Blair memo vindicates left on Iraq war. How does this make you feel?

[BurtWorm]

[malmapus]

1. Little bit of 1 and 2 so I voted Other

I'm infuriated, but not surprised, heck I called bullshit back in 2002 on Iraq to my friends and anyone who would listen to me. I want justice but am pessimistic about what the US will do about it.

[spanone]

2. Our 'media' is too busy investigating American Idol

American press has gotten the memo to ignore such dribblings from the 'Tabloid British press' and they are doing their job well. As matcom says America is dead.

[BurtWorm]

8. I know "get the memo" is metaphorical

but we should try to figure out the mechanics of this process, whereby allegedly intelligent, well-educated professionals, many with multiple degrees, in positions to keep the light shining on these facts just don't. How do American journalists know to just stop? Is it insitutional laziness?: "It's not my job. I just do what they tell me." Or are they, as Bob Somerby keeps suggesting, too much a part of the ruling class to know what good journalism worthy of the First Amendment is?

[BurtWorm]

3. Why are people pessimistic? What would make you optimistic?

I ask this as a person who has no illusions whatever about the ability of the media to keep a light shining on the fact that the Bushists fixed the intelligence so Bush could have his war. But why are so many leftists here at DU resigned to the status quo on this?

[malmapus]

12. For one because this administration seems to have un-godly control

over the flow of information that gets around.

We're hearing about all this on BBC news but has it hit anything big over here? Sure we have some members of Congress looking into it, but this seems to be something else that they are asking the administration to explain.

I really don't know what it will take for me to be optimistic again about the state of affiars in the USA. Other than martians flying over DC and vaporizing a good portion of our gov't.

I'm to the point where I feel the only way to fix this country is to wipe the slate clean. Clear out everyone who is in office right now and vote in people who are in touch with this country and have no special interests, lobbys or corporations that have them bought off.

[BurtWorm]

15. Part of the problem may well be the one-party nature of American govt.

Even if the Dems are just beginning to get their groove back, they can't get things rolling in the Congress because they don't control the committees. Their only power lies in obstruction, which suits the Repubs fine. The media are only interested in what the powerful have to say. Said differently: the powerful are the only "gets" the media are interested in. So the Republican message--that this memo is a little British thing that will go away and that as far as the US is concerned, the people spake in November and said they didn't care how we got into the war--is the only message that gets heard.

[Touchdown]

4. Depressed.

Nobody should feel good about being right on this issue.

[BurtWorm]

5. Depression is another term for "learned helplessness."

Very appropos in this case.

[T Wolf]

6. Not one goddamn thing will result from this.

The media here will not touch it.

I wrote my representative (a Dem) but do not even expect her to acknowledge it.

How many times do we have to see that nothing will happen in the political arena, no matter what facts are presented to the American people? I really believe that there is no hope for reforming the system by working within the system. It is so rigged and so completely unresponsive to normal "petitions" that to continue to try to effect change this way is counterproductive. It is a waste of time and energy and will only lead to frustration.

Independent, direct action is the only answer.

[BurtWorm]

10. What kind of direct action will make a difference?

What kind of action won't get lost in the machinery? What kind won't shove the action-takers to the margins? What kinds will help wake up the sleeping masses, here at DU, even, let alone in the country at large?

[deutsey]

7. Infuriated and re-energized

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3595489

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3601084

[BurtWorm]

11. I saw that Medea Benjamin thread.

:toast:

Good info there!

[Ganja Ninja]

9. People living in denial will continue to live in denial.

Troops will continue to be forced to do Bush's bidding and be maimed or killed in the process.

Nothing will change until people in this country start to pay directly for the war.

[Cash]

13. Enough is enough.

With all the superior, collective intelligence of the left, you'd think this information could be used as an advantage to sweep Bush out of office. Otherwise, everyone's just sitting around patting themselves on the back about how right they were.

[BurtWorm]

14. You would think so!

It's not enough to say "Told you so." The health of the democracy is at stake. If Bush gets away with this, they'll never stop throwing wars just because they want to. The only crime that pays is committed by presidents declaring war.

[Cash]

18. So True.

So if they get away with it, what does it say about the inability of the opposition to overcome whatever obstacles necessary in order to get the message out? I've just about reached the conclusion that when it comes to intelligence of the left, things aren't as they are projected, because items are consistently handed them on a silver platter over and over and still the losses keep coming.

[BurtWorm]

20. Don't quite follow you.

My feeling is that the left has learned to be helpless because the one-party state has been working steadily to remove every recourse we have. Recall the lead-up to the war when millions of people hit the streets and the telephones and fax machines calling the administration on its lies as they were coming out. We got dismissed as a "focus group" and the media all but ignored us. We had one presidential election stolen from us in broad daylight, then got blindsided by the midterms and the next one. We are in the habit of losing and losing and losing, and it's not because we don't have the numbers to win nearly half the time. It's that the institutional structure is slowly being changed so the Party is the only one that wins.

[IChing]

16. the rico act

is impossible to enforce when the mafia has
the guns,
congress,
the courts,
the media,
the executive branch,
the voting machines,
and the money.

[BurtWorm]

17. I just wrote something similar above.

[Just Me]

19. Other: NOT at all surprised,...VERY hungry for justice!!!

I want the neoCONs held accountable for their betrayal, their manipulation, their breach of duty to "the people" who compose this "democracy" and deserved to have the information required for them to make an informed decision!!!

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. Not the 'left' vindicated - but honest people

There were a few on the right too who said at the time that the 'WMD' argument was bogus. Having said that, most people on the left are interested in the truth - and most people with a respect for truth are on the left.

[BurtWorm]

23. True.

On all counts. ;)

[Zorra]

24. Do you have any examples of someone on the right that said the WMD

argument was bogus?

I am unaware of anyone on the right that doubted Bush when he lied, and would really like to read their comments about the mythical WMD.

Thanks.

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. In Britain, Kenneth Clarke was an example

Backing the rebel amendment, he said: "If we ask ourselves today whether the case for war has now been established, I think this house ought to say not, and there is still a case for giving more time to other peaceful alternatives for enforcing our objectives.

"We should take as much time as is necessary to achieve disarmament and we should resort to warfare once it is plain all other methods are exhausted."

The "revolting nature of the Iraqi regime" is not a legal basis for war, he told MPs. Nor has there been real proof that, although Saddam has material he should not, he possesses the means to deliver weapons of mass destruction that pose a threat to his neighbours, Mr Clarke said.

"I don't believe there is any evidence of links to al Qaida. I don't believe they pose a threat to New York or London. I think that's an insult to our intelligence," said Mr Clarke who belongs to the "Ted Heath" generation of Tories attracted more to Europe than to the US.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,903804,00.html

Clarke was the last Conservative Chancellor (and very nearly became Conservative leader - he lost the last round of the election to the man who did lead the Tories during the Iraq war - Iain Duncan Smith).

In fact, I think they say that all the Tory ex-Foreign Secretaries opposed the war (about 5 of them).

[Jacobin]

22. For anyone paying attention at the time, this is no surprise

And its no surprise that the media doesn't talk about it. They knew this invasion to steal oil was done on bogus WMD pretexts too.

No one cares. They just want the damn oil and they don't care who they have to kill to get it.

That's what it boils down to.