Paul Pillar at the National Interest on “Never Forget the Iraq War”:
And related to that was the larger pattern of how many Americans allowed themselves to be duped by the war makers. That’s right: allowed themselves to be duped. There have been many complaints by people who supported the war about how they were misled, and indeed Americans were misled. But they were able to be misled because they got themselves swept up in a political mood that was stoked and exploited by the administration. Even a halfway careful examination of the prowar sales campaign could have seen through it, including such things as a phantasmagorical alliance between the Iraqi regime and al-Qaeda.
Finally there are the prime promoters of the war. The lesson to be drawn about them is how atrocious the war showed their judgment to be. They ought to be so discredited by now that no one listens to them any more. But here’s the scary part: people do still listen to them. As Christopher Preble observes, “Most of the president’s Republican challengers are reluctant to cross the neoconservative cheerleaders for the war who, inexplicably, still have great sway over aspiring chief executives.” Many of those cheerleaders are still prominent members of the policy-influencing Washington elite and still writing and talking about the very sorts of things on which they showed such terrible judgment in the case of Iraq. Some of them are even cheering for yet another war, against another Middle Eastern country with a four-letter name starting with I, and with their cheering featuring familiar old themes about weapons of mass destruction, links with terrorism and the like. Those people ought to be reminded at every turn about the Iraq War and their role in promoting it, and asked repeatedly why anyone should believe a word of what they are saying now.
Kristol
Kerry
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Thomas Friedman
Jeffrey Goldberg
David Remnick
Ehud Barak
Robert Wexler
Robert Kagan
Condi Rice
Bill Keller
David Frum
Mortimer Zuckerman
Clinton
Christopher Hitchens
Ken Pollack
Update: Earlier version of this post included Bernard-Henri Levy in the march of shame. Wrong. He wasn’t. Apologies to BHL.
Well, noone will listen to Christoper Hitchens anymore, so I guess that must be success.
Are you joking? That you would censor from discussion on the merits of disagreement about some historical event.
The test of whether someone should be listened to, is if their current proposals make sense or not.
The better argument, not the better shunning.
Hitchens,( God have mercy on his poor soul), is already out of the picture.
The rest of the smiling (or not) warmongers shoud not only be discredited,
but some should answer before the highest court for their active , conscious, calculated, intentional,deliberate,wilful participation in the war mongering, which cost many, many lives on both sides of the conflict, and of course tons of $$$$.
You left out Perle, Bolton, Abrams, Wolfowitz, Cheney, …
It might be easier to list those who were against the Iraq war:
1. Ron Paul
2. ?
Here is avery interesting article:
“U.S. behind deliberate murder of Qadhafi: Russia.
Russia has accused the United States and NATO of large-scale violations of human rights during the military operation in Libya, including the deliberate murder of its leader Muammar Gaddafi and the killing of hundreds of civilians.
The NATO forces “made the overthrow and murder of the Colonel their main goal,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry in its first report on the state of human rights in the world.
Citing unnamed sources, the report said the order to liquidate Qadhafi was given to U.S., French and British commandos. The Russian Foreign Ministry details numerous instances of mass killings of hundreds of civilians and destruction of infrastructure in NATO bombing raids in Libya.
The U.S. is the main target of the Russian report, which also criticises the human rights record in Britain, Canada, Finland, the Baltic states and Georgia.
Russia took President Barack Obama to task for his failure to shut the “odious” prison at Guantanamo Bay and accused the White House of sheltering officials guilty of torture.
“The situation in the United States IS a FAR CRY FROM the ideals proclaimed by Washington,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry in a 90-page report posted on its website.
“Old systemic problems of American society are growing more serious, including racial discrimination, xenophobia, overcrowded prisons, unjustified capital punishment, including the execution of innocent people, imperfect electoral system and corruption, ” said the report
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2758804.ece
The US is losing a lot on the international scene. It’s starts to be viewed as a global hegemon, a threat to the wordly peace, a global policeman that starts to behave more and more like a lunatic.
Make no mistake, I find these people repugnant – but I don’t think we should let the rest of american society off the hook. There was an undeniable blood lust here after september 11th, I realize that many of the above had plans for Iraq long before sept 11th – and in truth, the first iraq war really never ended- but what these people did was tell people what they wanted to hear.
And how many so called “liberals” voted for Clinton after her cheerleading? Or continued to praise hacks like Hitchens? How many continue to shill for O? We may want to blame it all on these people, and to be sure, there is a special place in hell for them, but lets be honest:
I have seen the enemy and he is us.