NPR covers for Rumsfeld, changes Schorr's criticism on air 12/11/04

[JohnOneillsMemory]

Here's the letter I sent National Petroleum Radio:
>>>

On this morning's brief discussion between Scott Simon and Daniel Schorr about Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's response to a soldier questioning 'why they had to look for armor in junkyards,' I was outraged to hear Scott Simon interrupt Daniel Schorr's criticism of Rumsfeld's deceptive response by disputing what Schorr had just said and then deflect discussion towards supporting both the innocence and competence of Rumsfeld's prosecution of this illegal war.
--------------------------------------------
Schorr said "Rumsfeld's statement 'we go to war with the army we have, not the one we want' made no sense at all since this wasn't in response to Pearl Harbor but instead a war that had been anticipated and planned on since atleast January, 2001."

Simon jumped in and said "no, actually we haven't established that. Let's talk about their finding conditions on the ground to not be what they expected when they got there..."
---------------------------------------------
Please tell Mr. Simon and the other so-called journalists at NPR that intent and planning to invade Iraq was a priority for George W. Bush (and the Project for a New American Century neo-cons who espouse a new American Global Empire and make up his administration) LONG before it was marketed to the public through people like Judith Miller at the New York Times and Scott Simon at NPR.

This fact has been confirmed by George W. Bush's own words in interviews before the coup of 2000, 'wacky conspiracy theorists' like former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, and many many former administration and intelligence service insiders who are no longer in on this massive blood-for-oil scam perpetrated with the help of media disinformation from NPR, Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC, and the rest.
CNN: O'Neill Claims Iraq Plans Before 9/11

The blood of more than 100,000 Iraqis and tens of thousands of young American soldiers is on your hands, too.

I won't support NPR financially and I'll encourage everyone I know to abstain from paying for your propaganda.

(Maybe you can all get jobs at the Iraqi Ministry of Disinformation. I'm sure you can all afford to pay for yor own body armor, unlike our troops.)

[cpalson]

1. Benefit of doubt?

I'll give Simon the benefit of the doubt. Let's say Bush&Co actually didn't know about the chaos that would follow (Naomi Klein says otherwise). Most commentators are now saying that they had 18 months to fix the problem. why didn't they?

My own take on this is that fixing the problem would be an admilssion by Rummy that his fast and light force was wrong. The armored HVs are much slower and more vulnerable to enemy forces. It's a tradeoff. Clearly, though, armored ones are better in this situation.

So simon wasn't that far off to start by looking at post invasion circumstances.

[eleny]

2. "The armored HVs are much slower" - the new meme

I've been hearing this meme from apologists like Tony Blankly yesterday and no one questions it. In fact, the other day, one of the spokesmen for a company that retro fits HVs was on tv. He asserted that their company developed an ultra lightweight and ultra strong material to fortify the vehicles. So, this "much slower" bit is false and the DOD knows it.

I can't remember the man's name or the company. But he was on one of the cable news stations talking about all this shortly after the story broke. Perhaps someone else here remembers him.

[ALoeppert]

4. For what it is worth

A Valley firm that provides critical armor for military vehicles in Iraq is operating at only half-capacity despite complaints from soldiers who say they are being sent into combat without adequate protection.

"We've been telling the Pentagon for months that we have the capacity to double our production," said former U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon, a consultant for ArmorWorks of Tempe.

"We're ready, and we haven't heard a thing."

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1210armor10.html

[pretzel4gore]

3. lotsa mediawhores named simon

was bob simon the cbs goof who got caught by iraqis in gulf war 1? then he somehow 'escaped' lol...goes to show who had power in the iraqi scene ...marge hassan shoulda sukked a little of the arse the simon bunch sukks