Frank Rich has joined the chorus of those calling for a true and honest assessment - as opposed to the military's never changing false assessment that with more troops they can win - of the USA's fool's errand in the Middle East. The nation went to war with a limited goal in Afghanistan that Bush/Cheney in their near orgasm to attack Iraq threw away. Then the country went into Iraq based on pretty much complete lies disseminated by Bush/Cheney. And now we are in one Hell of a mess with no positive outcome likely no matter how much spin the White House and military try to use. We believed the DOD and Pentagon in the Vietnam debacle and we did so again in this latest mess. When will we learn that these are NOT trustworthy sources when it comes to decisions that will unleash their ability to play at war. Yes, I'm a cynic, but I lived through the Vietnam years and saw the same lies and deceit which cost 58,000+ American lives. The number of deaths for Americans has been lower this time around, but only because medical advances have allowed more to survive in a horribly maimed condition.*
Rich's piece in the New York Times begins with a reprise of the release of the Pentagon Papers back in 1971 and his own first experience which demonstrates that the government response to having the real truth aired hasn't changed:
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That false calm vanished overnight once Richard Nixon, erupting in characteristic rage and paranoia, directed his attorney general, John Mitchell, to enjoin The Times from publishing any sequels. The high-stakes legal drama riveted the nation for two weeks, culminating in a landmark 6-to-3 Supreme Court decision in favor of The Times and the First Amendment. Ellsberg and The Times were canonized. I sold my first magazine article, an Ellsberg profile, to Esquire, and, for better or worse, cast my lot with journalism. That my various phone conversations with Ellsberg prompted ham-fisted F.B.I. agents to visit me and my parents only added to the allure.
*
Now fast forward almost 40 years and something similar may well be coming down. What is it - the Wikileaks disclosures, of course ,which are show the true nastiness, murder of civilians, and deliberately misleading efforts of the military leadership to make a rosy picture out of a f*cked up mess. And once again, the top leadership of the nation want to go after the leakers rather than deal with the objective truth which has been hidden from the American public. Indeed, Obama is on the way towards morphing into a cross between Chimperator Bush and Richard Nixon if things are not reigned in. Democracy only works when the true facts are out for the basis of decision making. Sadly, since this Afghanistan/Iraq fiasco began, the true facts have been kept hidden from the American public. Obviously, this needs to change and the USA needs to get its troops the Hell out of the Middle East as quickly as possible. And if there are to be prosecutions, it's not the leakers who need to be prosecuted. Intentional lies, cover ups, and those proffering failed policies have cost thousands of American lives, countless Iraqi and Afghan lives, and upwards of a trillion dollars that would have been far better spent rebuilding the USA's economy and aiding American citizens. Here are more highlights from Rich's column:
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Last week the left and right reached a rare consensus. The war logs are no Pentagon Papers. They are historic documents describing events largely predating the current administration. They contain no news. They will not change the course of the war.
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About the only prominent figures who found serious parallels between then and now were Ellsberg and the WikiLeaks impresario, Julian Assange. They are hardly disinterested observers, but they’re on the mark — in large part because the impact of the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War (as opposed to their impact on the press) was far less momentous than last week’s chatter would suggest. No, the logs won’t change the course of our very long war in Afghanistan, but neither did the Pentagon Papers alter the course of Vietnam. What Ellsberg’s leak did do was ratify the downward trend-line of the war’s narrative. The WikiLeaks legacy may echo that. We may look back at the war logs as a herald of the end of America’s engagement in Afghanistan just as the Pentagon Papers are now a milestone in our slo-mo exit from Vietnam.
*
The [Pentagon] papers’ punch was in the many inside details they added to the war’s chronicle over four previous administrations and, especially, in their shocking and irrefutable evidence that Nixon’s immediate predecessor, Lyndon Johnson, had systematically lied to the country about his intentions and the war’s progress. Though Nixon was another liar, none of this incriminated him. His anger about the leak would nonetheless drive him to create a clandestine “plumbers” unit whose criminality (including a break-in at the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist) would lead to Watergate.
*
The public’s reaction to the Afghanistan war logs has largely been a shrug . . . Yet the national yawn that largely greeted the war logs is most of all an indicator of the country’s verdict on the Afghan war itself, now that it’s nine years on and has reached its highest monthly casualty rate for American troops. Many Americans at home have lost faith and checked out.
*
Americans know that our counterinsurgency partner, Hamid Karzai, is untrustworthy. They know that the terrorists out to attack us are more likely to be found in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia than Afghanistan. And they are starting to focus on the morbid reality, highlighted in the logs, of the de facto money-laundering scheme that siphons American taxpayers’ money through the Pakistan government to the Taliban, who then disperse it to kill Americans.
*
Unlike Nixon, Obama is still adding troops to his unpopular war. But history is not on his side either in Afghanistan or at home.
