Cohen: The Patriotism Refuge

[kskiska]

By Richard Cohen

If patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, as Samuel Johnson said, then it is the first refuge of politicians. That at least is the case with the Republican National Committee -- and by implication the White House -- which has started running a television commercial defending George Bush's handling of the Iraq war, saying the president's various Democratic opponents are attacking him "for attacking the terrorists." Not really. It's for doing such a bad job of it.

This despicable attempt to muffle criticism by throwing the flag over it may or may not work. Whatever the case, it does not change the fact that the United States went into Iraq for reasons that now appear specious and so distantly related to the war on terrorism that the connection seems merely rhetorical. Saddam Hussein lives and Osama bin Laden lives and yet somehow the Bush White House wants nothing but congratulations. Mine will have to wait.

More to the point, none of the reasons the administration gave for attacking Iraq -- and none of the reasons cited in the congressional resolution authorizing the war -- have proved to be true. As of yet, the United States has found no connection between Hussein and al Qaeda and no evidence that Iraq had an extensive WMD program, particularly one that was about to go nuclear. It remains true that Hussein was a beast with an appalling human rights record, but as bad as he was -- or is -- that was not the reason the administration gave for going to war.

(snip)

The other possibility is that they -- the top people in the Bush administration -- knew the stated grounds for war were bogus. If that's the case, then we do not have a thrilling exercise in presidential power but an abuse of it that makes Watergate look as trivial as Richard Nixon's defenders said it was. The two GIs whose bodies were mutilated in Iraq the other day -- just to cite two American casualties -- may have died for a lie.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12114-2003Nov24.html

[xray s]

1. That ad is creepy

There is some weird background music and is seems like they slowed down the tape speed when Bush talks.

When I first saw it I didn't know if I should laugh or shiver.