other time in American history, in a more carefully orchestrated and widespread effort than any presidential administration has managed to attempt in the past.
Here is the New York Times, still managing to do what it does best despite the era of dying newspapers and disrespected journalism, running a simply astonishing piece on all the dishonest “military consultants” who’ve appeared for the past half decade on every major network — and yes, Fox adores these liars best of all — to discuss Iraq, surges, U.S. military strategy, the works.
Here is the Times revealing, after two years of battling the Defense Department to release the 8,000 pages of incriminating documents by way of instigating lawsuits and leveraging the Freedom of Information Act — and barely even then — that this entire dour fraternity of deceitful military cretins has been in service of BushCo since Sept. 11 — and still is, to this very day.
To clarify: Whenever you’ve seen one of those dour-faced retired generals discussing details of U.S. war strategy on MSNBC, chances are staggeringly good he was/is in the pocket of Rummy or Cheney. Whenever a wise old colonel has appeared on Fox or CNN or CBS News to say the surge is working or troop morale is strong or that all those suicide bombings aren’t really so bad, chances are overwhelmingly good that he is lying outright and you’re hearing exactly what Donald Rumsfeld wanted him to say. Isn’t that refreshing?
The Times story is simply astounding. Up and down the line, from major to general to colonel to every sort of expert they have, it’s the same story. Over and over again, presented “tens of thousands of times” and totaling countless hundreds of TV and radio hours, it’s been a near constant stream of calculated deception and misrepresentation and bogus pro-Iraq spin. Neutrality? Fair analysis of the war? Criticism of Bush? Not a chance.
You may ask: Why would they do such a thing? What’s in it for the generals and the colonels to lie outright to the American populace and the embarrassingly blind news networks, to whore their credentials and trash their distinguished reputations in favor of defending a lost war and useless president?
That’s easy: Access. Access to the White House, to the corridors of power and influence; access to the perks and the pals and snifters of brandy, the backroom handshakes, the business deals, the hugely lucrative military contracts, the sweet, sweet piles of cash and privilege and power awaiting them if they just toe the line and keep their real opinions to themselves. Also worth mentioning: Many are military men down to the bone. Failed war and inept commander in chief or no, they will defend any U.S. military operation, simply because it’s a U.S. military operation. It’s just automatic.
Reminds me, in a depressing sort of way, of that gaggle of Big Tobacco CEOs who banded together not long ago in a hilarious attempt to convince the nation — and the courts — that cigarettes aren’t all that bad and there’s little evidence smoking causes cancer or impotence or death, and in fact small children really love secondhand smoke and so do puppies and flowers and Jesus, and if you want to have fun sometime, walk into a hospital nursery and fire up a fresh Marlboro and blow that yummy smoke straight into the faces of the newborns. Watch them squirm with delight!
Except wait, no, it’s not like that at all. One major difference: Big Tobacco execs are professional liars, de facto and a priori and understood. It’s what they do. Not even the most ardent smoking advocate would trust one those jackals as far as he could throw him into a vat of chemotherapy drugs.
Different, at least in theory, with these high-grade military men. They have a potent aura of trustworthiness, fairness, decency. They are f-ing generals, for chrissakes, and hence we like to think of them as straight-talking, no-BS working men whose word is solid and whose authority unquestionable and therefore no wimp-assed monkey-faced president or scabrous Defense secretary could make them say something they didn’t actually believe.
Wrong. Oh, how horribly wrong.
So I ask again, did it work? Was America duped? Well, yes and no. There’s little doubt that this insidious, sustained PR attack — and make no mistake, it was/is an attack on the American people; such calculated “psychological operations” aimed at U.S. citizens are actually very illegal, though it’s enormously difficult to prove so in court — swayed millions of Americans, gave fuel to the preemptive attack argument, inflamed (and still inflames) the warmongering right, scammed the media, fanned the pro-war fires for years before the public recoil finally kicked in.
But oh, kick in it did. This is the fascinating thing. Even all those high-ranking military experts lying like well-decorated dogs in one of the most impressive, appalling PR campaigns in American history could not keep Bush from collapsing, could not prevent Americans from learning the real facts of the failed war and toxic presidency — eventually.
