If this is September, it must be time for the Bush Administration to roll out a new product. This year, as back in 2002, the nature of the product is not in doubt. Then it was the war itself, this year it is stay the course, repackaged with a new salesman but with the old sales techniques intact. Here’s Paul Krugman from this morning’s Times:
In February 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell, addressing the United Nations Security Council, claimed to have proof that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. He did not, in fact, present any actual evidence, just pictures of buildings with big arrows pointing at them saying things like “Chemical Munitions Bunker.” But many people in the political and media establishments swooned: they admired Mr. Powell, and because he said it, they believed it.
Mr. Powell’s masters got the war they wanted, and it soon became apparent that none of his assertions had been true.
Until recently I assumed that the failure to find W.M.D., followed by years of false claims of progress in Iraq, would make a repeat of the snow job that sold the war impossible. But I was wrong. The administration, this time relying on Gen. David Petraeus to play the Colin Powell role, has had remarkable success creating the perception that the “surge” is succeeding, even though there’s not a shred of verifiable evidence to suggest that it is.
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So here we go again. It appears that many influential people in this country have learned nothing from the last five years. And those who cannot learn from history are, indeed, doomed to repeat it.
There’s an old saying, with two variants. The first, and most widely known, goes something like this: Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. The other, no less monitory, if far less grammatical, might be called the Bush variant:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qDuG0ZYD5I[/youtube]
Unfortunately, only Charlie Brown is more willing to cast doubt aside than our beltway media, and to their eternal shame, some Congressional Democrats, who have not yet learned that the irrefutable presumption about anything Bush and his minions have to say is that it is a lie.
As to Petraeus, is there anyone outside of the Beltway who thinks that this pre-UN-Colin Powell-wannabe is anything other than just another administration lying con man? There are people in Washington, in the media and in Congress, that are ready to believe anything the man says. My sense is that the truth has sunk in to the American people, and they’re not going to be convinced by anyone’s flimflam, no matter how many stars on his shoulder. September may be the best month to roll out a new product, but not every roll out succeeds. Just remember the Edsel, which, coincidentally and to my surprise, rolled out 50 years ago today.
Unfortunately, the people that matter, the folks in Washington with gravitas and the Democrats despereatly seeking their approval will buy what Petreaus is selling, and more and more this war, Bush’s war, will become a war partially owned, though by no means controlled, by the Democratic Party.
By the way, you can read Krugman’s entire column for free at Truthout. As always, must reading.
