Why this sudden push to rewrite history about the Iraq war?

[deurbano]

143. I agree the correct information was out there, but I don’t agree that most people were aware of it.

I agree the correct information was out there, but I don’t agree that most people were aware of it. As I recall, one of the few (mainstream) news organizations to consistently provide that accurate information was Knight-Ridder. I was getting my information online, but I eventually realized that for people who read only newspapers in print (which was much more the case back then) a lot of the reality-based articles (regarding the true likelihood of weapons of mass destruction or an al Qaeda/Saddam connection, for example) were buried in the inside pages, whereas the false information was on the front page or in the hawkish editorials. (As for reality-based TV… look what happened to Phil Donahue.)

The antiwar movement also had issues. If you wanted to be involved in demonstrations against the (coming) war, ANSWER (formed by the International Action Center) was a major group helping to organize those protests, but there were many people who didn’t want to participate because they had problems with ANSWER. I didn’t understand that, since I thought the stakes were way too high to focus on the organizers rather than what we were trying to prevent. On the other hand, I thought ANSWER also wasn’t focused enough on the overriding goal—preventing war (as opposed to “Free Mumia,” etc.). But, especially in the beginning, when we could see the war was coming (but it was still months away), there was very little turnout, even in my city of protest, San Francisco. I wondered where the religious leaders were. (Some were bogged down in the ANSWER controversy.). Many of the protests in which I participated were barely covered (if at all) by any mainstream media.

Then again, I went to a “teach-in” about the coming war at Stanford. I saw Daniel Ellsberg speak on the subject at Cal. I saw Scott Ritter speak at a screening of the documentary about the inspections. They ALL said the administration was intent on war (no matter what BS was being spouted, and no matter what Hussein did or did not do)… while also agreeing such a war was completely unwarranted and unjustified. But many friends and relatives actually believed the administration’s accounts, and really thought war could be avoided if Hussein would just respond in the “right” way. They also believed the WMD stuff and often believed the al Qaeda connection…. so considered the war justified, in any case. It was a frustrating time.