And maybe this is a good thing. Because now, given the scope of the Bush administration’s lies — the true scale of which we may never fully know — the recoil is even more forceful than it ever might’ve been, the anti-neocon, anti-Bush revolt is potent and heartening and enormously helpful to the Democratic cause, perhaps far more than if Bush and his cronies had told the truth in the first place.
Then again, if they had been the slightest bit honest, if Bush had even a hint of integrity, we’d never have launched this staggeringly botched, futile war in the first place, and maybe we wouldn’t be where we are now, with the American experiment under Bush far less of an experiment and far more of a cyanide tablet.
Thoughts for the author? E-mail him. Mark Morford’s Notes & Errata column appears every Wednesday and Friday on SFGate and in the Datebook section of the San Francisco Chronicle.
© The San Francisco Chronicle
Just like the recent Frontline piece on Bush’s lying us into war, the NY Times article is telling us something most people already know and pretending it’s “shocking”. Where were stories like Frontline’s and the Times article when it was most needed? Both of these are in the category of things they should have told the masses YEARS ago. BEFORE THE WAR STARTED comes to mind as an example of the proper time. This is big media trying to look like they are doing their job. How about telling us this stuff WHEN IT WAS RELEVANT!
The biggest problem with Mr Morford’s contribution is the assumption, contrary to the fact, that the reader must be watching network or cable television news programs.
I’m reading this, but I long ago — can’t estimate with perfect accuracy, perhaps five, perhaps six years, perhaps more — stopped watching TV and started getting all my news from the internet.
For that segment of his readers no, we were not susceptible to the suggestion he gives. No, we are not surprised that the generals are spokespeople for the military-industrial complex. No, we are not shocked that the United States news outlets are bought and paid for shills for large corporate interests.
the term for most Amercians is WILLFUL IGNORANCE…if they were duped, they were willing accomplices.
I guarantee, the next time someone attacks the USA, you will be standing ALONE.
the phrase “We Are All Americans” is no longer a show of solidarity, but a group indictment.
I agree with mmeo, I stopped watching the news and reading the newpaper when Monica became the national American Idol.
The newspaper turned into tabloids and have not changed since, after all, ‘It’s what the audience wants to read.’ On TV the talking heads are useless and irrevelent, whether they be retired military men or self inflated experts on any given subject, and are only as silly as the moderators who question them.
annabelle,
I love that term “self-inflated experts.” I always have been skeptical whenever anyone appears on the corporate media and is introduced as an “expert.”
While I glance at TV news occasionally, I’ve never trusted for a second anything these lying generals and their decorated subordinates have ever said about Iraq. It was obvious since 9/11 that their sole mission is to lie for Bush-Cheney, period. Enable the war machine to go forward, rationalize all the killing and rape, sweep under the rug all the corruption and graft, the disappeared billions of taxpayer money, don’t allow anyone to see the returning coffins, lowball the death counts and ignore the catastrophic wounds and resultant disabilities, and most of all, show utter indifference to the condition of the country once called Iraq.
As mmeo says, many of us have been getting our real news from the internet all this time and aren’t in the least surprised to hear from big media now that it’s all been a Big Lie from day one. Trouble is, the lying will continue anyway. The same generals will be called out to lie us into bombing the hell out of Iran, because hey! national security, nuclear weapons-related planning and research programs! Waste Iran and the whole fucking middle east because Bush is despised everywhere and we must protect him, and all the liars surrounding him, from ever being found out and have their murdering thieving asses hauled before a World Court to stand trail for all their crimes against humanity. THAT cannot be allowed to happen, so the lies will go on as long as it takes to keep them SAFE, since there’s nothing more important that that.
They can join forces with Kissinger, that other major war criminal still raking in major cash as a “consultant” and highly prized speaker to fascist groups everywhere. Every time they move their lips they’re lying, and that’s where the real money is. Maybe all these lying generals hope to become the foot soldiers for the Kissinger-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Bush and Associates Group of Warmongering Liars.
Prevaritocracy: Rule by liars.
But in the US, it goes a little deeper than that. The ‘authorities’ pretend to tell the truth and the people pretend to believe them.
