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Confronting the architects of war

[digg-reddit-me]Jon Stewart to Douglas Feith:

Just because your intentions are good and noble and you believe it to be the right move for the country doesn’t make this honesty. And I’ll why i think why – because you remove the ability for the American public to make an informed decision.

And once you have removed that then you no longer have the authority, because what you have done is you have told us what part of the argument you think it is appropriate for us to know about.

(Begins at about the 5:55 mark in the video.)

Thank God for Jon Stewart. I’m not sure what other media outlet would broadcast such a respectful yet challenging interview with one of the architects of this war, this national nightmare.

I’m not sure if it should be so cathartic to see one of the planners of this misbegotten gamble scolded by a comedian. But it was.

Now what’s next?

6 replies on “Confronting the architects of war”

I love the Daily Show and despise the Bush Administration. However, I think Stewart was making a bad argument. He correctly points out that there was evidence that many countries were involved in terrorism or other bad things (Iran, N. Korea, Syria, etc). So he makes the classic “all or nothing” argument: why not go into all those other countries? Why just Iraq? That’s a recipe for inaction. Obviously the US can’t attack everyone at once, but that shouldn’t prevent the US from attacking the “worst” offender (HAHA: faulty intelligence). In fact, if the US hadn’t screwed up so badly, smashing Iraq would have scared those other countries into being more cooperative. Iran wanted to negotiate after the US toppled Afghanistan and Iraq, but Bush didn’t follow up on that.

If you get pulled over for speeding on the highway, you can’t complain to the cop that everyone else was speeding. The cop can only pull over one driver at a time, he can’t stop and ticket everyone.

I agree with you on that point – but Jon Stewart made other points as well. And I think what Stewart did especially well was call Feith on his bullshit in a respectful tone, which is almost never done in mainstream media interviews.

I give him credit for the effort, but Stewart gives this criminal way too much leighway on the subject. The Office Of Special Plans was tasked by Cheney to create new intel that supported war at any cost, and Feith’s book is an attempt at yet more revisionist history: whitewashing the Cheney Administration’s illegal war for profit.

Jon should have destroyed him by asking specifics about the lies they (and Feith himself) told to the public. He should have made him defend each one, point for point, before the scrutiny of the American people.

It’s a sad comment on the times that the host of a comedy show has to have such a thoughtful, well-researched conversation with a high-ranking government official on matters of such great importance. What is the actual main stream media doing these days? Are they aware that there is something out there called ‘the real world’ where they are supposed to cover the topics that affect so many people? And that they have to do this unbiased and as thoroughly as the subject requires?

Of course Jon Steward can ask the hard questions, I’m sure they are burning on his lips. But it’s not his job to do that. He’s a comedian filling in for news agencies in absentia. And he’s doing a brilliant job of it.

If the American people were serious in any way about their country and democracy they would be on the steps of congress demanding Cheney and Bush be impeached and thrown out. Jon Stewart is doing more than his fair share in bringing these facts into the light of day, he is doing much more than what the peons bought and paid for by media moguls are doing.

Kudos, Mr. Stewart!

projectshave: It seems to me that Jon Stewart was asking why they targeted Iraq, as opposed to other so-called “rogue states” at the time.

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