On NBC, 'Expertise' Means Getting Iraq Wrong (FAIR Action Alert)

[swag]

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3302

Action Alert

On NBC, 'Expertise' Means Getting Iraq Wrong

2/28/08

In the February 26 Democratic primary debate, sponsored by MSNBC, NBC anchor Brian Williams questioned Democratic hopeful Barrack Obama about his fitness to compete in a presidential race, with the "vast foreign policy expertise and credibility on national security" of Sen. John McCain.

Obama's rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, "has compared your foreign policy expertise to that of George W. Bush at the same period," Williams said. "Provided you could be going into a general election against a Republican with vast foreign policy expertise and credibility on national security, how were her comments about you unfair?"

Yet on what most would call the most important recent issue of "national security"--Iraq--McCain was stupendously wrong.

In a pre-invasion interview on CNN (Late Edition, 11/29/02), McCain stated:

We're not going to get into house-to-house fighting in Baghdad. We may have to take out buildings, but we're not going to have a bloodletting of trading American bodies for Iraqi bodies.

He added, "I don't think it's, quote, 'easy,' but I believe that we can win an overwhelming victory in a very short period of time." On MSNBC (Hardball, 3/24/03), he stated that "we will be welcomed as liberators."

In contrast, Obama made a prominent speech around the same time (10/2/02) that now seems strikingly prescient:

But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.

I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al-Qaeda.


The assumption of Williams' question is that the candidate who was completely wrong about the Iraq invasion has "vast expertise" and "credibility" on national security, while the candidate who correctly foresaw the consequences needs to prove his foreign policy qualifications. One wonders whether Williams is using "expertise" as a synonym for "hawkishness."

ACTION:
Please write to Brian Williams and remind him that expertise and hawkishness aren't the same thing.

CONTACT:
NBC Anchor Brian Williams
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

[peacebird]

1. Obama's 2002 remarks need to be used as a commercial attacking McCains "experience"

They could also be used against HRC in the primary if she keeps her "experience vs naivete" meme going....

[swag]

2. Barack was dead right on Iraq, there's no question.

[Bigmack]

6. Why DON'T the Dems ever .....

use this kinda stuff? It works soooo well on Daily Show. Jon doesn't have to make shit up... assholes like McCain just say the dumbest stuff! All Jon - or the Dems - have to do is play it.... over and over and over again.

This FAIR piece is getting absolutely no traction in the MSM... naturally.

And speaking of Jon Stewart... Jon had BriWi on his show last night. A love-fest as usual. I think Jon has a man-crush. Too bad Jon did't bring up BriWi's questioning of Obama's "experience".

[TwilightGardener]

3. McCain has neither "expertise" or "credibility" on foreign policy and national security.

The media will repeat this meme, but it's just not true--unless you consider George Bush to also have expertise and credibility in those areas, because all McCain does is parrot the Chimp.

[EFerrari]

4. K&R

[tabasco]

5. The only thing McCain is highly qualified for

is eating peanuts out of Bush's asshole.