Chris Matthews: Not An Iraq War Critic

While watching Bill Maher last week, I caught a blatant attempt by Chris Matthews to cast himself as a principled opponent of the War. Matthews' anger at Fusion TV's Jorge Ramos is palpable and shocking if you didn't know how mixed up inside Matthews must be in order to depict himself as having opposed the Iraq War.

Perhaps most famously, when Bush claimed “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq, Matthews went into full on fan-boy mode, claiming Americans loved having a President who had “a little swagger”, that regardless of whether he had actually flown, he looked like a fighter pilot, and that women loved him. This sort of cheerleading had a great effect on selling the White House's narrative of a War for Good and a Mission Ordained by God. It kept people in the dark about the horrors of the war and about Iraqi resistance to US forces. The fact that this was all done on the supposedly liberal-leaning MSNBC makes Matthews' misleading warmongering all the more heinous. Matthews gave cover to Bush on his left flank and planted seeds of doubt among moderates and liberals. Matthews' attempt to be “balanced” overlooked the fact that airbrushing over a politician's weak points is like leaving a movie halfway through and claiming that you know what happened.

Throughout Bush's regime Matthews continued to speak warmly of Bush. In 2006, he said that there might not be an alternative to George Bush's warmongering. He In 2005, Matthews praised a speech by Bush, calling it “brilliant” on two occasions and terming critics of the speech “carpers”. Also in 2005 Matthews tried to cow critics of the President by claiming that if elections in Iraq went successfully, Bush deserved a place on Mt. Rushmore. In 2007, he gushed over Bush's foreign policy even while the country continued to turn more against a war that was widely hated by Americans at that time.

Matthews cynical support for the ouster of Phil Donahue comports with the actions of someone who didn't want to seem opposed to the War in Iraq. His actions show him to be an opportunist and someone more concerned with his own job security than in taking a principled stand on the most important US foreign policy issue since Vietnam.

At least Rand Paul is honest

Rand Paul is saying some crazy shit at the moment and I certainly don't agree with his opinions. I think that should be nearly self-evident-but what I do appreciate is his honesty. His ideology is SO insane that I think it might make for a teachable moment about the completely unsustainable model of the supposed conservative world view. It's not really conservative. These guys are enamored of too much power invested in a president-as they themselves have said, they are fans of a strong executive branch (the strong Unitary Executive theory) and I'd argue that some of them veer toward Fascist, but we are seeing what happens when there is no regulation. We have the BP oil spill, we have an SEC in which the watchdogs are watching porn instead of the financial industry, we have astronomically expensive wars. And yet even Rand Paul, this supposed laissez-faire Tea Bagger, isn't so loyal to his ideology when it comes to ensuring the money stream keeps flowing into his medical practice. He's a doctor and although he's fervently anti-government, when it comes to ensuring that he doesn't lose any of his precious income, he's a bleeding heart liberal. So again, can so-called conservatives ever be intellectually honest? If they would, well, perhaps we could evolve....but no, I guess there are too many political points to be made.

Perhaps a few people will think about the insanity of his beliefs and realize that government is not all that bad. Yeah, sometimes government makes poor decisions, but who would you rather have leading you? The esteemed Senator from BP? Yeah, they're geniuses. The honorable gentleman from Halliburton? I'm sure they'd NEVER lie to you. The distinguished representative from Goldman Sachs? Just don't let your wallet out of your sight. When I ask my supposedly-conservative friends this, they have no answer. They hem and haw and it's obvious they don't want to have that discussion. This is why the world is in trouble.

Some might say Rand Paul might have exposed himself as a lunatic, but to me, it's really not that surprising. He's just a more honest Teabagger. Rand Paul is not the exception to the rule, he is just a more candid expression of it.

Sean Hannity has some nerve

Well, I'll give him that. In spite of the two million internally displaced people in Iraq, in spite of over a million Iraqi deaths, in spite of the looting of some of the world's most important historic relics, in spite of the prohibition of the exclusion from Iraq government jobs of Ba'ath party members, in spite of a unilateral disbanding of the Iraqi army, Sean Hannity thinks that Iraq should be grateful to the point that they should re-pay the US for their "liberation." If that's liberation, I think I want to be in solitary in the hole for the rest of my life.

