Archives: 2007 November

Karl Rove blames congress for Iraq war in interview with Charles Rose.

Karl Rove was one of the slickest political operators of all time. And one of the most amoral and slimiest.

Probably realizing that he is dead center in the circle of neocon nut cases who were pushing to invade Iraq even before 9/11 Rove, in an interview with Charlie Rose, tries to convince us that the Whitehouse and President George Bush were pushed into the Iraq war by a demanding congress.

Rove has the shameless nerve to take to the talk show circuit telling us that back in 2002, when the president was still riding a wave of support forged by 9/11, his desire for caution and reasoned action were overridden by a war hungry unwilling to wait Congress. “We don’t determine when the Congress votes on things,” Rove told Rose. “The Congress does.”

I guess he and Bush landed on the whole “I’m the Decider” thing later. Probably after they orchestrated that triumphal hot dog Presidential “mission accomplished” landing on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln.

Could it be that Karl Rove still believes that anyone will still believe his BS? He and President Bush are trying to rewrite the history books as they must increasingly realize that they were the heart and soul of the worst administration in the history of the United States who presided over the worse foreign policy blunder in our nation’s history. Never before have two men cost the United States so much in loss of prestige and treasure.

A pox upon you Karl Rove. No one deserves it more except for perhaps your former macho man boss.

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Let’s hold the man to his statement and waterboard John Ashcroft.

Last night, former Attorney General John Ashcroft delivered an address on national security at the University of Colorado.

During the speech, Ashcroft caused an uproar and protest when he declared Guantanamo Bay was a “good place” for detainees. In addition, he defended the torture tactic of waterboarding. In fact, when asked point blank by a woman in the audience if he would be willing to be subjected to waterboarding Ashcroft responded “the things that I can survive, if it were necessary to do them to me, I would do,”

It sounds to me that Ashcroft said that as long as waterboarding didn’t kill him it would be OK.

OK, macho John. I propose that the good citizens of the US be allowed to waterboard you on a new national reality show TV program. And while we are at it let’s have shows dedicated to waterboarding other former and present administration officials who have stated that waterboarding is not torture and is OK. Folks like Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales immediately come to mind.

Waterboarding has been considered torture, even by the United State’s own government,  until the reign of King George. Indeed, we prosecuted Japanese officers for subjecting American prisoners to waterboarding in World War II.

Waterboarding is not “simulated drowning.” It is drowning. It’s just that the interrogator is supposed to stop the procedure before it become fatal.

It involves restraining a detainee — usually by strapping him or her to a board — with the head placed lower than the feet. The face or mouth is usually covered or stuffed with rags and water is poured over the face to force inhalation. The victim’s lungs fill with water until the procedure is stopped or the victim dies.

I had a near drowning experience once when I was living in Hawaii. I was lucky to escape the rip tide and make it back to the beach. While my lungs didn’t fill with water the thought that I was going under was terrifying enough. I don’t think I would have made it if years earlier I had not taken a class in drown proofing and was able to draw on those lessons to control my panic. I’m sure that near drowning experience was nothing compared to the panic that waterboarding would bring.

Let’s bring it on and see if the John Ashcroft’s of the world have a better understanding of waterboarding once they have been subjected to the procedure.

And while we are at it let’s invite the goofy Fox News phony newscaster Steve Doocy to a waterboarding session. Look at the following video and see how Steve thinks of waterboarding.

Doocy should be treated to a waterboarding session even before we get to Ashcroft. On second thought let’s waterboard the entire Fox News lineup of overpaid pampered newscasters. They deserve it almost as much as the pro torture trio of Ashcroft, Cheney, and Gonzales. Watch the video. You will see what I mean.

The influence of Presidential propaganda power has been strong in the Bush White house.

“See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda. ” — George W. Bush, President of the United States, in a speech made on May 24, 2005.

George W. Bush may have made the above statement in reference to Social Security issues but it is a tried and true tactic that he has used time and time again in his Presidency. One of the most glaring examples is George Bush’s often repeated lines that tie the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center directly to Iraq and Saddam Hussein. There is simply no evidence to support this statement but since so many Americans have heard it so often from their President they believe it to be true.

Another often repeated lie told by Bush to the American people that many believe to be true is that the terrorists hate Americans because we enjoy freedom and democracy. Middle Eastern policy experts will take quick issue with that statement. It seems to them and to me that America’s clumsy and uneven implementation of foreign policy and our constant interference in the internal affairs of Middle Eastern nations has a lot more to do with the terrorists hated of America.

In the run up to the Iraq war Bush used the constant repetition of “facts” by himself and his team members, like Cheney, Rice, Rumsfield, and Powell, to ramp up the public’s acceptance and willingness to invade Iraq to his advantage. At the end of the propaganda campaign the majority of Americans were frightened enough to believe that Iraq posed a clear and present danger to the United States.

Bush may not be the sharpest tool in the box but he is a shrewd and talented politician. From the President’s bully pulpit he has been effective in promoting his administration’s propaganda. Whatever the truth may actually be hasn’t seemed to matter. President Bush knows that the repetition of the same statements over and over by a leader can for a lot of followers convert absolute nonsense into the truth as they now want to see it.

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