It’s time for pamphleteering! If we can’t get joe q. public to read the internet, then simple to the point pamphlets need to be financed, distributed widely and wisely. We have to do the WORK and not just complain. Tell me HOW, give me the means, and I will do it.
First 3 posts - WELL SAID!!
The “idiot box” has been used to it’s most destructive end in this country. It has resulted in a mental paralysis beyond comprehension. It’s at a point where ‘Murkin’s demand to be mentally sedated - conseqently the myriad “reality shows” where Joe Dipshit strikes it rich by lying his ass off or duping someone even more stupid that he… or the other variety where we can watch even MORE dysfunctional families than ourselves tear each other apart (but always with some faux redemption at the end). Pink Floyd’s ditty “Comfortably Numb” was an anthum for the ages.
So the Fourth Estate has become the Propaganda Machine, professional liars - for example both of the Clintons - are admired by half of voting Democrats. What does this say about Americans? Our ethical standards are in the negative numbers.
Little children are very clear about right and wrong. But when everyone around them is contradicting what they know is right, they end up losing that clarity. And we, our country, are the losers. Hillary may end up costing Obama the election with her slash and burn campaign, with the distortions and lies she is perpetrating, but he has decided he can’t go there, that he needs to maintain a positive campaign. He is doing what he believes is right, even if it is not profitable. I am beginning to have a great deal of respect for him.
kathyodat
And Americans are worried about Obama’s pastor? OMG!
Pentagon illegal propaganda is old news to any thinking person. This is just an attempt to excuse the media for their complicity, as if they were really duped. They aggressively promoted the Iraq War just as they are now promoting the War with Iran. Don’t believe anything the corporate media says, think for yourselves.
Now that corporate media has weaseled its way into the military-industrial complex, prosecuting war is much easier. With no airtime for dissent it’s off we go again. Next stop Iran. The only good thing about all is is that it will speed up the decline in our empire.
Hoa binh
I’m still amazed by the cognitive dissonance exhibited in our media. They carry the stories about how our press has been manipulated next to the unconfirmed (except by Israel)’War on Iran’ drumbeating stories ….?
Aaaaaand here we go ………
Washington Post Headline
“Joint Chiefs Chairman Says U.S. Preparing Military Options Against Iran”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/25/AR2008042501480.html
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 25, 2008; 1:51 PM
“The nation’s top military officer said today that the Pentagon is planning for “potential military courses of action” against Iran, criticizing what he called the Tehran government’s “increasingly lethal and malign influence” in Iraq……..etcetra, etcetera, etcetera”
Rich Griffin Said:“We have to do the WORK and not just complain. Tell me HOW, give me the means, and I will do it.”
It’s as Simple as cracking open your preferred word processor, writing something up and printing off a 100 copies. Alternatively, there’s several places on the net where you can download pre-made pamphlets and flyers that you can print and distribute.
Some of those are:
http://www.fcnl.org/index.htm
http://www.topplebush.com/flyers.shtml
http://terrygrafico.com/elbop/galleries_01.shtml
There’s many more. A google search will get you going in the right direction. Then, if you have a printer, burn off a bunch of copies or take it to your local copy center and spend $20. Get a couple friends together, or even by yourself and find yourself a busy street corner and start passing the stuff out. Prepare yourself though, you will get verbally and possibly physically abused by some of the fascists. Don’t let that discourage you though.
Very CLEVERLY Arizona blue at 12:20 pm created “Prevaritocracy: Rule by liars”
More ACCURATELY, we have
Which is defined as _ g o v e r n m e n t _ by
How is this “scandal” worse than 935 lies repeated thousands of times by Bush, Cheney, Rice, Powell, Rummy, etc?
Another Rove trap - instead of focusing on the REAL issue, we’re now all talking about a side issue. Thanks again, NYT, for playing right along.
Here’s the fact everyone’s forgetting - even after all the f**king lies, less than half the “public” supported the illegal invasion before it was launched. LESS THAN HALF.
In other words, the Cheneybush full court illegal, anti-everything-American press WAS A TOTAL FAILURE. Yet, they went ahead and illegally invaded anyway.
