The bitter critique of Chuck Hagel and his nomination as secretary of defense by Senator John McCain has little to do with Benghazi or Israel and everything to do with Iraq, as Rachel Maddow points out in the preview to her MSNBC special tonight on how we got into Iraq almost ten years ago. Hagel, then in the Senate, had the nerve to oppose Bush’s “surge” in Iraq. Fellow Republicans McCain and Senator Lindsay Graham were the chief cheerleaders for it.
Perhaps you think you’ve read or heard it all. Hell, I even wrote my own book about it, So Wrong for So Long. But now Maddow is promising surprising revelations in her MSNBC special Hubris: Selling the Iraq War, tonight in her regular time slot.
It may be President’s Day, but it looks like she sure won’t be celebrating George W. Bush. Or the mainstream media. Here’s the preview with the McCain/Hagel rundown:
The special marks the opening of what will surely be a slew of tenth-anniversary programs and other media revisits. If you want to go back yourself now: Ten years ago last week Hans Blix made another fateful presentation [1] to the United Nations on his team’s search for WMD in Iraq. It was said to bolster both opponents and proponents of a US invasion, since he still found no evidence of such weapons but Saddam was still not cooperating fully with inspections.
Why does this all matter? Well, consider this major Washington Post piece [2] late last week on Iran allegedly boosting its nuclear program by pursuing certain…magnets. It never ends.
Here’s Rachel’s teaser for tonight’s show:
The doc is partly based on the book Hubris, by David Corn and Michael Isikoff, but reportedly goes beyond it. An NBC press release claims the documentary features “new and original interviews with members of the Bush administration, the CIA, members of Congress and other insiders who were part of the internal debate over the ultimately faulty-intelligence that led to the invasion of Iraq.”
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“Timed to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of the invasion, Hubris includes interviews with Douglas Feith, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy; Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, White House Counterterrorism Aide; Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense for Policy; Valerie Plame Wilson, Former CIA Officer; Michael Leiter, President’s Commission on Intelligence Regarding WMD; Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (Ret.), Chief of Staff to Colin Powell; Former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson; Sen. Tom Daschle (D), Senate Majority Leader 2001-2003; Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC); and Gen. Anthony Zinni (Ret.), Commander US Central Command among others.”
It will be interesting to see if she covers her colleagues, such as Chris Matthews, backing the war, and her network’s move to oust Phil Donahue partly for opposing it.
Here’s an excerpt featuring Lawrence Wilkerson:
More excerpts on the Yellowcake lies here [4] and on “Cheney’s Speech” here [5] and on “The Build-up” here [6] and on WMD not found [7].
PBS also has an allegedly hard-hitting series coming up, a Frontline [8]special on Newtown shooter Adam Lanza [8], Greg Mitchell writes.