Bill Moyers’ ‘Buying the War’
“Buying the War,” a Bill Moyers PBS documentary that aired in most TV markets on Wednesday night, is a powerful bookend to The Big War Story the Media Is Ignoring, my essay on how the mainstream media was shocked, awed and duped in the wake of 9/11 and the run-up to the Iraq War.
Moyers begins:
Four years ago this spring the Bush administration took leave of reality and plunged our country into a war so poorly planned it soon turned into a disaster. The story of how high officials misled the country has been told. But they couldn’t have done it on their own; they needed a compliant press, to pass on their propaganda as news and cheer them on.
Since then thousands of people have died, and many are dying to this day. Yet the story of how the media bought what the White House was selling has not been told in depth on television. As the war rages into its fifth year, we look back at those months leading up to the invasion, when our press largely surrendered its independence and skepticism to join with our government in marching to war.”
“Buying the War” will be rerun, but if you can’t wait, click here for a transcript.
61 Responses to “Bill Moyers’ ‘Buying the War’”
It was a very moving documentary indeed. And it was telling which talking heads refused to be interviewed for it. (are you hearing me Chuckie?)
I heard him speak on NPR and just got annoyed.
I give Bush a lot of credit. He has been steadfast and resolute. This whole thing is painful to watch. Let’s be clear – Americans don’t have a very good record in terms of results when actually getting what they have asked for. Remember health care? Most Americans resented the system as it was and wanted change. Now all I hear from people is how much better it was before. As for Iraq, when gasoline prices end up at 7 or 8 bucks a gallon after a Middle East meltdown after a troop pull-out, Americans will blame everyone but themselves. The problem in this country is that many Americans are not only short-sighted, but have short memories as well.
I saw the show and was reminded by what a large percentage of our 4th estate did a poor job of scrutinizing information and collaborating with the Administration. It makes me respect even more the few who had the courage to vote and write against the war.
It’s a very compelling documentary. It focuses on how the war was ‘sold’ with the complicity of the sheep in the media. It wasn’t hard to do, considering our post 9/11 traumatized mentality.
It struck me that there were all along media voices urging caution, but they were either ignored or fired.
Brian, healthcare has never been changed. It has been slightly manipulated. Actually nothing has been done at all to address the lack of affordable healthcare in this country. Just a little boost for the old people.
When gas prices hit 7 bucks a gallon, it will then be the same price as in Europe. We can use mass transit more. We are going to have to anyway because of global warming.
Finally, Bush is not steadfast and resolute, he is a block head neocon who’s playing politics has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, without any accomplishment worth mentioning.
Folks why do these neocon fools keep spreading gobbltey-gook nonsense without a shred of truth? Its like they have been injected with, “repeat this crap over and over”, like some body snatcher cloned them. Its friggen irritating.
[Mantra: Why do you republicans oppose national healthcare?
Neocon: Band-Aids can work for tricycles, but the cost of roofing shingles is to high. We decided to use a four iron instead of seatbelt.]
Its just crazy rambling!
Recall that no government — including, notably, the French, Egyptian and Jordanian governments — disputed Bush’s assertion that Saddam had WMD. The run-up to the war — specifically, the media’s role — would have been no different if WMD had been found in Iraq. What would Moyers now be saying about the media if WMD had been found?
I suspect that low-income Americans would be a bit more concerned about $7/gal. gasoline than White Agent appears to be. Not to mention that a near-instantaneous doubling of the the price of gasoline (and heating oil) would, judged by what happened in 1973-74 and 1979-80, result in inflation, recession, and unemployment, all of which would hit the people who can least afford it the hardest.
So I wouldn’t be so cavalier about 7 bucks a gallon gasoline.
Every act, bill, agency, office, position, war, promise or threat – that is the result of our government’s “official� story of the events on Sept 11, 2001 – must be stopped, unraveled, amended, cancelled, closed, broken and rescinded – immediately.
They, every one, are based on lies.
Impeach Cheney. Impeach Bush, Rice. Imprison Powell. Imprison Wolfowitz, Silverstein, Rumsfeld, all of them. Remove all of them. There has been a Coup’deta and the American People deserve better.
America knows that the world trade center complex was fixed to be demolished on that day. America knows that Cheney gave the ‘stand-down’ order.
There is much to be Undone.
I don’t know. Because they weren’t found.
Is there an actual critique of the show there or are we just playing what if games?
My favorite, what if Ceaser had had a Cessna 172RG?
Marc Schulman- Not a matter of being “Cavalier”. matter of fact.
As well, the American people will not continue a war when the only basis is gasoline prices. If I were you, I wouldn’t be so “Cavalier” about American warmongering. Those people are a distinct minority.
Is Ramsey Clark featured on Moyers’s show? How about International ANSWER?
