Abstract

In Fact..

Presents two brief commentary pieces. A few weeks ago, "Slate" asked a number of "liberal hawks"--among them George Packer, Kenneth Pollack, Thomas Friedman, Paul Berman and Fareed Zakaria--to reflect on their support for the Iraq war. But if contributors like Pollack and Slate editor Jacob Weisberg expressed deep misgivings about their initial support for military intervention, they accepted Administration claims that, in Weisberg's words, "Saddam tried to assassinate former President Bush." After numerous interviews with high-ranking US and Kuwaiti officials, along with electrical engineers and bomb experts, Seymour Hersh concluded that the key suspects in the plot were beaten (and possibly tortured) by Kuwaiti authorities, and that "there is no evidence that any of the alleged assassins took any overt steps to deploy any bombs." This year's Super Bowl was set to feature the usual clash of football teams and the clash of rival beer company claims during the advertising breaks. But the clash of ideas was censored. CBS refused to permit the MoveOn.org Voter Fund to buy time during the game for a commercial criticizing the Bush deficit.