Wow would I love our newsroom leaders to engage in this kind of critical self-reflection. For instance, here @ACLU's Romero regrets not calling for impeachment over torture. https://t.co/vQx6TiBRyI
See my column: https://t.co/ln0bVTIpdT— Dan Froomkin (PressWatchers.org) (@froomkin) September 14, 2021
Category: The Regime
Silver lining
At least they’re permitting them to go to school, which is a change.
Afghan women at university must study in female-only classrooms, Taliban say https://t.co/FEOSsdVEVq
— Suburban Guerrilla š (@SusieMadrak) September 12, 2021
Rewriting 9/11
Some gaping holes in Yer Librul Media’s 9/11 coverage. For one, they went right back into propaganda mode by repeating the lie that the reason for the attack was “they hate us for our values.” Bin Laden was always quite clear: We were attacked because of supporting Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, and our presence and support in other countries where Muslims were being oppressed. Doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker, but oh well.
Also, they completely erased the part played by then-Sen. Hillary Clinton in getting New York back on its feet and looking out for first responders. I guess I expected that.
But to allow the odious George W. Bush to make a nice speech and thus erase his administration’s bungling (and possible complicity) of the intelligence leading up to the attacks? Don’t take my word for it. Remember Richard Clarke? He was all over the teevee there for a few years, talking about he couldn’t even get the Bush people to hold a meeting about the imminent threat, and when they finally did?
At the firstĀ Deputies CommitteeĀ meeting on terrorism, held in April 2001, Clarke strongly suggested that the U.S. put pressure on both theĀ TalibanĀ and al-Qaeda by arming theĀ Northern AllianceĀ and other groups inĀ Afghanistan. Simultaneously, he said that the US should target bin Laden and his leadership by restoring flights of theĀ MQ-1 Predators. Deputy Secretary of DefenseĀ Paul Wolfowitz responded, “Well, I just don’t understand why we are beginning by talking about this one man bin Laden.” Clarke replied that he was talking about bin Laden and his network because it posed “an immediate and serious threat to the United States.” According to Clarke, Wolfowitz turned to him and said, “You give bin Laden too much credit. He could not do all these things like the 1993 attack on New York, not without a state sponsor. Just because the FBI and CIA have failed to find the linkages does not mean they don’t exist.”
And here at 15:12, Bruce Reidel, then-senior adviser on the Middle East for four administrations, describes the Bush administration’s stubborn refusal to deal with what all the intelligence described as an imminent threat.
He said there was clear information all summer warning that an attack inside the U.S. was imminent. “The CIA director went ‘door to door’ at the White House warning of an imminent attack. Unfortunately, the Bush administration didn’t do anything about it.
“There was great concern at the White House that an investigation of what had happened would find that the administration had bungled the job very, very badly. So they wanted very much to go on offense, and to take action.”
Remember the Project for the New American Century? We probably won’t know in our lifetimes whether this Bush & Cheney gang simply took advantage of their own catastrophic mistakes to impose their vision on the Middle East (unsuccessfully, I might add), or whether they were directly complicit. Incompetence is a form of complicity, right? And the results were the same.
We know know it was the Saudis all along, just as we Dirty Fucking Hippies always said:
The FBI has released the first of what are expected to be several documents from its investigation into whether agents of the Saudi Arabian government provided support to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror plot. https://t.co/eW7xHy2Pw1
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 12, 2021
Here’s what it all boils down to: Over a million Iraqis dead because the boys in the Bush administration wanted to remodel the Middle East.
https://twitter.com/ekoskaiphos/status/1437071935511220224
20 years later
The road to January 6, 2021 (and lower) starts on September 11, 2001. A national tragedy was a pivot point, as America's leaders manipulated fear for oil-soaked militarism abroad and xenophobia, repression at home
My new column on the true meaning of 9/11 https://t.co/xz5XQ0qgxl
— Will Bunch (@Will_Bunch) September 5, 2021
Maybe better to do this while it was actually happening?
Now that the war cheerleading is over and the NYT has driven down Biden’s approval rating, they slip this in:
The eight generals who commanded American forces in Afghanistan between 2008 and 2018 have gone on to serve on more than 20 corporate boards, according to a review of company disclosures and other releases. ā¦@isaacstanbeckerā© https://t.co/iyO4y1Em5y
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) September 5, 2021
I can believe this
But come on, they seriously thought we’d leave usable military equipment?
The Taliban is ādisappointedā that equipment left behind by U.S. forces is unusable
The mood reportedly turned quickly for Taliban fightershttps://t.co/bpQWRwgBc3
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) September 2, 2021
This contradicts the media narrative
You know, the one about the United States recklessly selling Americans out to the Taliban?
Taliban members escorted Americans to gates at Kabul airport in secret arrangement with UShttps://t.co/JrMDrlbAbe
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 31, 2021
Joe Biden is not taking your shit
He gave a fantastic speech yesterday on the end of the war:
https://twitter.com/stellaaaa/status/1432803604046381060
Bidenās compassion for and work to note the real human costs to our soldiers is a note that many lefty pundits may minimize and Fox will try desperately to denigrateā¦ but itās the heart of why that speech was brilliant.
— NYC Weboy (aka Wesley) (@nycweboy) August 31, 2021
Pres Biden faced fierce criticism over the last few weeks over his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan & the way in which he did it. He is pushing back hard on that criticism & pointedly defending his choice not to continue the two-decade war w/ another generation of troops.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) August 31, 2021
The power is out in New Orleans, COVID is killing a thousand Americans a day, and Lake Tahoe is being licked by fire. https://t.co/kkIPwdW6zO
— Greg Greene (@ggreeneva) August 31, 2021
The foreign policy consensus loves military adventurism. The American people do not. And Joe Biden knows who he works for.
Great speech, Mr. President. https://t.co/Dhtqs1g08u
— Chris Murphy š§ (@ChrisMurphyCT) August 31, 2021
War junkies. https://t.co/HV6XzHeCRp
— watertigernyc š» watertigernyc@spoutible.com (@watertigernyc) August 31, 2021
https://twitter.com/AmandaMarcotte/status/1432747425836507137
The end of the Forever War
NEWS: The US war in Afghanistan is over.
"I'm here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan," says Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of US Central Command. "…the end of the nearly 20-year mission that began in Afghanistan shortly after September 11, 2001." pic.twitter.com/fSxJptsbut
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) August 30, 2021
.@RichardEngelĀ continues, calling Afghanistan withdrawal "worst capitulation of western values in our lifetimes" pic.twitter.com/g0M7CDrVRF
— Kyle Drennen (@kjdrennen) August 30, 2021
The US political press's utterly hysterical, contextless, bloodthirsty blitz of negative coverage of Biden's Afghanistan pullout has managed to drive his approval rating down, which the press will then use to justify its negative coverage. Just a disgusting performance.
— David Roberts (@drvolts) August 30, 2021
Just read this
The American military has earned more than some ill-considered blathering from retired brass hats in the peanut gallery. https://t.co/RZTRfItVjp
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) August 26, 2021