> What would Moyers now
> be saying about the media
> if WMD had been found?
“They failed to ascribe proper blame to the evil Reagan and Bush administrations for their support not only of Iraq but of all Iraq’s WMD programs…”
The extreme left actually goes beyond the routine whining that the media aren’t abusive enough toward anyone in office who’s not a liberal Democrat. They try to claim that the overwhelmingly liberal journalists and their products in the media are conservative. (“Corporate right-wing media” [sic]). That includes FAIR, whose name is a lie.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=5
Something that has happened yet is a “fact”?
Oops — should have been
Something that hasn’t happened yet is a “factâ€??
Marc Schulman 12:30 pm- Irrelevant. We created the evidence. What fool would create “disputable evidence? Yet all those nations steadfastly warned AGAINST invasion!
No, other than WND’s the was NO REASON to invade. Again that is why the false “evidence” was created!
Removing Saddam was not an immeadiate issue without WMDs, and you know it.
Marc S-
Your analysis of economics seems to imply that we should invade countries to keep un our standard of living. That’s a moral bridge I won’t cross, thank you.
Even if all other countries believed the faulty intelligence, Powell’s presentation at the UN, was an act of ‘selling’ in spite of deep personal doubts.
How about a little truth telling for a change? ‘I believe;, instead of ‘I know’, would be a great start.
Marc Schulman 12:53 pm- YOU mentioned 1973-74….I didn’t YOU made it fact. Besides I lived that time and it was barely felt. More media hyp than anything else. Gas shortages was very short lived.
> Recall that no government
> — including, notably, the
> French, Egyptian and
> Jordanian governments —
> disputed Bush’s assertion
> that Saddam had WMD.
He had had them, he had used them. He continued playing games with everyone about his WMD activities.
Nearly everyone on the planet believed he had them.
> Removing Saddam was not
> an immeadiate issue without
> WMDs, and you know it.
It wasn’t an immediate issue with WMDs, and there were other reasons for removing him, such as his also-proven track record of not only threatening, but attacking his neighbors. No sane people want the oil held hostage or seized and used for illicit activities (same as the US’s if you believe the moral relativists, but nobody sane believes them).
White Agent –
In 1973, I was 27 — old enough to have spent many hours in gasoline lines, and to personally experience the severe recession (the worst since the 1930s) that began in the fall of 1974. If you remember all of this as media hype, you must have been living in an alternative universe.
Marc Schulman said:
> old enough to have
> spent many hours in
> gasoline lines, and to
> personally experience
> the severe recession
And did the USA seize the oil fields? Or is that a grand media cover-up or collaboration, too?
When gas goes to 7 or 8 dollars a gallon, Americans will buy hybrids, or turn to alternative fuel sources. I think its a fallacy that keeping a toehold in the ME is actually in our national interest. We knew the energy crisis was coming 30 years ago when Jimmy Carter lectured us on conservation in his cardigan sweater. He was right – we need conservation , investment in new technology and higher CAFE standards. Energy independence will make us a lot safer than the neocon pipedream of democratizing the ME!
Has it occurred to those who still think it will work that Islam as a religion does not lend itself to the democratic ideals of tolerance, equality and God-given rights? They don’t read Locke and Rousseau, you know.
Anyway, I didn’t see Moyer’s documentary, but read that it was excellent. And we should learn from it that our politicians empowered themselves by manipulating our media and our own patriotic fervor after 9/11. There are real limits to what can be achieved in the world by force. We should concentrate on defending ourselves from terrorism, and try for damage control in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Look with a clear eye at what the consequences of such a foolish, hubristic choice have cost us in American lives, world opinion, billions of dollars and state of readiness of our military. Even worse are the consequences to the Iraqis who never asked for any of this. I will never have the same faith in our leaders again. What possible victory can come from this debacle?
All of this does not matter.
the Democrats have surrendered. The war is over. They are drafting the papers now for Bush to sign.
Not just the battle. The war. It does not matter what we say.
We are only fear mongering if we say that pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan will turn the middle east into chaos and raise oil to 150 bucks a bbl if we can even get any.
All Hail Harry Reid. The Surrender is imminent. The Antiwar has won.
The problem with Moyers, and I’ve met the man, is that he is an obsequious, sniveling, none too bright PC idiot- i.e.- the exact opposite of Bush, therefore the perfect stereotype of wimpy liberalism that the Right Wing dregs like Cheney can trot out as anathema to a large portion of the nation. So, no matter what he says, a large portion of the public will turn off, and disagree out of principle, even when he occasionally stumble son the truth.
