Ray McGovern: "Why White House v. Wilson/Plame Matters"

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0719-32.htm

Published on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

Why “White House v. Wilson/Plame” Matters

by Ray McGovern

The key issue in the affair has little directly to do with former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson; or his wife, Valerie Plame; or Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby; or even President George W. Bush's alter ego, Karl Rove. White House v. Wilson/Plame is about Iraq, where our sons and daughters—and many others—are daily meeting violent death in an unwinnable war.

And it's about manipulation.

It's about how our elected representatives were deceived into voting for an unprovoked war and what happened when one man stood up and called the administration's bluff. And it's about the perfect storm now gathering, as:

~ more lies are exposed (whether in journalists' e-mails or in the minutes of high-level meetings at 10 Downing Street),

~ the guerrilla war escalates in Iraq, and

~ more and more Americans find themselves agreeing with Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., that administration leaders seem to be "making it up as they go along."

It wasn't envisaged this way by the naïve "neoconservative" ideologues that got us into the quagmire in Iraq. Actually they still seem to believe that all will be well if the Iraqi people can only get it into their heads that we are liberators, not occupiers.

So much smoke is being blown over White House v. Wilson/Plame that it is becoming almost impossible to see the forest for the trees. Bewildered houseguests from outside the Beltway throw up their hands: "It's all just politics...and character assassination." And that may well be precisely the impression the media wish to leave with us. Otherwise, left to our own devices, we might conclude they served us poorly with the indiscriminate, hyper-patriotic cheerleading that helped slide us into the worst foreign policy debacle in our nation's history.

more...

Says it all...

We know that a majority of the American people now believe Bush not to be honest. We know he tried to buy the election for Allawi in Iraq. (See Seymour Hersh's latest article in The New Yorker.) Ergo, we pretty much know Bush's henchmen stole not only the 2000 election but in all probability the 2004 election. We know that Rove is one of the main henchmen behind Bush and everything he does. If we have a chance to win the 2006 mid-terms, and American opinion indicates we might, we have to get rid of Rove before those elections. Is anybody actively working on getting us an honest election? It seems to have dropped from the radar. Democrats need to push this issue more than any other--push to get Rove out and push to ensure the next election isn't rigged.

but it's like lambs being led to slaughter if we don't have honest elections.

I think getting rid of Rove will be symbolic, because he will continue to work in a capacity for bush. But it needs to be done so that everyday people who don't follow the details will recognize all is not good with their prez. It will be a well deserved slap to bush, that's for sure.

"we might conclude they served us poorly with the indiscriminate, hyper-patriotic cheerleading that helped slide us into the worst foreign policy debacle in our nation's history.

Let's hope we do.

"we might conclude they served us poorly with the indiscriminate, hyper-patriotic cheerleading that helped slide us into the worst foreign policy debacle in our nation's history."

It could happen!

if this is STILL America, land of the Free and home of the Brave!

..."Otherwise, left to our own devices, we might conclude they served us poorly with the indiscriminate, hyper-patriotic cheerleading that helped slide us into the worst foreign policy debacle in our nation's history."