In the two-year run-up to the Iraq invasion, President Bush and his team made some 935 false statements about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and ties to al-Qaida, according to a new study by the Center for Public Integrity, which says it was part of an “orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.â€
Bush led the pack with 259 false statements, 231 about WMDs in Iraq and 28 about Iraq’s alleged links to al-Qaida — claims that have since been debunked.
The White House has contended that it was simply following the accepted intelligence, but the study points to many Bush team claims that flew in the face of CIA and other intelligence assessments at the time.
Equally damning is the complicity of the national media, which the study found was “far too uncritical and deferential,†passing along and in effect amplifying the administration’s misleading claims to an “almost impenetrable din†in the months leading up to the war.
From candidates of both parties, the nation now deserves a discussion of how this nation got itself into the Iraq war and the lessons learned.
Of the five movies nominated for best picture Oscars, I very much liked the two I’ve seen: “No Country for Old Men†and “Atonement.â€
“No Country,†the Coen brothers’ faithful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s gritty, bleak novel, also garnered a well-deserved best supporting actor nomination for Javier Bardem (in photo), who plays one of the most chilling psychopathic villains ever to hit the big screen. (The coin-flip scene with the gas station attendant is a classic.) Even his haircut is creepy.
I was surprised that “Into the Wild†didn’t get more attention. I expected a best director nomination for Sean Penn, whose direction was poised, skillful, even inspired.
At any rate, it’s good to see the terrific actor Hal Holbrook, age 82, get his first Oscar nomination for his supporting role in “Into the Wild.†Hope he wins, but I also thought Casey Affleck’s supporting performance in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford†was Oscar-worthy.
And I can’t wait to see Daniel Day-Lewis as the oil tycoon in “There Will Be Blood,†in a performance many are calling awe-inspiring. (But couldn’t they have picked a better title?)
All in all, not a bad year for movies.
Also, sad to hear about the death of actor Heath Ledger, who earned a best actor nomination in 2005 for “Brokeback Mountain.â€
Barack Obama recently was endorsed by some Senate Democratic colleagues — including John Kerry of Massachusetts, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Ben Nelson of Nebraska — leaving some to wonder why they prefer him to Hillary Clinton. In a meeting with the Kansas City Star’s editorial board, Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback offered an explanation: that Obama is talented and “easier to work with†than Clinton. The Star’s Steve Kraske reported: “Hillary Clinton has been in the fight so long that ‘there’s a hardness’ there, Brownback said. Given her national stature, Clinton’s tougher to get in touch with. Obama, he added, ‘wouldn’t unite Republicans as much’ as Clinton.â€
The Kansas Board of Regents may not be ready to cap costs at state campuses, but it’s right to be talking about when enough is enough. The issue could come up at the meetings Feb. 13-14, in advance of the board’s traditional late spring approval of tuition hikes for the fall. Tuition and fees have more than doubled at the University of Kansas and Kansas State University since 2002, though other institutions have seen smaller increases. Meanwhile, the state’s share of support for university operations has been shrinking. “It’s a tax on kids,†said Jill Docking, the Wichita member of the board. And those kids who can’t pay it either must load up on student-loan debt or pass on college.
Among the strangest dynamics in the historic Democratic presidential contest is this, as articulated by the Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan on NBC’s “Meet the Pressâ€: Hillary Clinton is “running for head of the United States, chief executive officer. And she has to send her husband out to yell at the neighbors? . . . There’s something strange, jarring, unbecoming and even unfeminist about it.â€
In the two-year run-up to the Iraq invasion, President Bush and his team made some 935 false statements about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and ties to al-Qaida, according to a new study by the Center for Public Integrity, which says it was part of an “orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.â€
