McClellan's new book, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and
Washington’s Culture of Deception, ” the American people mostly likely want to
believe the former Press Secretary. In his book McClellan accuses the Bush
administration of "shading the truth" and confusing "the propaganda campaign
with the high level of candor and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and
then sustain public support during a time of war..." Basically, he's saying the
American people were lied to without using those exact harsh terms. I think this
a claim a bulk of the American people want to believe.
Believing that we were feed propaganda and lies helps certain facts go down
much smoother. What are the facts? One fact is that in the beginning of the war
in Iraq a majority of the American people supported it and now say they were
wrong. Another fact is that President Bush was re-elected and now has low
approval rating. Saying we were lied to or duped explains why so many have
changed their mind about the war in Iraq and President Bush so drastically.
In a way McClellan represents that change our country has undergone through
these past few years. He was a supporter of President Bush and his policies who
no longer is a believer.
I, for one, have no such regrets. I don't regret supporting the war in Iraq. Simply
put: I think Saddam Hussein was a tyrannical leader and we did a good thing getting
rid of him. I don't believe Bush and his administration lied. However, as we all know
by now the intelligence was wrong.
Another Mr. McClellan claim makes is the news media didn't do its job. Here's what
he wrote:
The collapse of the administration’s rationales for war, which
became apparent months after our invasion, should never have
come as such a surprise. … In this case, the ‘liberal media’ didn’t
live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been
better served.
This is another explanation that liberals like to make that the news media helped
sell this war. They should have been more skeptical. Again, this allegation makes the
medicine go down smoother. The news media sold us on something we shouldn't
have bought into. However, this notion negates the fact that our news media
hasn't served the public for decades. It's about profits. One only has too look at
the previous decade to see the type of stories they enjoy covering. Endless coverage
of the O.J. Simpson trial and the Monica Lewinsky trial permeated the air waves
in the '90s . So this is the news media that should have asked "tough" question on
Iraq? They were suppose to all of sudden awake from their long stupor and become
heroic and fervently fight against American foreign policy. The news media still can't
get the story right on Iraq. How many stories have been written about what's going
on Iraq lately? Sadly, it's much less than I would like.
So believing that we bought into lies and propaganda helps. Blaming a lack luster
media helps. We want to believe what Scott McClellan is telling us now and not what
he continually told us back then. It helps us makes feel better about ourselves but
it's also leaving a whole lot.
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