I’m glad he left now cuz that young kid who replaced him at least has a modicum of respectability outside of the Far Left
Nobody- Quit pretending that the Democrats lost the war- George Bush , Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld lost the war, a war that we never should have entered into. They understood almost nothing about the Iraqis before going in – how could they hope to make the country a Democracy? Its just nuts. Look at all of the military experts who have written about how they mismanaged the war. The mistakes they made after the invasion lost the war- the Democrats just want to get us out of a no-win situation.
K. Ritter wrote:
> Quit pretending that the
> Democrats lost the war-
Well, they’re surrendering now. *grin*
> George Bush , Dick Cheney
> and Don Rumsfeld lost the
> war
Specifically, we won the war, but winning Iraq has been tougher (winning “the peace,” winning the occupation and seeking Iraqi reconstruction — remember that? — and future development of that nation along with its pacification and security from its meddling neighbors).
Here, the Democrats are deliberately undermining the authority of the President (and the Defense Department) in an open political insult.
Given the dissatisfaction shown by the voters in 2006 I am willing to bet that a number of Republicans would support a withdrawal eventually, but this is merely a political slap just as the Dems’ “shadow State Department” visit to the Syria was, another deliberate undermining of the President (and the State Department) and another insult directed at Bush.
Bush will veto. Will the veto be overridden?
Holly said:
> I heard him speak on NPR
> and just got annoyed.
It’s your tax dollars at work.
I wonder if this show got any airplay on CounterSpin [sic] by FAIR [sic], or if it’s on the other far-left talk shows, or on the news-commentary show Democracy [sic; leftist-socialist model] Now. (The news portion at the start of Democracy Now, with lots of negative news about the USA, is always entertaining.)
[Chomsky, *snicker* Where's Saraaj's role model, champagne socialist Ahrundati Roy, lately?]
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=5
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/23/1358250
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=ROY20050628&articleId=540
[Note the Commie use of exclamation marks in demanding extradition of Carriles to the Commie government of Cuba]
http://answer.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANS_homepage
Nobody-That’s true the invasion was successful, but they proved that they didn’t believe in nation-building by putting a well-connected ideologue- Paul Bremer, who knew nothing about Iraq and didn’t care to learn , in to replace Jay Garner who did know and care. Then they refused to acknowledge the fact that the jobless angry ex-Baathists were forming an insurgency and using untouched weapons caches to make IED’s. Instead of admitting that’s what the problem was, they blamed the whole thing on the bombing of the Samara mosque.
The Democrats are forcing Bush to be accountable to what he promised when he announced the surge. That’s what the voters want, Nobody- Only 22% think he’s handling Iraq well, and only 11% think the surge is working. Petraeus is making a valiant attempt to do something that probably should have been done at the beginning- but Bush has been years behind the curve. He hung onto Rumsfeld too long- and is trying to pawn the consequences of all of these bad decisions off on the Democrats.
They want the funding tied to benchmarks of the Iraqi government’s progress . Because whether they succeed depends on that, not Petraeus.
Cosmoetica:
Thank you for revealing your mean spirited side. I knew it was lurking just beneath the surface.
I too meet Moyers. Thrice, in fact. But I did not spend hours or days with him as you surely did since you have rendered such a harsh judgement, and I am sure that someone of your horsepower would not diss a person after a mere passing encounter.
I myself applaude Moyers because he brings to the town square issues that few others do. In this instance, it is the abject failure of the mainstream media. If I’m lucky, a few thousand people read my take on that. Moyers draws millions, and that is a damned good thing.
I like Moyers also, Shaun. He doesn’t flaunt his liberal views at you like a Franken or a Rosie would. He quietly educates his audience. I don’t see in the comments anyone who watched the show, and is disputing the facts in it. Read some of the transcript and then comment.
No, Shaun. I listened to the man preen on for hours about literature and poetry- subjects he knows as little about as almost all the subjects he tackles. Simply put, one shd not preach on Scripture one knows nothing of- Moyers’ cardinal sin.
If you ever listened to his bootlicking interviews w hollow charlatans as Maya Angelou, Joseph Campbell, or listened to his sub-Oprah level interviews with political leaders, than you cannot disagree with his being termed an ‘obsequious, sniveling, none too bright PC idiot.’
You see, if you are going to criticize someone like a Bush or Cheney for all their manifest flaws, you have to do the same with their ridiculous counterparts on the left. That is not mean-spiritedness, but Moderation- what this blog is about.
Moyers and his ilk are a sort of touch with reality as the Far Right. And for every person that listens to a Moyers, there are five who are so turned off by his obsequy and preachiness that he does more harm than good.
But, boys must have their heroes, Shaun.
Moyers is the sine qua non of the condescending PC Liberal Elitist who sneers at all people with different views. He’s as intolerant as the Right and just as arrogant, and unwilling to change, or admit error.
That, through his numerous TV appearances, some peopel cannot see this, shows that it is not the Right Wingers with blind spots for their heroes.
