That'sFriedman's specialty.
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The Times’ Thomas Friedman on Iraq: spreading “democracy” with missiles and lies
By Bill Vann
22 July 2003
Amid mounting revelations of Bush administration lies concerning its reasons for going to war against Iraq, a chorus of media pundits has rallied to the president’s defense by responding, “So what?”
These commentators argue that the “16 words” in the State of the Union address citing intelligence allegedly proving that Iraq tried to buy uranium in Africa were no big deal—despite the fact that this bogus claim played a major role in the administration’s attempt to terrorize the public with a nonexistent Iraqi nuclear threat. Or, they assert, the issue of government deception pales beside various ex post facto rationalizations for the war—Saddam Hussein’s repression, the “liberation” of the Iraqi people, etc.
One of the most repugnant examples of this second line of defense is to be found—as it often is—in the writings of the chief foreign columnist of the New York Times, Thomas Friedman. In a July 16 column entitled “Winning the Real War,” Friedman hails the formation of an Iraqi “governing council,” handpicked by the US colonial administrator L. Paul Bremer, as the real “liberation” of Iraq, and “the most important day in its modern history.”
After chiding the media for failing to celebrate this supposed historical milestone, focusing instead on the unfolding controversy over Bush’s lie about African uranium, Friedman writes: “... it is a disturbing thought that the Bush team could get itself so tied up defending its phony reasons for going to war—the notion that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction that were undeterrable and could threaten us, or that he had links with Al Qaeda—that it could get distracted from fulfilling the real and valid reason for the war: to install a decent, tolerant, pluralistic, multireligious government in Iraq...”
EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT
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For the rest of this piece, as well as previous articles on this supposed media 'expert' and government operative (and his ilk):
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/frie-j22.shtml
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