Iran? You guys paying attention?
No wonder Bush’s Bad Hag is going to draft diplomats…
BAGHDAD - The new U.S. Embassy complex does not have enough fortified living quarters for hundreds of diplomats and other workers, who must remain temporarily in trailers without special rooftop protection against mortars and rockets, government officials have told The Associated Press.
If someone can come up with a method to purge the Senate, the House, the Supreme Court and the Admistration we may still stand a chance.
The Plutocrats reign and will continue to do so as long as the $$$ trickle down to all of the above.
Bush is the Commander and Chief of all armed forces in this Country. The Chain of Command runs from bottom to top, as all Veterans know, and Bush is number One and the rest will do as ordered. The closer to the top the greater the Perks become. Currently, the truth would be of no benefit to those appearing on the News Shows.
Hey mmeo and annabelle:
It’s great that you don’t rely on the mainstream media to get your news, but the undeniable truth is that you are in a minuscule minority. The overwhelming majority of Americans receive their news not only from the mainstream media, but television, the prime outlet for these shameful, disgraceful whores. And, as others here already have noted, the American public is not exactly the most discerning bunch, and make for easy pickings.
I believe that Bush really is a psychopath by the medical definition of it and nemaste is not exaggerating.
Why did YOU, Common Dreams, delete my comment, when it was submitted in the usual way? Please train all of your staff.
Television is more dangerous than cigarettes because it harms not only the abuser but the entire world and the planet itself. There should be a day just like “Stop Smoking Day” on which, nationwide, we inform people where we work and where we live about the dangers of television and avail them of our encouragement and our support in trying to quit and in trying to understand how television is crippling people mentally, destroying their judgment, and why they should quit for the good of one and all.
I remember those anti-cigarette days, once a year in November and always on a Thursday. There were posters everywhere and people everywhere reminding smokers about how they need to quit their bad habit. We need a day just like this for tv.
Lizard: I believe that Bush really is a psychopath by the medical definition of it and nemaste is not exaggerating.
I second that.
Anyone who didn’t simply assume this and needed the NYT to tell them, is either naive or unconcious.
The smoke behind the smoke.
The NYT reclaims a piece of its lost integrity by seeming to be this investigative authority when it was the NYT who led the charge with the very same lying intelligence reports and so-called expert lies from Israel and neocon central.
Lets see how the NYT does on the upcoming lying propaganda against Iran.
I’m betting on a repeat. Shucks, look at who owns the NYT. Case closed.
PSYCHOS_R_USA — The details of psychopaths (science of evil) can be googled ( click_here_ ) and more articles ( where nice pix is from, SOTT.NET ) can be found :
dozens of articles about our psychopath Leaders, an/or co-workers
Sometimes you have to wonder if it isn’t all big theater. You can imagine that everyone is in on it except the people. All the shock and indignation over this and that could all be a giant soap opera…who knows?
The best poster I ever saw of Bush showed him with dark pools of oil for eyes. He looked like the devil himself. Maybe Chavez and his “smell of sulfur” remark was not that far off.
MOFORD says, “such calculated “psychological operations” aimed at U.S. citizens are actually very illegal, though it’s enormously difficult to prove so in court.” The very basis of proving anything “in court” has been rendered null and void given the Bush cabal has placed onto the court those that will rubber stamp its policies. It’s an absolutely broken check-balance, a quid pro quo charade that’s disabled any premise of a representative democracy. Congress and/or military mutiny, barring brave wealthy citizens gaining more exposure on television to INFORM the public what’s going on in their name. Reminds me of the book title, “Who Will Tell the People.” Indeed.
Again, kudos to BILL DAVIS who said years back when he saw the line-up on CNN as the case was being deliberately made (and/or fixed) to go to war… “General on Stage!” He got it. He saw the whole made-for-television planned line up of stooge-experts to clear the way, to make the planned carnage look as neat, clean and orderly as the oh, so pressed military uniforms that attempt to hide the willful violence waiting for orders to massacre within those frames.
We have lost our “free press” and instead have had a propaganda machine perpetrated on our country by our government with the willing assistance of the MSM!
Where is the public’s outrage?
