The GOP’s despicable scheme to play dumb on Iraq: A history lesson for Rubio & Jeb
"In fact, in one of the most famous examples of government propaganda of that era, Dick Cheney’s henchman Scooter Libby planted the “aluminum tubes” story in the New York Times, and then Cheney boldly went on “Meet the Press” to quote the article as if he’d just read it in the paper that morning over bacon and eggs. Again, they knew these tubes were not being used for nuclear weapons. Condi Rice’s office had dismissed the claims more than a year before. But it was this claim that led to the doomsaying about smoking guns and mushroom clouds which John Dickerson doesn’t seem to remember was utter nonsense.
The upshot of all this is that the GOP is working overtime to fit the Iraq debacle into their preferred narrative once and for all so they can move on and start ginning up the next military adventure. And the media, which has never fully accepted its responsibility in making that war possible, is either suffering from a severe memory lapse or sees it in its self-interest to help them do it.
The problem is that the American people do not seem inclined to go along. They, at least, have some memory of the epic disaster of the Iraq War and are not eager to repeat it. As of last year, 75 percent of Americans (including 63 percent of Republicans) believe that war was not worth it. That’s up from 66 percent in 2008. The last thing they want to hear is a bunch of excuses about how the Bush administration made a big boo-boo on account of bad information. Whether or not they know all the details, they do know that even George W. Bush isn’t that incompetent."
