NOT SO SWIFT: Media Obsession With Old Stories Neglects Current Conflict

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Two news stories, of vastly differing consequence, have over the past week raised the question of how issues of war and peace will play in this year's presidential contest:

1.) The summer-long controversy over claims and commercials produced by the so-called "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" group continued, as a now widely- discredited circle of embittered Vietnam veterans used money from associates of President Bush and White House political czar Karl Rove to try and develop doubts about aspects of John Kerry's military service 35 years ago.

2.) US Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Nebraska, the vice chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence and one of the senior Republican members of the House International Relations Committee, announced after a thorough review of the information available to him that he had come to the conclusion that the US invasion and occupation of Iraq was unjustified. "I've reached the conclusion, retrospectively, now that the inadequate intelligence and faulty conclusions are being revealed, that all things being considered, it was a mistake to launch that military action," explained Bereuter, who added that, "knowing what I know about the reliance on tenuous or insufficiently corroborted intelligence used to conclude that Saddam maintained a substantial WMD (Weapons of mass destruction) arsenal, I believe that launching the pre-emptive military action was not justified."

Guess which story the news media focused on with such intensity that both Kerry and Bush were forced to address it publicly.

Here's a hint: It's not the story about the war that is currently going on.

Full Article May Be Found Here: http://thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=1706

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