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• Saturday, May 10, 2008 08:16 AM

  James Finklestein:

  Coincidentally I just had this conversation last night with two people who served in Iraq- one of whom was part of the original invasion force. Although neither had paid much attention to this story, neither was surprised, and neither was particularly outraged or interested.

  With respect, the issue is not whether journalists or people who have served in Iraq were surprised at this story. Even if the story is hardly a surprise to anyone at all - which it shouldn't have been anyway, since we have been openly deluged with War on Terror propaganda for years - it is an outrage and a highly important example of the way that we got into this mess to begin with.

  Part of ensuring that history does not repeat itself in the worst possible ways is to have a full, historical accounting of the things we hope not to repeat. Unless anyone wants to continue to argue that our invading and occupying Iraq was a good thing, based on true and salutary premises, I think we can all agree that we should try desperately to avoid the same pitfalls, machinations, and psychologies that put us in this situation.

  So, regardless of who is surprised or not surprised by this outrageous story of blatant military propaganda operations, there is absolutely no excuse for the ensuing media blackout, based on some self-serving pretense that this sort of thing is common knowledge, so "let's move on."

  The media have the worst of egg on their faces and blood on their hands, and they want desperately for nobody to notice.

  —DCLaw1 Read DCLaw1's other letters
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