My Zen Arcade

So, in case you missed it, yes, we know, we were lied to, and have continually been lied to, about the Iraq war.
Here’s a couple snippets from the NYT article.

Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

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John C. Garrett is a retired Marine colonel and unpaid analyst for Fox News TV and radio. He is also a lobbyist at Patton Boggs who helps firms win Pentagon contracts, including in Iraq

At the same time, in e-mail messages to the Pentagon, Mr. Garrett displayed an eagerness to be supportive with his television and radio commentary. “Please let me know if you have any specific points you want covered or that you would prefer to downplay,” he wrote in January 2007, before President Bush went on TV to describe the surge strategy in Iraq.

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A few expressed regret for participating in what they regarded as an effort to dupe the American public with propaganda dressed as independent military analysis.

“It was them saying, ‘We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you,’ ” Robert S. Bevelacqua, a retired Green Beret and former Fox News analyst, said.

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Kenneth Allard, a former NBC military analyst who has taught information warfare at the National Defense University, said the campaign amounted to a sophisticated information operation. “This was a coherent, active policy,” he said.

As conditions in Iraq deteriorated, Mr. Allard recalled, he saw a yawning gap between what analysts were told in private briefings and what subsequent inquiries and books later revealed.

“Night and day,” Mr. Allard said, “I felt we’d been hosed.”

More than anything, this shows the absolute contempt the Bush Administration feels towards the people they serve.

But we knew that.

And how horrible the media is for helping them.

And we knew that too.

Well, some of us did.

(I make reference to body counts below, a couple times. I am only referring to American dead. 4000. For the purpose of this post, we’ll forget about the astronomical number of Iraqis who have died in all this. The argument described below is based purely on how the troops, and the price they and their families pay, are being manipulated by the media and government.)

First, lets make it abundantly clear. The President’s people are not going to bring him around, very often, to families that want the war to end. They certainly won’t be getting any camera time.

Second, this is part of the stupidest argument people use to justify continuing the war. It is, like all good politics, aimed at your emotions.

People say things like “don’t let their deaths be in vain” or “Don’t dishonor our troops by bringing them home before the job is done”. While I do agree that any life that has been lost is a tragedy, we aren’t doing anything for the fallen soldiers by continuing the war (or not, for that matter). To be blunt, they are dead. They are, in fact, no longer a part of this world.

The “don’t dishonor our troops” is a very cheap shot. I am sorry that they might have to come home, their sacrifices having been in vain, perhaps. Their sense of honor besmirched. But if it comes down to therapy for a few thousand soldiers versus EVEN ONE MORE DEAD BODY, I’ve got the number for a few good shrinks. Hurt feelings and disappointments and such are not reasons to keep shooting.

Similarly, the ‘died in vain’ line translates to “please don’t let our loss be in vain” from the families and loved ones. I sympathize with these people, I truly do, regardless of their stance on the war. I can not imagine the pain of their loss.

But I would ask them this: If we left Iraq now, no more of our soldiers would die. No more sons, and daughters, and fathers and mothers coming home in body bags. If we stay in Iraq, more families will feel the same pain that you do. How many are you willing to let die in order to feel that your son’s death had meaning? How many families do you want to feel the same pain as you?

They forget that winning, if such a thing is possible and ever gets clearly defined, isn’t just about effort and determination. It is about blood and body parts spread out in the sand.

Daily Kos: State of the Nation

Most of the families of the fallen that he meets with have one request of the President, which is: Do not let my loved one’s sacrifice be in vain…Q Aren’t there also families of the bereaved who ask him to stop the war?

MS. PERINO: There have been, but the vast majority have all asked him not to allow that sacrifice to be in vain. But certainly there are some.

Q The “vast majority”? Can you say that with certainty?

MS. PERINO: Well, he has said that repeatedly, and that is true for the I think almost nearly a thousand families of the fallen that he’s met with.

Rather, she either doesn’t want to answer the question, can’t answer the question, or doesn’t understand the question.
How could al-Qaeda take over Iraq’s oil supplies?

Daily Kos: Dana Perino: Missed the point or lied

Q The President warned of the danger that al Qaeda could gain access to Iraq’s oil resources. But I don’t understand how a fragmented, clandestine, non-Iraqi terrorist organization could produce and sell Iraqi oil on the global market, especially when the majority of Iraqis have turned against al Qaeda. Could you describe a plausible scenario?

MS. PERINO: The purpose of what the President said is that al Qaeda should not be allowed to have safe haven in Iraq and take over –

Q How can they take over Iraq’s oil reserves –

MS. PERINO: Well, if we were to leave we would certainly ensue chaos and not be able to — if we were to leave too soon, it would certainly be chaos and it would be terrible for not only the innocent Iraqis, but the entire region and, in fact, our own national security. That’s what the President –

Q But the Iraqis would let a foreign terrorist organization take over their oil?

MS. PERINO: You’re missing the point, and I think that you should go back and read –

Q No, I –

MS. PERINO: Yes, actually, I think you are missing the point. And I call on you because I see what you write about how you come here and you really want to have questions asked. And I’m calling on you and I’m providing it to you, but I suggest that you read the President’s speech and read it in context, because that’s — what you’re suggesting is not what the President said.