[Marxism] Democrats lie to prolong war

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/13/3806/
The War Party: Democrats Lie to Prolong Iraq; Reporters Go Along
by Ted Rall

Americans don’t know how their government works. Democrats, in control 
of Congress, are taking advantage of our ignorance to continue the Iraq 
War. Which brings up two questions: Why won’t the “antiwar” Democrats 
act to stop the carnage? And why aren’t reporters calling them on it?”

Democrats,” writes Charles Babington in an Associated Press item that 
appeared in hundreds of newspapers, “control both chambers [of Congress] 
but lack the numbers to override President Bush’s vetoes of bids to 
mandate troop withdrawals from Iraq.” It’s a half-truth at best: the 
Democrats’ narrow majority is less than the two-thirds majority they’d 
need to override a presidential veto. Here’s the full truth: it doesn’t 
matter.

In June Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting’s Extra! Magazine wrote: “If 
the Democrat-controlled Congress wanted to force the Bush administration 
to accept a bill with a withdrawal timeline, it didn’t have to pass the 
bill over Bush’s veto–it just had to make clear that no Iraq War 
spending bill without a timeline would be forthcoming.”

Democratic leaders know that. And here’s how I know they know: days 
after taking control of Congress, on January 30, they invited five 
constitutional law experts to testify before the Senate Judiciary 
Committee to ask them how they could end the war. Four out of five of 
the experts swore that the Democrats could stop the Iraq War just…like…that.

“Today we’ve heard convincing testimony and analysis that Congress has 
the power to stop the war if it wants to,” said Senator Russ Feingold 
(D-WI). Yet eight months later, there’s still no end in sight.

The Dems won the 2006 elections with promises to end the war. Weeks 
after taking over Congress, however, Republicans spooked them with one 
of the most ludicrous talking points of all time. Cutting off the money, 
they said, would abandon U.S. soldiers at the front, their ammo 
dwindling as Al Qaeda insurgents swarmed over them. (Actually–the fact 
that I have to write this speaks to the American right’s intellectual 
dishonesty–the troops would go to the airport. They would board 
airplanes. They would fly home.)

Democrats worry that they’ll be portrayed as weak on defense if they act 
unilaterally to pull out of Iraq. Irony of ironies, they’re wussing out 
to avoid looking wimpy. Forcing Republicans to vote with them to end the 
war, they calculate, would give them political cover. Extra! continued: 
“Democrats may not have wanted to pay the supposed political costs of 
[cutting off funding], but news coverage should have made clear that 
this was a choice, not something forced on them by the lack of a 
veto-proof majority.”

Rather than set the record straight, the media continues to spread the 
Democrats-can’t-stop-the-Republican-war meme this week:

Michael Duffy, Time magazine: “If Democrats had more votes–particularly 
in the House–they might be able to force Bush to change course. But Bush 
will fight any resolution fencing him in with a veto that, as things 
stand now, the Democrats cannot override. But the President’s critics 
will continue to try, hoping to attract moderate Republicans who are 
fearful of losing their seats next year.” Occasionally Time invites me 
to its Christmas party. If I score an invite this year, my present for 
their fact-checkers will be a copy of the Constitution.

Marcella Bombardieri, The Boston Globe: “In the Senate, Democrats have 
only a 51 to 49 majority, far from the 60 votes needed to prevent a 
filibuster and the 67 needed to override a presidential veto. All 
efforts to force a troop withdrawal have failed, and the party will have 
to count on substantial Republican defections to make any further 
progress this fall.” I’ll be checking the Globe for a retraction.

Brian Knowlton, The New York Times: Knowlton dutifully quoted Democratic 
Senator Joe Biden’s claim that there were “political limits on his 
party, even with the Congressional majority it has held since the 
November midterm elections. ‘This is the president’s war,’ [Biden] said. 
‘Unless we get 67 votes to override his veto, there’s nothing we can do 
to stop this war…’” Not only did the Times fail to call Biden on his 
brazen lie, it gave him the last word.

You’d think the Democrats would want to end the Iraq War before their 
likely retaking of the White House, but that’s because you’re a human 
being, not a politician. Politicians are happy to dispatch hundreds of 
young American men and women to certain death (along with thousands of 
Iraqis), if the bloodshed squeezes out an extra half percentage point at 
the polls. Reid and Pelosi prefer to run against a disastrous ongoing 
Republican war than point to a fragile Democratic-brokered peace.

Why are so many respected journalists parroting the Democratic party 
line? I suspect that corporate media culture, rather than Judith 
Miller-style malfeasance, is largely to blame. Ink-stained newsrooms 
have been replaced by bullpen offices indistinguishable from those of 
banks or insurance companies. Reporters used to come from the working 
classes. They distrusted politicians and businessmen, and politicians 
and businessmen loathed them. Today’s journalists are products of 
cookie-cutter journalism schools. Because graduate schools rarely offer 
scholarships, few come from the lower or middle classes. They look like 
businessmen. When they meet a politician, they see a possible friend. 
They wear suits and ties. And when a U.S. senator like Joe Biden feeds 
them a line of crap, they gobble it up.

Ted Rall is the author of the new book “Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central 
Asia the New Middle East?,” an in-depth prose and graphic novel analysis 
of America’s next big foreign policy challenge.

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