SO WRONG FOR SO LONG

I have just finished

SO WRONG FOR SO LONG:

HOW THE PRESS, THE PUNDITS---

AND THE PRESIDENT---

FAILED ON IRAQ

[UNION SQUARE PRESS/2008]

by Greg Mitchell, Editor of EDITOR & PUBLISHER.

Below are some quotes that I found interesting.

Page 10:

Will Rogers once said that the first thing you do when you find yourself in a hole is quit digging. In regard to the Iraq catastrophe, the media not only helped create the hole, it did not do nearly enough to help America dig out.

Greg Mitchell

Page 25:

This government, like in Vietnam, is lying us into a war. Like Vietnam, it’s a reckless, unnecessary war, where the risks greatly outweigh any possible benefits. I’d make this argument to insiders: Don’t do what I did. Don’t keep your mouth shut when you know people are being lied to. Tell the truth before the bombs are falling, while there’s still a chance to do something about it.

Daniel Ellsberg

Page 27:

The U.S. Secretary of State did everything but perform cornea transplants on the countries that still claim to see no reason for forcibly disarming Iraq.

The Dallas Morning News

Page 32:

Why did the U.S. edit the 12,000-page Iraqi weapons report (as recently revealed) to the U.N. Security Council, removing all names of U.S. companies that sold weapons materials to the Iraqis in the past?

Greg Mitchell

Page 33:

How do you respond to radio commentator Daniel Schorr’s statement that the “coalition of the willing” is actually a “coalition of the billing”?

Greg Mitchell

Page 34:

Anthony Shadid in The Washington Post revealed that “In public and private conversations, many Baghdad residents volunteer that they see U.S. forces as an invading, rather than liberating, army.”

The Post also reported that broadcast news consultants in the U.S. were “advising news and talk stations across the nation to wave the flag and downplay protest against the war.”

Greg Mitchell

Page 67:

Our soldiers do not know who is on our side---who they should save and who they should shoot. Sound familiar?

Greg Mitchell

Page 124:

From Sept. 1, 2004, until Feb. 28, 2005, 559 Americans and Western allies died, but readers of the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Washington Post, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution did not see a single photo of a dead U.S. serviceman. Nor did readers of Time and Newsweek. The Seattle Times carried a photo three days before Christmas of a dead U.S. soldier, killed in the mess hall bombing, but his body was covered.

Greg Mitchell

Our military has done everything that has been asked of them, the U.S. can not accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. It is time to bring them home.

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.)

Page 170:

Appearing on CBS news, a former top CIA official, Tyler Drumheller, said that Bush was told before the war by a high-level Iraqi informant that Saddam did not possess WMD. Meanwhile, Seymour Hersh raised new fears by reporting in The New Yorker that the U.S. had plans in place for the possible bombing of Iran.

Greg Mitchell

Pages 177-178:

The next six months in Iraq---which will determine the prospects for democracy-building there---are the most important six months in U.S. foreign policy in a long, long time.

Thomas Friedman

[November 30, 2003]

What we’re gonna find out, Bob, in the next six to nine months is whether we have liberated a country or uncorked a civil war.

Thomas Friedman

[Oct. 3, 2004]

We’ve teed up this situation for Iraqis, and I think the next six months really are going to determine whether this country is going to collapse into three parts or more or whether it’s going to come together.

Thomas Friedman

[Dec. 18, 2005]

I think we are in the end game. The next six to nine months are going to tell whether we can produce a decent outcome in Iraq.

Thomas Friedman

[March 2, 2006]

Well, I think that we’re going to find out, Chris, in the next year to six months---probably

sooner---whether a decent outcome is possible there, and I think we’re going to have to just let this play out.

Thomas Friedman

May 11, 2006

Page 221:

The scourge of suicides among American troops in Iraq is a serious, and seriously underreported, problem, as this column has observed numerous times in the past three years. One of the few high-profile cases involved a much-admired Army colonel named Ted Westhusing. A portrait of Westhusing written by T. Christian Miller for the Los Angeles Times in November 2005 (which I covered) revealed that Westhusing, before putting a bullet through his head, had been deeply disturbed by abuses carried out by American contractors in Iraq, including allegations that they had witnessed or even participated in the murder of Iraqis.

His widow, asked by a friend what killed this West Point scholar, had replied simply: “Iraq.”

Now a new article reveals---based on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act---that Westhusing’s apparent suicide note included claims that his two commanders tolerated a mission based on “corruption, human right abuses and fears.” One of those commanders: the new leader of the “surge” campaign in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus.

Greg Mitchell