Sharing the blame
By Kevin Uhrich 07/31/2008
We applaud former LA County prosecutor and best-selling author Vincent Bugliosi for all he’s done to expose the depth of the deception perpetrated by President Bush and his administration in launching the United States into an unprovoked, illegal war in Iraq.
The problem is he hasn’t gone nearly far enough for laying blame for one of the greatest political and military disasters of modern times.
Bugliosi, who prosecuted Charles Manson and his “family” members for the murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others back in 1969, wrote about that case in the wildly popular “Helter-Skelter,” the most successful true-crime book of all time.
But this time around, Bugliosi’s ninth book, “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder,” hasn’t been so well embraced.
As Deputy Editor Joe Piasecki learned, there has been something of a media blackout on Bugliosi’s latest efforts, even though the book has climbed to the LA Times’ No. 4 spot and to No. 9 on The New York Times best-seller list. The book is getting literally no attention on television and very limited play in print media outlets. In fact, The New York Times is reporting that ABC Radio has refused to take ads for the book.
There is no question in Bugliosi’s mind that Bush as well as Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State and former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice belong in prison for what they’ve done. Actually, Bugliosi would recommend death sentences for all of them, given the callous indifference they’ve displayed in relation to all the innocent lives they’ve squandered in Iraq over the past five years — the direct result of the lies they told and continue to spew.
But they aren’t the only ones who lied and continue lying to the American people about what’s really going on in the bloody and pernicious War on Terror in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and here in the homeland.
And they aren’t the only ones in power who knew the truth and then concealed it from the public in order for the administration to make a case for a “pre-emptive” attack on Iraq.
Maybe the reason why no TV stations and other papers besides alternatives like the Pasadena Weekly are reviewing Bugliosi’s book is because, well, they themselves are just as guilty as Bush and company of foisting lies on the American people in order to advance the causes of an unjust war.
For the past five years, the mainstream press has been chock full of mea culpas for all of their pathetic performances in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Every stinking one of them — from The New York Times to the Washington Post to ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX — swallowed what they all knew were lies and then presented them as facts to a virtually catatonic public; a public shell-shocked by Sept.11 and so inundated with crap since then that it is now incapable of discerning political fact from political fiction from what it sees on TV.
Although Bugliosi argues that Bush’s fraud would negate Congress’ consent during a murder prosecution, there is absolutely no excuse for that body’s total disregard of myriad voices — literally millions of people taking to the streets of cities around the world — crying out for recognition in the days before the invasion. Members of Congress knew the truth, especially when it came to the true threat posed to the US by Iraq, but instead swallowed the Bush Kool-Aid and formerly endorsed and then funded the administration’s colonial incursions into the Middle East.
If the war were being sold in a TV commercial, it might be introduced in much the way other toxins — like cigarettes — were once plugged: “The Iraq War,” the announcer would say. “Brought to you by … Congress, Big Oil, the media and George Bush.”
In the final analysis, we believe Bugliosi is absolutely right: Bush and his administration are guilty of war crimes and should be prosecuted. But let’s never forget that they had plenty of help.
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Absolutely. The Media shares the blame as Much as anybody for what has gone on. The "Liberal Media" is one of the biggest of the Big Lies.
One of the many reasons there will be more swift boating to come, and I'm sorry but I have not Liked Obama's chances from the beginning, the Media will play along with the attacks/lies for months like they did in 88,92, 96, and especially 00, 04