BEN LANDO
Bush has repeatedly called for the passage of the proposed Iraqi oil law. The lead story in today’s New York Times is “Iraq Compromise on Oil Law Seems to be Collapsing.” Lando is energy editor for UPI and is just back from a major conference on Iraqi oil in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. He has recently launched the web page IraqOilReport.com.
ROBERT SCHEER
Columnist Scheer wrote in his piece “The General Lies” earlier this week: “Back on Sept. 26, 2004, in the weeks before the midterm congressional elections, Petraeus took to the op-ed pages of the Washington Post
to make sure the voters didn’t vote wrong. Despite appearances, he claimed the war in Iraq was going very well: ‘I see tangible progress. Iraqi security elements are being rebuilt from the ground up,’ Petraeus wrote. …
“At the current rate, Iraq will be liberated when there are no Iraqis. Perhaps that is why this week’s ABC/BBC poll shows that 70 percent of Iraqis believe security has deteriorated since the surge began and that 60 percent believe attacks on U.S. forces are justified. And 93 percent of Sunnis, whom the general and ambassador claim are joining our side, want to see us dead.”
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JOHN STAUBER
Co-author of the books Weapons of Mass Deception and The Best War Ever, Stauber said today: “The Bush pro-war PR campaign seems to be succeeding and the Democratic-controlled Congress looks like it will continue to fund the U.S. occupation of Iraq. If that happens, groups like MoveOn and Americans Against Escalation in Iraq can blame their own partisan strategy of focusing on Republicans while letting pro-war Democrats off the hook. Bush’s strategy has been to hide behind the Petraeus report, equate defeat in Iraq with defeat in Vietnam, and use front groups including Freedom’s Watch and Vets for Freedom to say that pulling out troops would dishonor our soldiers. The Big Lie of tying Iraq to 9/11 still works wonderfully for the pro-war lobby and is believed by one in three Americas, including 27 percent of Democrats, according to this week’s CBS News / New York Times survey.” Stauber is founder of the Center for Media and Democracy in Madison, Wisconsin.
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NORMAN SOLOMON
Solomon is executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He said today: “The spinning parallels are apt to be striking again tonight. President Richard Nixon said in a televised speech on Nov. 3, 1969: ‘There were some who urged that I end the war at once by ordering the immediate withdrawal of all American forces. From a political standpoint this would have been a popular and easy course to follow.’
“As President Bush is fond of doing, Nixon portrayed himself as opting for sacred principle rather than opportunism: ‘I had a greater obligation than to think only of the years of my administration and of the next election. I had to think of the effect of my decision on the next generation and on the future of peace and freedom in America and in the world.’
“A quick withdrawal might well be popular at home, Nixon said, but it ‘would result in a collapse of confidence in American leadership, not only in Asia but throughout the world.’ He asserted: ‘For the future of peace, precipitate withdrawal would thus be a disaster of immense magnitude. A nation cannot remain great if it betrays its allies and lets down its friends.’
“So, the president said, as the host government’s ‘forces become stronger, the rate of American withdrawal can become greater.’ But there was an emphatic catch: ‘I have not and do not intend to announce the timetable for our program. And there are obvious reasons for this decision which I am sure you will understand.'”
The documentary film “War Made Easy,” based on Solomon’s book of the same name, has begun theatrical release.
His forthcoming book is titled Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State.
SAM HUSSEINI
Communications director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, Husseini said today: “Bush could begin to end the war tonight. All he has to do is tell the truth: Come clean about the lies that began this war, come clean about plans to privatize Iraqi oil, come clean about long-term U.S. policy to dominate the Mideast, come clean about what’s happening in Iraq now and apologize to the victims and their families. But it’s difficult to get there when the Democrats chairing the hearings this week voted for the war.” Husseini wrote a piece titled “Pre-script of Bush’s Oval Office Address Tonight: ‘Please Forgive Me’” just before Bush’s most recent speech from the Oval Office on Dec. 18, 2005.
He also wrote a piece titled “The Exit Strategy.”
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167.