Obama legitimates Bush

Obama's speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize was another step in President Obama diminishing the space between himself and President George W. Bush. While he campaigned as a reformer, his promises, particularly on foreign policy, were so vague as to be meaningless. Hence these actions are not particularly surprising. However they are nonetheless disappointing as he confirms my worst suspicions about the course of his presidency. President Obama said in his remarks accepting the Nobel Peace Prize that America has underwritten security for the world over the past 60 years. I guess the President forgot to ask Mohammed Mossadeq, Guatemala, Vietnam, Grenada, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, and Iraq, among others. President Obama also claims waging war is a means of securing future peace. So eight years in Afghanistan isn't long enough to secure peace in Afghanistan so perhaps 35 years will be enough? Would one more death in Iraq secure greater security there? No. Is there a compelling national interest for continued US presence and troops in Afghanistan? No. Is the US presence there ensuring further, understandable antagonism toward the US in the future? Yes. I never believed Obama was an agent of change because he was Wall Street's favorite son. Until there is campaign finance reform, none of this will change.

C-SPAN 3 hearing on Blackwater

Wow, in these partisan times, I love the relations among the House Oversight Committee members. It's just wonderful the passive-agressive snipping between committee members. When one representative was simply asking the CEO of Blackwater, about the number of accidents involving Blackwater employees and Prince noted that the company had lost three helicopters in Iraq in the past year, professional civic idiot Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Moronia) interposed, outside of the Roberts' rules of orders-just straight interrupted and said.....I swear I heard this.......did this committee investigate the helicopter crash of (former Clinton Commerce Secretary) Ron Brown. Rep. Waxman and Rep. Davis, the chairs and minority standing members both said they weren't on the committee at that time. Really, Issa is such a douche. He, Dan Burton (R-Idiotiana-he's from Indiana but I have nothing particularly against Hoosiers), Tom Mica (R-FL) just want to give this guy's balls a little tickle. They all noted that Blackwater had not allowed any Congresspeople to be injured. Is this the indication of the fitness of Blackwater's work? Dan Burton also just attempted to offer Prince the floor (when he didn't have the floor) to answer a claim that was not an opinion and which was made at the end of one of the Representatives' period for questioning witnesses and in which there was no more time for questions to be addressed. Of course, the reason for Burton's defensiveness is that these are inconvenient facts (as most are) for neo-cons. It's unbelievable how intellectually dishonest these guys are. They had (and still have, in some ways, because of the spinelessness of too many Dems) their way in pushing undemocratic, unaccountable, unresponsive government, for several years after 9/11/01, but when the tables are turned, they attempt to minimize the validity of opposing points of view. And Chris Shays just seems bonkers. He was very brusque with Prince even though his questions weren't particularly harsh. He really is a sick dog. Who knows WHAT goes on behind closed doors with him.

To be honest, Prince seems like an OK guy-at least he's somewhat decent. Given the lawlessness of his company, he seems pretty forthcoming. He might be a nice guy. Again, that is not reason to win a billion dollars in contracts. He's obviously a hard-core neo-con judging by his financial contributions to the Republican party, but the problem is really bigger than whether Blackwater is running amok in Iraq. What we really need is testimony of the State Dept. about the accountability of Blackwater and whether they are accountable to the Dept. of Defense. And unfortunately they are not accountable to the Dept. of Defense, but to the Dept. of State. It is this crossing of wires in the accountability of US personnel is the unaccountable space in which Blackwater and others like them can act so blithely.

Humorous quote of the last 20 minutes: Prinz says: "I think my financial folks will tell you I'm not a financially-driven guy." Yeah, that's why he just said earlier today that he made more than one million dollars in '06 while David Petraeus, the man in charge of US forces in Iraq, made at least six times less. Also in the previous link, Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus notes that in arranging a contract with Regency Hotel for hospital security, Blackwater charged Regency on average $1100 per day per person while their average employee made $600 a day. So you do the math. There are $500 per day per person profits on a 34 person contract negotiated for a year for a contract back in 2004 which is going straight into Blackwater's pocket. And the average pay for a soldier in Iraq? Glad you asked. Also from Pincus' article, an unmarried sergeant makes about $83 a day and a married sergeant, around $170. Something smell bad to you too?

(More has been written about this disaster capitalism by Naomi Klein including excerpts here, and the seminal book on Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill).