Iraq War = not necessary, a serious strategic blunder – US News Media = complicit enablers in the manipulation of the public (the propaganda campaign) – George W. Bush turned away from candor and honesty when those qualities were most needed.

No Gravatar

Scott McClellan

Check what he wrote on Katrina and on Condoleeza Rice.

And, now, the clincher:

[Scott McClellan] does not exempt himself from failings — “I fell far short of living up to the kind of public servant I wanted to be” — and calls the news media “complicit enablers” in the White House’s “carefully orchestrated campaign to shape and manipulate sources of public approval” in the march to the Iraq war in 2002 and 2003.

More in The Politico – (3 pages)

History appears poised to confirm what most Americans today have decided: that the decision to invade Iraq was a serious strategic blunder. No one, including me, can know with absolute certainty how the war will be viewed decades from now when we can more fully understand its impact. What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary. […]

The collapse of the administration’s rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. … In this case, the ‘liberal media’ didn’t live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served. […]

I still like and admire President Bush. But he and his advisers confused the propaganda campaign with the high level of candor and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public support during a time of war. … In this regard, he was terribly ill-served by his top advisers, especially those involved directly in national security.I still like and admire President Bush. But he and his advisers confused the propaganda campaign with the high level of candor and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public support during a time of war. … In this regard, he was terribly ill-served by his top advisers, especially those involved directly in national security. […]

More from AJC.

Let&#8217-s create a prediction market on who&#8217-ll be the next former White House official who will sell Bush down the river.

UPDATE:

NBC News

AP

NBC News

Tim Russert

Jessica Yellin

Today

Previous blog posts by Chris F. Masse:

  • If David Pennock were to seek innovation in prediction market data visualization…
  • Is Malta’s Lotteries and Gaming Authority a serious governmental body?
  • The simplicity and social utility of the gravatars explained to Tom W. Bell by blog guru Chris Pirillo.
  • Excellent article about enterprise prediction markets and Inkling Markets —with a good word for Robin Hanson, who invented MSR.
  • HubDub limitations
  • BetFair Developer Program use Joomla! as their blog software (and CMS).
  • Lawsuit aiming at compelling the office of the United States trade representative to produce a copy of its compensation settlement with the European Union over the United States’ withdrawal of gambling services from the General Agreement on Trade in Services.