Iraq: Mission Accomplished! (Really, Now)
Glenn Greenwald notes a phenomenon I discussed/predicted back in 2003 and again in 2007 regarding how the world's thought leaders tend to spin a war once its biggest costs are seemingly in the past. The Iraq war is now a success!:
It was only a matter of time before American elites abandoned their faux regret over Iraq. For tribalists and nationalists, America can err in its execution but never in its motives. There's no question -- as this glorifying, propagandistic Newsweek cover story reflects -- that it's now official dogma that this was the right thing to do, or at least that we produced something great and wonderful for that country, as was our intent all along (leaving aside the what is actually happening in Iraq). It's nothing short of nauseating to watch those responsible glorify what they did without weighing -- or, in Friedman's case, affirmatively dismissing as irrelevant -- the extreme amounts of death and suffering that they caused, all based on false pretenses. But this is why Tom Friedman is the favorite propagandist of "Washington insiders"-- because he feeds them the justifications they need to feel good about themselves. Forget all those innocent dead people and destruction you caused; it all worked out in the end.
Now see Glenn Greenwald aim his spleen at Reason; and see in this comment thread Hit and Run readers aim their spleen at me for daring to link to Glenn Greenwald.
