This Kevin Sites Hotzone is a good article talking about how our guvmnt (and how well that fits, with the current administration -- no need for intelligence, honesty, dignity, just gotta be one of da boys).
Mr Rushing brings out - our Secretary of Defense Lies and takes no account of winning the hearts and minds:
RUSHING: When (former Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld would go out in the press and say they show beheadings, I'm not sure if he was misinformed or he was lying.
SITES: Was it an outright lie?
RUSHING: It's not for me to say. It's hard to believe he could be so misinformed for such a long period of time because he did it over and over and over again. He did it after I informed some of his senior aides that that wasn't the case — and that every time he said that in the press and they played that clip in the Arab press, that not only did he lose credibility, because everyone in the Arab world who watches Al Jazeera all the time and they all do, they know they've never seen a beheading on Al Jazeera.
more....
and this quote shows how it wasn't about "Saving the Iraqi's" at all...
RUSHING: And you have to ask yourself, they should have been saying long before they were planning where the bombs, the shock and awe would fall, someone should have been saying, "Who's got Al Jazeera? Who's gonna be our point guy with the Arab media?" But no one did. There was a complete lack of strategic foresight.
So again we're back to I've got to win Daddy's fight or shit, we need their oil or both. No planning,but really how do you start a war on your own timetable and then say you go to war with the army you have, not the one you want..
Why if we want to build up the democracy, do we ignore or degrade one of democracy's greatest pillars, a free press? I think that is one of the key questions here.
It's not about democracy, its about the rawest, sneakiest, dirtiest type of capitalism, where Bush's families interests are placed at the center piece of a hidden agenda behind a facade of "Democracy for the East" message. Michael Moore had it right (mostly), and now Bush and cronies are going to leave the Democrats a broken shell of America, both domestically with the DOJ mess, and externally with a totally broken reputation, portrayed as a vicious bully that may have bitten off more than it can chew.