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The Mudville Gazette is written and produced by Greyhawk, the call sign of a real military guy currently serving somewhere in Iraq. Unless otherwise credited, the opinions expressed are those of the author, and nothing here is to be taken as representing the official position of or endorsement by the United States Department of Defense or any of its subordinate components. Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house.

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October 25, 2005

Weaving of Much Deception

Greyhawk

Robert Kagan writing in The Washington Post reminds us of some pre-war headlines on Iraq and WMD. His list includes:

"Flight Tests Show Iraq Has Resumed a Missile Program" (July)
"U.S. Says Iraq Aided Production of Chemical Weapons in Sudan" (August)
"Iraqi Work Toward A-Bomb Reported." (September)
"Iraq Has Network of Outside Help on Arms, Experts Say" (November)
"Iraq Suspected of Secret Germ War Effort" (February)
"Signs of Iraqi Arms Buildup Bedevil U.S. Administration" (February)

From these one could make a compelling argument that the media willingly aided and abetted the Bush White House in building a case for invasion. But there's one problem, as Kagan notes. The headlines above all appeared between 1998 and 2000 - before Bush had even secured the Republican nomination.

As we've noted previously (see this examination of a rather obvious example from PBS) the current narrative of Iraq as post-9/11, WMD fear-fueled machination of the Bush administration is actually a post-invasion construct of a media heavily reliant on a public perceived as short on memory or low on attention span. Personally I don't think the public is so easily deceived, by the media or any administration, though perhaps a small percentage of that public who are willing to believe is all it takes to keep media types satisfied - with their circulation figures and their mercurial editorial positions.

Read it all. (Via Mrs G's indispensable Dawn Patrol.)

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