The Baltimore Examiner Is Wrong About the Iraqi War

“It is quite possible that we are now descending into an age in which two and two will make five when the Leader says so.” — George Orwell

Until April 5, 2007, Baltimore, Maryland was a one-daily-newspaper town. “The Sun” monopolized the print scene. Now, it has competition with the arrival of the feisty “Baltimore Examiner.” It’s a tabloid and a freebee, too, relying on ads to support itself. So far, it has been doing a competent job on the local news coverage, including its sports and entertainment pages. To its credit, it even gives Governor Martin O’Malley a good whack now and then. Its political reporter, Len Lazarick, a fine writer, was more than fair in the last state election in his treatment of the Green Party’s candidates. Michael Olesker, one of its key columnists, knows his beat and he has a wealth of on-the-street experiences to back him up. However, it is the Examiner’s editorial page that just doesn’t cut it. It has failed in its primary duty to the public to challenge the outrageous serial lies of the Bush-Cheney Gang. Its polemic-filled, facts-short editorial of July 11, 2007, “America Must Take a Long View of Iraq,” is a case in point.

The Examiner insisted: “[President George W. Bush] is right on Iraq and [that] he deserves America’s support.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Bush is dead wrong on Iraq! He deserves impeachment, too, for repeatedly breaching the public trust and for shredding the U.S. Constitution with regard to spying on Americans, condoning torture and seizing powers beyond the scope of his office. He also brazenly lied to the people, and to the U.S. Congress, about his reasons for invading Iraq. Iraq didn’t have any WMD, ties to al Qaeda or any connections whatsoever to the 9/11 tragedy. (1) Iraq also did not attempt to acquire enriched uranium from Niger, as falsely claimed by Bush and his cronies. And, when U.S. Ambassador Joe Wilson made that point clear, his wife, Valeri Plame was deliberately “outed” as a covert CIA agent and Wilson was viciously smeared by V.P. Dick Cheney’s stooge, Lewis “Scooter” Libby. (2) Bush, too, has made a U.S.-Occupied Iraq into a recruitment poster for terrorists, while destroying a country of 27 million and contributing to the deaths of, at least, 655,000 Iraqis. (3) Why did the Examiner choose to ignore the compelling evidence showing that Bush mislead the country into war?

To also argue, as did Examiner did, that the situation confronting the nation on D-DAY, in Nazi-Occupied Europe, in 1944, is somehow comparable with the realities facing President Bush in Iraq in July, 2007, is pure nonsense. The two events aren’t on the same page. One of the main differences is, of course, that Iraq is a war of choice. Its blood stained occupation, too, was a matter of choice of the grossly inept and wildly reckless Bush-Cheney Gang. For some unknown reason, the Examiner has continued to spurn the sage advice of the Iraqi War critic, Ex-Lt. General William E. Odom, USA, (Retired), on this relevant issue. He has said that the ill-advised Iraqi conflict is the “worst strategic mistake” in our history, and that it isn’t in “our national interest.” He added that the invasion of Iraq has served primarily “the interests of Osama bin Laden.” (4) The General has also asserted that a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq is the best way to “support our troops.” Gen. Odom believes, too, that, if Bush persists in keeping our “troops in peril” in Iraq, the Congress should impeach him. (5) As I write, even the leaders of the Occupation Government in Iraq are saying: “We can keep the peace without U.S. soldiers.” Bottom line: Get the U.S. troops out of that raging Civil War in Iraq, now!

Digging an even deeper hole for itself, the Examiner proclaimed, without citing any authority: “The ‘Surge’ is making a huge and positive difference in our favor.” Really? If that is true, then why is it that U.S. personnel are no longer safe even within the heavily fortified “Green Zone” in Baghdad? And why is it, too, that GOP Senators are, daily, backing off of their previous unconditional support of Bush’s delusional war schemes? (6) Besides Bush and Cheney, and the Examiner’s editorialist, I suspect that there are only three other people, who pretend to believe that the “Surge” is working. One is that fake politico, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD); another is that quintessential warmonger, Sen. Joe Lieberman (IND-CT); and the third is that smirking Neocon, William Kristol. If there is a hell, Sen. Mikulski, Sen. Lieberman and Kristol warrant a “Special Place” in it. (7)

Meanwhile, there wasn’t a word in the Examiner’s rant about those who are profiting from the Iraqi War. The boy-ohs from the Military-Industrial Complex and “Big Oil” had to be pleased by that omission. In his seminal tome, “The Sorrows of Empire,” Chalmers Johnson pointed the finger at the role of those two special interests in driving us into the illegal conflict, along with operatives from the powerful Israel Lobby, like those cunning Neocons. (8) Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle were prominently mentioned by Johnson. The Examiner does acknowledge that the U.S. has and will continue to suffer “casualties” in Iraq. But, it didn’t dare tell its readers how many brave American troops have already died in that unjust war. Try 3,617 as of today, with tens of thousands more seriously wounded. As for the cost to the taxpayers, on the low end, the estimate stands at $443.9 billion, and on the high end—$2 trillion! (9) The Examiner failed, too, to let its readers know about the mind-boggling financial costs involved.

Somehow the Examiner also forgot that its “first duty,” like that of every citizen, is always to the Republic itself. Governments come and go, but the Republic is permanent. The legendary General George Washington, and the gallant Continental Army, won for us the right to create a government, via our Constitution, where sovereignty rests, not in any elected regime, or in an absolute monarch, or in a corrupt oligarchy, but in the people themselves. The Bush-Cheney Gang doesn’t deserve the loyalty or the support of the people. Instead, it deserves their contempt.

Finally, the Examiner was right about one thing in its opinion piece. It wrote: “Bush may be the ‘loneliest’ man in Washington.” He probably is. But, if there is any justice left in our country, that may not be for long. After Bush is impeached and removed from office by the U.S. Congress for committing “high crimes,” he should also be prosecuted by federal authorities for his egregious breaches of our criminal laws, along with his partner in mayhem and terror—Dick Cheney. It is the most profound of all subversions of our democratic system to put our sons and daughters in harm’s way—for damnable lies! Bush and Cheney are unrepentant enemies of the Republic, who deserve each other. They are also entitled to share a cell together—at Leavenworth—for a long period of time.

Notes:

1. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/
2. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/24705 and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj4xU-YSLZY and
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts07162007.html
3. http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/15007/index.php
4. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/24368
5. http://www.antiwar.com/orig/odom.php?articleid=7487 and
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07132007/profile.html and
http://www.impeachbush.tv/
6. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070730/dreyfuss
7. http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/14991/index.php
8. http://batr.net/neoconwatch/
9. http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/050682.html

©2007, William Hughes

William Hughes is an author and commentator. His videos can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=liamh2.
Email Contact: liamhughes@comcast.net.