Originally published at: Early Bloggers Changed the Public’s Perception About the Iraq War - TPM – Talking Points Memo
War is an accelerant of change, not least in the media. In the last century, every major war has helped a new medium prove itself as essential for communication. The popular experience of the Second World War was shaped by radio (famously Edward R. Murrow’s live dispatches from the Blitz in London), Vietnam by television…
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I am not a blogger by my perception of Bush’s Iraq War is very clear. Saddam Hussein attacked his daddy, so we all had to suffer, plus the Bush family was in bed with the Saudis.
Too put it more simply, it was as if we went to war with China after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
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And yes, television played a big part in ending the Vietnam war, bringing the war home to the dinner table every evening at six, over pork chops and mashed. Walter Cronkite was years late to the truth. All he did was admit it on TV. Not an act of courage as it is often told.
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To this day, the media still refuses to discuss the truth about the Iraq War because of their own culpability in it.
Also, I believe the real reason for the war was to allow Saudi Arabia and big oil companies to gain control over the supply and price of oil. Prior to 9-11-2001, Dick Cheney held meetings with oil executives that are still secret. While I do not gamble, I do not even play the lottery, I will bet because I don’t believe it is gambling that if Cheney’s meeting ever become public, we will learn he discussed Bush’s plan to invade Iraq and take out Saddam and how it would make them richer by causing oil prices to rise.
Everything that happened in Iraq from its falling into chaos to the eventual takeover by Iran was not only predictable but predicted by many of us who opposed the war from the beginning, in fact it was the reason we opposed the war from the beginning.
Pat Buchanan called those of us opposed to the war from the beginning as “the coalition of the intelligent”. Not having as high opinion of myself as Mr. Buchanan, I called those of us opposed to the war from the beginning as “the coalition of the not really dumb”.
But before I get to much into the Iraq War, there is something not being discussed about that war that is very important in discussing politics today. “George W Bush lied America into a disastrous war in Iraq”, Donald Trump. The reason this is important today is it proves how little lying America into the Iraq War affects or affected our politics. That is it is impossible to have supported George W Bush, like every Republican from Lindsey Graham to Mike Johnson to everyone including the lowest of the base and now supporting Donald Trump without admitting that security and foreign are of no concern to you.
That is you cannot have supported both W Bush and D Trump if you care about foreign policy because according to Trump, W Bush and his supporters including Graham are war criminals responsible for the murder of over 1,000,000 people.
But back to the war itself, “It is inconceivable America invaded Iraq over suspected WMDs and then failed to secure any suspected WMD site upon taking control of Iraq”, former chief weapons inspector for Bush, David Kay.
That is we know from Bush’s actions, failure to secure suspected WMD cites, failure to secure Iraq’s borders to keep out undesirables to include terrorists and Iranian agents, and above all failure to provide everyday security to everyday Iraqis so they could build the institutions necessary for a unified democracy that Bush did not invade Iraq over WMDs, links to terrorism or to free Iraq’s people. Rather, Bush showed the world why he invaded Iraq when he ONLY secured, again the key word is ONLY, when Bush ONLY secured Iraq’s oil ministry and the oil fields.
That is what is obvious from Bush’s actions is that Bush himself knew he was lying about the reasons for the war and it was all about the oil. Furthermore, it was not about controlling the oil for lower but to get higher prices for America. That is Iraq under Saddam had been undercutting the any attempt to set a global benchmark for the price and quantity of oil causing gas prices in America to be under one dollar a gallon.
Regardless if W Bush invaded Iraq because Saddam tried to kill daddy Bush, the real result of how the war was conducted by Bush and Cheney led to Saudi Arabia and the cartel to include large oil companies to be able to control the price and production of oil with the accomplished goal of Americans paying more.
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Won’t dispute the truth that the Iraq War buildup supercharged political blogging but would add that the 2000 election and subsequent court battles and MSM coverage primed the pump; it certainly was what got me looking for other voices.
That said, the post-9/11 drum-beating for war with Iraq–the era of ‘Freedom Fries’ and accusations of treason for every doubter of the war buildup–was a chilling time, and I clung to outlets like TPM, Kos, and Atrios as to a life-preserver in stormy seas. That gratitude helps to keep me a paying subscriber here.