A MILLION HITS AND ONE ERROR
After Downing Street Is Starting to Get Some Attention for Its Efforts. To honor the dead and demand truth has some resonance for at least one person. Or one million. The President of the United States has ears. One voice is rising. Or one million. You would think with that site getting a million hits in a day that someone in the mainstream media might consider there is a story here.
At some point the leaders of our free press may take some hits of their own for not pursuing stories that make much more of a difference than the official White House court stenographers and their bosses realize.
One will hear that this is old news. Why, we are already in Iraq! Nothing to be done about it! Accept it! Whoever says that must believe Americans suffer from terminal Attention Deficit Disorder and a certain amnesia for reality.
What we actually suffer from is cynical leaders who put troops in place in the Middle East surrounding Iraq "just in case" they might be needed if diplomacy failed. What a tribute to the effects of testosterone! What duplicity! To suggest that diplomacy might be given a chance and then to not pursue it.
The press gives Bush a total pass on his deceptions. When Bush said Hussein wouldn't let the WMD inspectors in, how much did the press pursue that? The press not merely dropped that ball, the press kicked that most inconvenient ball off the field.
So now we have this story about the Downing Street Memo. What you will hear from administration defenders is that it doesn't matter. Deception by leaders doesn't matter. Because the ends justify the means. The stated ends are a more stable Middle East, a more peaceful Iraq that will be a force for stability in the entire region.
Iraq indeed is a force in the region, but not for stability. What we have done there is force upon an unwilling population a failing crusade, righteous in tone, ignoble in effects upon both the native population and its occupiers.
Iraq now is a lose-lose situation. In our actions we debase every principle we claim to defend: respect for human rights and the rule of law first among them. Our leaders have brought us to the sad precipice of moral anarchy. Amoral means may never attain moral ends.
The press allows this. Giving up its role as watchdog and instead playing willing bitch, the press would roll over in a warm, glowing false light rather than do the hard work of the hunt.
SOME OTHER VOICES TO CONSIDER
Why the Memo Matters:
HELEN THOMAS PAUL KRUGMAN
Why the Memo Doesn't Matter
THOMAS PATRICK CARROLL
God, I love Helen Thomas.
Posted by: Shakespeare's Sister | June 05, 2005 at 01:01 PM
and I enjoy reading Paul Krugman.
Posted by: Night Bird | June 05, 2005 at 03:33 PM
The media is the mystery, the one "balance of power" I don't think our fore-fathers thought could be corrupted. And what is the FCC worried about? - decency in programming. Decency my ASSSS!!
Posted by: Karen | June 05, 2005 at 06:31 PM
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/2592397
Posted by: Catherine | June 05, 2005 at 07:08 PM