Letters posted here are associated with the following article:

8
Letters
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 12:00 AM

Report? What report?

Study that found no link between Saddam and al-Qaida won't be released as originally planned.

The letters thread is now closed.

View:
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 04:59 PM

What will it change if they acknowledge it?

We all know this. Even people who supported the invasion know this but they just don't care.

Will it have an effect on political decisions to go to war? I doubt it. Gulf of Tonkin anyone?

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 05:24 PM

And this is news, why?

I'm losing patience with "outrage" over the status quo.

"Oh my god, the sun rose again today!"

Liberal websites would do well to start organizing dissent. Simply reporting what should be unacceptable on a regular basis does more to normalize this kind of behavior than it does to counter it.

Reporters might argue that it is their job to bring the public the truth, and what the public does with that is up to it. I understand this argument, but it is increasingly anachronistic. There is no party or mainstream media to organize the people -- on core civil liberty/checks-and-balances issues, these organs have joined with the obstacles to democracy and freedom. That leaves left-wing internet gathering points as the best tools for democratic revolt. I ask the managers of those gathering points: are you going to take the next step, or are you just faking your outrage?

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 06:07 PM

Brian - Seattle on what will change

We all know this. Even people who supported the invasion know this but they just don't care.

They may know it in the sense that someone in deep denial knows, on some level, that they're fooling themselves. But so long as they don't see it in print right there in front of them they can go on postponing the inevitable reckoning. It's basic human nature.

Bush and his people know this. They know that a substantial segment of the American body politic wants to believe that we did the right thing for the right reasons. "Show me where it says we were wrong," they say, and look — there is (technically) nothing to point to that says that we were wrong.

Bush may have "misstated" a few things, but misstatements happen to everyone, right? The news doesn't say, "President Bush lied again today when he said..." And now the military's own unflattering assessment can be waved away as simply being nonexistent.

Of course public disclosure requirements mean that they can't bury it completely. Instead they're mailing CDs, which is an absurdly expensive alternative and, I think, someone in the Pentagon's way of crying for help.

If I were in Congress I would use investigating that foolish expense as a pretext for getting to the bottom of the report's suppression.

Gulf of Tonkin anyone?

No thanks, had a late lunch.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 06:31 PM

Nice Work, War Room

Now just wait another day or so and the whole embarrassing fiasco of the Clinton campaign's continued use of race-baiting and code-speak will slip out of the news cycle, once more, without your analysis.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 07:05 PM

Vincent

How about starting a thread on Geraldine Ferraro's comments and the reactions to them? Alex wasn't able to get to it before he left for the day, but I'm sure it's on his "to do" list somewhere.

Thanks a bunch!

Thursday, March 13, 2008 04:56 AM

"because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda,' Bush said."

In breaking news, Sadaam, from the grave, responded "I did not have sex with that terrorist"

Thursday, March 13, 2008 05:34 AM

here's the report

don't wait for it to arrive in the mail - get it today!

http://movies.crooksandliars.com/JDF-Saddam-Report.pdf

Thursday, March 13, 2008 08:39 AM

Down the memory hole... Again.

Because, we've always been at war with East Asia, er, Eurasia, er, reality...

Most Active Letters Threads

530

Do Obama officials know what his Afghanistan plan is?

What explains the completely contradictory statements from key aides on a central plank of the war strategy?
128

Is my kids making me not smart?

Stay-at-home fatherhood dulls my intellect to a nub. Excuse me while I ponder the subtext of "Hippos Go Berserk"
126

Trig, the anti-abortion straw baby

Sarah Palin's son is being used to demonize pro-choicers
113

I survived Glenn Beck's Christmas spectacular

The preposterous showman brings his holiday book, and waterworks, to the stage and screen. Lights! Camera! Jesus!
83

I live in a van down by Duke University

How do I afford grad school without going into debt? A '94 Econoline, bulk food and creative civil disobedience

View all »

Letters Help

Currently in Salon