JonLowder.com

Watching Bush's War

I'm a huge fan of PBS's Frontline.  So much so that it's my top 'Season Pass' on Tivo so that I'm sure no other show will preempt it for recording.  Last night PBS aired part 1 of Frontline's Bush's War which was duly recorded and I've now had the chance to watch about half of the 2 1/2 hour segment.  The quality of the show surpasses even Frontline's excellent standards and I look forward to watching the rest of it at the earliest opportunity.

If you didn't see it or get it recorded you can view it online at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/bushswar/

Fec points to a write up in Reuters about the show and excerpts a part that includes this paragraph:

In dozens of interviews and with meticulous fact-gathering, “Frontline” makes a convincing case for two important aspects of the war. First, it was primarily orchestrated by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Bush was only “the decider” insofar as he signed off on their plans, often paying no heed to Secretary of State Colin Powell and others.

Fec also loaned me Suskind's The One Percent Doctrine which I'm about halfway through, and when you combine that book with this show you have pretty convincing evidence that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld bent us over and were none too gentle with us.

The Worst Has Not Been Visited Upon Us Yet

Below is a video clip of an interview by Foreign Policy with former FBI interrogator Jack Cloonan on the use of torture in the "war on terror."  Basically he says that it is counterproductive in that it mythologizes terrorists and in turn helps the terrorists recruit a whole new generation of jihadists.  The most chilling lines come at the end when he says that we (the U.S.) believes that our programs work because we haven't been attacked since 9/11, but the jihadists say that they'll get us even if it takes a generation.  He ends with the line "The worst has not been visited upon us yet." 

Now I'll sit back and wait for the "we're American, Christian and righteous and we're fighting for freedom in the face of invading Islamo-fascist hordes" crowd to come and say this expert has no idea what he's talking about.  They know torture works and is necessary because they listen to Rush every day and he tells them it's true.  And they've watched every episode of 24 at least seven times and if it works for Jack Bauer then surely it works for our boys too. 

Of course they wouldn't agree with Cloonan when he points out that even the Israelis think that torture doesn't work.  I mean, what do they know?  They just live on a piece of land the size of a US state and are bordered by whole groups of people who've stated for the record that they want Israel annihilated.  It's not like they have a lot of experience dealing with this kind of thing, right?  Yep, Jack Bauer is a much better source of information.