The same press that sold the illegal war to begin with is attempting to re-sell it now. Bill Keller, outgoing executive editor of the New York Times, rushed to re-write history in an interview with Esquire magazine (both the paper and the mag sold the illegal war in real time) and appears to have gotten away with it. Here's Keller:
I came in well aware that we had published some bad stuff about WMD in Iraq. I should have written a fulsome mea culpa and put [Judy Miller] on a leash. Instead I waited a year to do that. I should have just taken that thing by the lapels and done it sooner. And I would confess that some of the shots I've taken at various people or news outlets were a little intemperate. But on the whole I feel a sense of satisfaction.
If you'd lied like that in an interview -- and gotten away with it -- you'd probably feel satisfied as well.
First off, Judith Miller is not a bitch. She doesn't need a leash. It's really telling what comes out in the interview. On Esquire's side there's the homophobia that's long plagued the magazine, on Keller's side the notionthat he should have put Miller "on a leash."
Esquire doesn't do journalismthese days. So they just sit there and pretend like Keller was sharing.
Judith Miller's stories called out in what some see as the paper's mea culpa? A large number of the ones Keller called out had a co-writer. His name is Michael Gordon. He remains at the paper to this day.
And Gordon and Miller weren't the only ones at the New York Times who were wrong about Iraq. It was the front page of the paper, the first week of October in 2001 that connected -- FALSELY connected -- Iraq to 9-11. That story had two writers. Neither had the last name "Gordon" or "Miller."
If you want to pretend it was just Judith Miller, as we've noted before, then Judith must have written her copy, dited her copy, done the paper's layout and tossed it to your porch in that little blue bag the paper comes in.
Judith Miller is responsible for her (bad) writing. So is the paper's editor.
The paper has made Judith Miller the bitch because it let's them pretend that Judith Miller was the problem. We long ago analyzed Judith's 'style and, in 2005, she was doing the same thing on the UN that she was doing on Iraq. Now he can blame Howell Raines for a number of things (Raines was the executive editor before Keller). But Bill Keller was in charge when the UN piece went up.
It was more of the bad reporting. He didn't object. He didn't send her copy back to her (nor did her immediate editor) and tell her to redo the piece.
He was fine with what she was doing. (He supported the Iraq War as a columnist for the New York Times before becoming executive editor.)
But when she became too radio active, they cut her loose and Bill Keller think she can pin all of the blame for the paper's misleading and incorrect 'reporting' on Judith Miller.
Again, the front page article making the link between 9-11 and Iraq (floating that the hijackers trained in Iraq) had two writers and Judith Miller wasn't one of them.
The paper was more than happy to have Maureen Dowd be the rare voice of objection to the Iraq War. They were selling the war. That's what the paper did. Judith Miller was only one spoke on that giant wheel. (Dowd's finest moments as a columnist were writing about the Iraq War. Others whom you might think today were solid and reliable opponents actually weren't. And the Keller, Kristof and Friedman brigade more than drowned out any timid voice. Maureen Dowd will never be accused of being "timid" in print.) Gail Collins penned pro-war editorials.
That's reality. And to pretend now that Judith Miller was the problem?
Judith Miller was an employee of the paper -- one person. And Keller thinks he can play Bash The Bitch today and get away with it.
Keller thinks that.
Bill Keller.
Bill Keller who cheerleaded on the Iraq War. What is Judith's crime?
I ask because it seems like columnist Bill Keller is guilty of the same damn thing although he forgets that.
The way the paper worked was that you had the war being sold from every angle. Judith was only one angle. Bill was an angle but he doesn't take accountability for his actions.
It takes a lot of nerve to have cheerleaded the Iraq War and then to blame someone else while pretending like you never participated in the selling of the war.
The New York Times owns the Boston Globe. The Globe's latest editorial? "IF THE Iraqi government formally requests that relatively small numbers of American troops stay beyond the end of the year, President Obama should agree to it as a means of countering the growing influence of Iran on its Iraqi neighbor. But if not, there are other ways the United States can and should help Iraq preserve its independence and its nascent democracy -- not with troops, but with the police trainers, aid administrators, and diplomats in what will be the biggest US embassy anywhere in the world."
The illegal war gets re-sold. Via lies. What are American "police trainers" in Iraq currently? US troops. And if the SOFA isn't extended, US troops will continue to be "police trainers" but they'll be under the State Dept.
This was gone over Monday at the Commission on Wartime Contracting hearing. Does the Boston Globe not know this? Or are the War Hawks deliberately lying?
People who lied the country into war? Their opinion on what needs to happen next is neither required nor requested.
On some level, Bill Keller grasps that. It's for that reason that he rushes to blame Judith Miller and pretend like he himself was innocent.
It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)
Last Thursday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4457. Tonight it is still [PDF format warning] 4457. This count does not include the 5 deaths from Monday or the on Wednesday.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
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