If you read the comments in the NY Times the very first response supports this deception by the Bush Administration!
This is far worse than Watergate, in fact, far worse for America than almost anything else imaginable. Anyone who still thinks we still live in a free country with a superior “morality compass” is either in a severe state of denial or still suffering the effects of drug excesses from their youth.
Why is nothing happening?
Why is Congress not screaming for impeachment of those responsible?
Why is impeachment still off Pelosi’s table?
Where is the Democratic Party?
Why isn’t this a major campaign issue?
Where is the America most of us grew up in?
The Titanic is slowly sinking. Nuff said.
RICH GRIFFIN
after you have made the flyers that ELMYSTERIO suggested, you could hire a plane and drop them over the country. i believe this is a favoured form of propaganda by the u.s.a. used in many countries around the world. (thereby avoiding the nuisance of physical abuse) of course it would be best if it is in simple english and also renders any lucky finders of the flyer to be able to appear on ‘american idol’ or get to co-star with the president on ‘deal or no deal’…………….
I can date when I gave up completely on the corporate media news. It was September 14, 2002. Dick Cheney was on “Meet the Press” and he repeated the by then completely discredited story about the supposed meeting in Prague between a person from Al Qaeda and someone from Iraq.
Anyone with any sense knew at the time that the secular Saddam was hated by Al Qaeda and the feeling was mutual. There was never any reasonableness to that lie, and it had also been publicly discredited by our intelligence services.
Nonetheless, Russert did not challenge Cheney and just sat there and let him lie.
That was it for me. I watch the liars occasionally just to see what spin they are trying to shovel our way, but I don’t look to the corporate media as anything more than paid liars. By ruling class standards the big media news guys don’t make much, but compared to ordinary people they are paid princely sums, and the gravy train ends the day they challenge the status quo, even for someone as famous and well placed as Dan Rather.
HEAVYRUNNER
what happened to dan rather? didn’t he have some law suit against his former employer?
DumpBush: Where are the police? HA! They are ALL in bed together. And the ‘method’ for getting rid of them is in the supposed voting booth.
Once Bush is out, he will NEVER be able to be held accountable as he’ll have all presidential records sealed for YEARS! The impeachment MUST start BEFORE he leaves office, or he walks.
Another BIG ruse was for BUSH to have the Supreme Court rule ‘against’ him in that TX case where the world court said the state had violated the rights of convicted illegal immigrant murderers by not letting them contact the Mexican embassy when they were arrested. Bush ‘intervened’ in the case to try stop TX from executing, thereby ‘wanting’ the world court’s ruling over TX to stand. A precedent was set by the S. Court when they basically said that the world court could NOT overrule a state ruling.
SO….can the world court come after them now?
Yes this is all true, so why do tens of millions of Americans still trust this adminstration? I have totally lost patience with this segment of America. They will in their rabid blind devotion to a war criminal take the rest of us down with them. I’ve HAD IT WITH AMERICA! Not the people who frequent sites like this one, but the one who believe every word from fox news and rush limbaugh. They’re sick, and they insist on spreading their disease to the thinking half of America. If Democrats don’t unite this fall behind whoever the nominee is, we deserve a McSame presidency. And we deserve whatever befalls us because we asked for it. When the republicans say bend over and take it, America says, “deeper, harder!”. I’M SICK OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Remember: Stink wears off after a few moments. Humans are designed to become desensitized to constant stimulus. The Bush Administration has overwhelmed the people’s capacity for outrage.
The difference between those who post here and are outraged, and the populace who ho hums there merry way through their day no matter what happens is the capacity for imagination and compassion.
I fear such capacity is more the exception than the rule. Inform them all you want. Scream at them. They lack the ears to listen to what they don’t want to hear. They need to see the horrors. People do react to images, which was the lesson of Vietnam that the politicos learned very well.
We’ve seen nothing of war ever since.
Dan Rather is doing good reporting on HDNet. He does stories that the MSM will not touch.
There was a joke going around about St. Peter and clocks. It seems that there is a clock for everyone and the minute hand advances every time the person tells a lie. When St. Peter was asked where G.W. Bush’s clock was, he responded “God is using it as a ceiling fan in this office”.