there is not a single instance in which the CIA's activities did not prove acutely embarrassing to the United States.

judith miller: evil-doer. "Well, I think they found something more than a "smoking gun." "


" They believe that Saddam Hussein wanted to destroy the evidence of his unconventional weapons programs, and that's what he has done-- not only since 1995, but also in the weeks and months that led up to the war itself. There was mass destruction. "
A follow-up story that amends the record seems to be in order—say, a Page One piece titled "Times Overhyped Iraq WMD Story; Sold Journalistic Soul for Access."

wolfy: “The risks are very large still, and I think when I say the stakes are large in Iraq, they’re large on the positive side and if we succeed I think they’re large on the negative side if we fail but the notion that it would not have been a large throw of the dice to go for another 12 years of this hideous containment policy in Iraq which if you stop and read bin Laden’s fatwah was one of the major sources of his rhetoric and his grievance against the West and a major burden for Saudi Arabia.”

This suggests that if weapons are not found, and Americans become less certain that Iraq had such weapons, the percentage saying that the administration was being misleading could well become a majority.
While 59% of those polled correctly said the US has not found Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, 41% said they believed that the US has found such weapons (34%) or were unsure (7%).

wolfy: "Fortunately they (NK) have just lost one potential customer in Baghdad and I think there are things we can do to limit the market elsewhere"

condi :"Either you believe Saddam Hussein or you believe the overwhelming bulk of evidence," she said.
History, Bush concluded, "will prove that the United States made the absolute right decision in freeing the people of Iraq from the clutches of Saddam Hussein."

But the leading neoconservative writer and former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle added, "I hope [the WMDs] are found but I'm very skeptical

blix: "But towards the end the [Bush] administration leaned on us," he conceded, hoping the inspectors would employ more damning language in their reports to swing votes on the UN security council.
"I have my detractors in Washington. There are bastards who spread things around, of course, who planted nasty things in the media. Not that I cared very much. "It was like a mosquito bite in the evening that is there in the morning, an irritant."

I understand what the politician meant who said of the Texas House of Representatives, "If you think these guys are bad, you should see their constituents."

"We meet," it said, "in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political and material ruin....Corruption dominates the ballot box, the [state] legislatures and the Congress and touches even the bench.....The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced....The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few."

this is Karl Rove's cherished period of American history; it was, as I read him, the seminal influence on the man who is said to be George W.'s brain. From his own public comments and my reading of the record, it is apparent that Karl Rove has modeled the Bush presidency on that of William McKinley, who was in the White House from 1897 to 1901, and modeled himself on Mark Hanna, the man who virtually manufactured McKinley. Hanna had one consummate passion – to serve corporate and imperial power. It was said that he believed "without compunction, that the state of Ohio existed for property. It had no other function...Great wealth was to be gained through monopoly, through using the State for private ends; it was axiomatic therefore that businessmen should run the government and run it for personal profit."

"It's not built and designed as a standard fermenter," one top U.S. scientist told the New York Times. "Certainly, if you modify it enough you could use it. But that's true of any tin can."

To the average Iraqi, almost nothing the Americans do makes sense. Each one is a schizophrenic beast, as likely to smile and hand out a sweet to a child as it is liable to open fire on a street protest or club a careless driver.

What kind of message did the US military send to the Iraqis when it seized "editorial control" of Mosul city's only TV station because of its "predominantly non-factual/unbalanced news coverage" - meaning the re-broadcasting of Qatari Arab satellite network al-Jazeera?

a US army major was relieved of her duties and removed from the base when she argued that the order contravened principles of free speech. After all, these are principles guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, which every US soldier must "solemnly swear" to "support and defend".

Thus the man (bremer) in absolute authority over the country's largest, richest and best equipped media network is also his own regulator and regulator of his rivals, with recourse to the US Army to enforce his rulings.

almost every action taken by the ruling Coalition Provisional Authority as it goes about the complex task of rebuilding Iraq has unintended, and often troublesome, consequences.

The RAVE Act is being used to suppress political speech. This is exactly what Sen. Biden said would not happen, and now it’s happening.”

byrd: " It is astonishing that our government is berating the new Turkish government for conducting its affairs in accordance with its own Constitution and its democratic institutions.... We cower in the shadows while false statements proliferate. We accept soft answers and shaky explanations because to demand the truth is hard, or unpopular, or may be politically costly. "
"And mark my words, the calculated intimidation which we see so often of late by the "powers that be" will only keep the loyal opposition quiet for just so long. Because eventually, like it always does, the truth will emerge. And when it does, this house of cards, built of deceit, will fall."

Con men are precisely the heroes we deserve. They are the pragmatic creations of our own insincere, ironic age -- and they fit their methods to their movies.

Some of these turned out to be not quite what they seemed, others are still surrounded by confusion. Was this the fog of war, effects-based warfare, propaganda, or error?