Frontline's Timid Iraq Retrospective

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/032608a.html

Frontline’s “Bush’s War” on PBS Monday and Tuesday evening was a nicely put-together rehash of the top players’ trickery that led to the attack on Iraq, together with the power-grabbing, back-stabbing and limitless incompetence of the occupation.

Except for an inside-the-beltway tidbit here and there – for example, about how the pitiable Secretary of State Colin Powell had to suffer so many indignities at the hands of other type-A hard chargers – Frontline added little to the discussion.

Notably missing was any allusion to the unconscionable role of the Fourth Estate as indiscriminate cheerleader for the home team, nor any mention that the invasion was a serious violation of international law. But those omissions, I suppose, should have come as no surprise.

Nor was it a surprise that any viewer hoping for insight into why Cheney and Bush were so eager to attack Iraq was left with very thin gruel.

It was more infotainment, bereft of substantive discussion of the whys and wherefores of what in my view is the most disastrous foreign policy move in our nation’s history.

Despite recent acknowledgements from the likes of Alan Greenspan, Gen. John Abizaid and others that oil and permanent (or, if you prefer, “enduring”) military bases were among the main objectives, Frontline avoided any real discussion of such delicate factors.

[rurallib]

1. I was surprised to see Michael Gordon and Elizabeth Bumiller

commenting. If I recall they were cheerleaders and little more.

[mirrera]

2. I agree. Oil law not mentioned...

Importing Cement from Turkey while Iraqi cement factories were looted. Crowd pulling down the statue was full of Iraqi exiles. There is better info out there than what was shown. One highlight was finally seeing Bremer look a little uncomfortable when confronted. No mention of how trying to sell the state run industries caused the beginnings of violence.
Maomi Klein's articles give a much clearer picture.

[NNN0LHI]

6. Oil law? Was the word "oil" even used one time in 4 hours?

I don't think so.

No mention of Negroponte or his death squads either.

Don

[pbca]

3. Try this one

"The Lies that Led to War" - from the Fifth Estate / Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/lies/video.html

We still have journalists up here.

[Kolesar]

4. The part where Colin Powell converted to war-promoter was poorly written

The series was written to explain who had access to bush, but it really did not explain the mechanisms that were used to bully Powell and others into conforming (to the warmonger agenda).

I thought the series did a good job of explaining the capture-and-hold operations as advocated by newly-empowered go-girl Condi Rice. "It's the surge, stupid".

Great article. I liked the part about the Dan Rather HDnet story. I cannot remember who said it, but I go back to the basic thesis that the CEOs of the media companies are hired by the executives of the wealthy companies that own them, and they understand quite well that they are to control the editorial content of what comes out of the news rooms. They censor what will be said about the energy or defense companies.

[spanone]

5. even PBS has been compromised under this regime....NPR has been gutted of any political news