*
It physically sickens me to think of the thousands of young Americans who have died for this mistake launched by Bush/Cheney and foolishly continued by Obama. I also cannot help but wonder how many more will die because Obama, DOD and the Pentagon continue to refuse to admit that the whole affair has been a mistake. I have children of my own and I can only imagine the rage some parents of the needlessly dead must be feeling as more of the real truth comes out. Their children did not die for the country. They died because of the hubris of Bush and Cheney and the Pentagon's inability to ever find a war that it won't falsely claim it can win.
*
That false calm vanished overnight once Richard Nixon, erupting in characteristic rage and paranoia, directed his attorney general, John Mitchell, to enjoin The Times from publishing any sequels. The high-stakes legal drama riveted the nation for two weeks, culminating in a landmark 6-to-3 Supreme Court decision in favor of The Times and the First Amendment. Ellsberg and The Times were canonized. I sold my first magazine article, an Ellsberg profile, to Esquire, and, for better or worse, cast my lot with journalism. That my various phone conversations with Ellsberg prompted ham-fisted F.B.I. agents to visit me and my parents only added to the allure.
*
Now fast forward almost 40 years and something similar may well be coming down. What is it - the Wikileaks disclosures, of course ,which are show the true nastiness, murder of civilians, and deliberately misleading efforts of the military leadership to make a rosy picture out of a f*cked up mess. And once again, the top leadership of the nation want to go after the leakers rather than deal with the objective truth which has been hidden from the American public. Indeed, Obama is on the way towards morphing into a cross between Chimperator Bush and Richard Nixon if things are not reigned in. Democracy only works when the true facts are out for the basis of decision making. Sadly, since this Afghanistan/Iraq fiasco began, the true facts have been kept hidden from the American public. Obviously, this needs to change and the USA needs to get its troops the Hell out of the Middle East as quickly as possible. And if there are to be prosecutions, it's not the leakers who need to be prosecuted. Intentional lies, cover ups, and those proffering failed policies have cost thousands of American lives, countless Iraqi and Afghan lives, and upwards of a trillion dollars that would have been far better spent rebuilding the USA's economy and aiding American citizens. Here are more highlights from Rich's column:
*
Last week the left and right reached a rare consensus. The war logs are no Pentagon Papers. They are historic documents describing events largely predating the current administration. They contain no news. They will not change the course of the war.
*
About the only prominent figures who found serious parallels between then and now were Ellsberg and the WikiLeaks impresario, Julian Assange. They are hardly disinterested observers, but they’re on the mark — in large part because the impact of the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War (as opposed to their impact on the press) was far less momentous than last week’s chatter would suggest. No, the logs won’t change the course of our very long war in Afghanistan, but neither did the Pentagon Papers alter the course of Vietnam. What Ellsberg’s leak did do was ratify the downward trend-line of the war’s narrative. The WikiLeaks legacy may echo that. We may look back at the war logs as a herald of the end of America’s engagement in Afghanistan just as the Pentagon Papers are now a milestone in our slo-mo exit from Vietnam.
*
The [Pentagon] papers’ punch was in the many inside details they added to the war’s chronicle over four previous administrations and, especially, in their shocking and irrefutable evidence that Nixon’s immediate predecessor, Lyndon Johnson, had systematically lied to the country about his intentions and the war’s progress. Though Nixon was another liar, none of this incriminated him. His anger about the leak would nonetheless drive him to create a clandestine “plumbers” unit whose criminality (including a break-in at the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist) would lead to Watergate.
*
The public’s reaction to the Afghanistan war logs has largely been a shrug . . . Yet the national yawn that largely greeted the war logs is most of all an indicator of the country’s verdict on the Afghan war itself, now that it’s nine years on and has reached its highest monthly casualty rate for American troops. Many Americans at home have lost faith and checked out.
*
Americans know that our counterinsurgency partner, Hamid Karzai, is untrustworthy. They know that the terrorists out to attack us are more likely to be found in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia than Afghanistan. And they are starting to focus on the morbid reality, highlighted in the logs, of the de facto money-laundering scheme that siphons American taxpayers’ money through the Pakistan government to the Taliban, who then disperse it to kill Americans.
*
Unlike Nixon, Obama is still adding troops to his unpopular war. But history is not on his side either in Afghanistan or at home.
*
It physically sickens me to think of the thousands of young Americans who have died for this mistake launched by Bush/Cheney and foolishly continued by Obama. I also cannot help but wonder how many more will die because Obama, DOD and the Pentagon continue to refuse to admit that the whole affair has been a mistake. I have children of my own and I can only imagine the rage some parents of the needlessly dead must be feeling as more of the real truth comes out. Their children did not die for the country. They died because of the hubris of Bush and Cheney and the Pentagon's inability to ever find a war that it won't falsely claim it can win.
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