Sunshine in dark places
Wouldn’t it be something if former White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s belated honesty about the Bush Administration’s filthy prevarications regarding the launching and subsequent mash-up of Bush’s vanity war in Iraq were to open the “honesty floodgates?”
Wouldn’t it be something to see him on a panel with Colin Powell, Paul O’Neill, Richard Clark, Scott Ritter, and several generals who found themselves forced out of their jobs by the Bush administration for their honesty regarding the war and the way the administration has screwed America? Can you imagine the conversation? The revelations?
The shame?
McClellan’s tiny, timid mustering of courage in shining sunlight on the Bush Administration’s lies and propagandizing came, sadly, far too late to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and more than 4,000 American soldiers. It came far too late to stop the horrors unleashed in Iraq, from forcing millions of Iraqis from their homes and even from the country of their birth. It came far too late for the thousands of American soldiers who came home from the war missing limbs, eyes, and portions of their brains, their lives forever changed. And it came far too late for the ones who are suffering, and will suffer for the rest of their lives from PTSD.
I’m glad he finally spoke up, but I’m furious with him and others for waiting until now, nearly eight years after the Project to Fuck America started, to speak up. We can only hope that by speaking now, McClellan will start a groundswell of honesty that forms a high berm against further disasters created, nurtured and planned by the Bush administration.
“Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” comes to mind.
Perhaps today’s noxious expression of pus from the wound will inspire others, who may be sitting on information regarding new violence in new places and questioning in their hearts the “rightness” of the action, to come forward and speak up. Perhaps they'll put their country and their people before themselves for a change and shine more sunlight on the dark, stinking wound of the Bush White House.
I am not, however, holding my breath.
Update: I'm glad there are people like Steve Clemons out there to articulate what I meant so much better than I did.
4 comments:
A great "what if" indeed...
I've had the impression that Scott didn't think he was lying, at least at first, when he was the official White House mouthpiece. I think that's why he's angry enough to write this book--he probably believed wholeheartedly in the "mission" and gave himself up to do the administration's bidding, only to find out he was a chump and was made a liar.
I've been surprised to see so many on the left attacking him for writing the book, instead of recognizing what I think might have been a genuine attack of conscience.
I agree, Bubs. I just wish he'd done it a whole lot sooner. This sort of revelation -- from the horse's mouth -- might have moved Congress to impeach several years ago. Oh well. We don't always get what we want.
What he's done isn't new - both the Nixon and Reagan administrations had similar tell-all authors. I imagine the first books written about the Bushites and their underhandedness will make the most money ... It's amazing what the power of a book deal does for the rats who leave a rotten ship of state.
And this is even more rotten than most. Still, it's the specifics of which they tell that are the most damning. In a rational world, $hrub and teh Dick wouldn't already have got their pardons...
blech...
Nicely written as usual, though Wren.
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