Shaun,
I agree with you completely, and it’s sad how some can’t even consider the role of the meida without wafting off in some never-never land of partisan fantasy.
The messenger is killed evey single day.
Not ONLY the Right Wingers….
Funny Kritter.
George Bush and company are still in Iraq trying to win the war but the Democrats in congress are begging for surrender.
You know what I see.
Remember in the first gulf war all those Iraqis crying and sobbing and waving their underwear to the passing American troops.
Yep….Thats our Democrats in Congress.
Doma:
One need not be a partisan to call a Moyers or a Bush looney. Just look at the objective evidence.
Only those at the extremes see all else as the other extreme. Those in the middle can discern the antipodes.
‘He doesn’t flaunt his liberal views at you like a Franken or a Rosie would. He quietly educates his audience.’
Kim, are you serious?
From the first sentence, ‘took leave of reality.’
I am against this war, but supported it at first, because of the WMD claim. While I think Bush lied about them, it could be he was simply incompetent- the old never ascribe evil where stupidity works axiom. Therefore, in the first sentence, Moyers chimes the Far Left banner.
I cannot stand Bush, but right from the get go, Moyers shows he has not a shred of objectivity nor credibility, and such language turns off moderates- less now than a few years ago, but he’s still a hrill obsequious littel wretch of a man- the kind who endlessly battle with their Right counterparts in allowing our country to fester, polarize, and stagnate. To deny this means being blinded by partisanship and dogma rather than objectively looking at the facts- as you point us to look at.
C’mon, you can loathe Bush, but the Moyers of the woerld only lend aid and comfort to those entenched on the other side.
To DLS and others:
Regarding whether or not Saddam had WMDs or that various key countries thought he might have at some point in time:
Do recall that inspections were underway in late 2002 / early 2003, and they were not having access problems. The international inspectors’ lack of finding WMDs was a harbinger for the lack of success that we later had finding WMDs.
The inspectors were kicked out before the invasion in such a way as to make it appear now that Cheney/Bush feared that they would eventually prove that there were no WMDs and remove that justification for invasion.
Add to that Colin Powell’s pathetic WMD pitch to the UN, the fake report about seeking uranium in Niger, the accounts from Paul O’Neill (Price of Loyalty) that invading Iraq came up at the beginning of the Bush term in 2001 way before 9/11, the account from Richard Clarke that they wanted it retaliate for 9/11 against Iraq as soon as on 9/11 or 9/12, and a sinister pattern emerges. They wanted Iraq really bad, whether for reasons of empire-building, the oil, avenging Daddy, or some or all of the above and more.
So let’s stop wasting time on the “was Cheney/Bush right” side trip and talk about the subject of the documentary – how the press somehow has become more transcriptionists than journalists.
K. Ritter said:
> Has it occurred to those
> who still think it will work
> that Islam as a religion
> does not lend itself to
> the democratic ideals of
> tolerance, equality and
> God-given rights? They
> don’t read Locke and
> Rousseau, you know.
Watch it, for you flirt with political incorrectness.
I will say that I burst out laughing on one of my road trips (900 miles) for in the middle of it I heard a left wing talk show host rant and demand to hear from us, Did we really expect to see Starbucks on every corner of Saudi Arabia eventually?
It was said:
> Americans would be a bit
> more concerned about
> $7/gal. gasoline than White
> Agent appears to be
The Western USA would be tempted to revolt.
(Most) leftists would be first and loudest to complain, and blame Big Oil even after taxes they sought on fuels were imposed.
> He doesn’t flaunt his liberal views
He doesn’t hesitate to express them.
> let’s stop wasting time on the “was
> Cheney/Bush right� side trip and talk
> about the subject of the documentary
> – how the press somehow has become
> more transcriptionists than journalists.
Simply because it, along with other liberal institutions and liberal Americans, agreed with a Republican President? (And does the press get extra demerits for displaying US flag lapel pins on television?)
Well, we already how how “heretical” Fox is being treated for its failure to follow Standard Liberal Operating Procedures…
cosmoetica- WHOA!
[While I think Bush lied about them, it could be he was simply incompetent]
Presidents lieing to start a war is not incompetence, ITS CRAZY!
I don’t know what you have against Bill Moyers, but he has a much better grasp of this situation than you do.
Marc Schulman- I don’t know where you lived in 73′, but in SO CAL at the time I never had a serious problem getting gas. It lasted what, two weeks with a couple really bad days if you needed gas those days?
Recession? Somehow I never noticed the recession. It was in the news, but it affected nobody I knew.
I just don’t think $7 gas would do anything except make SUVs and other big engine cars obsolete. I think it would be good for America to get such a shock. Be a real good reason to invest more into mass transit, and alternative energy.
Faced with war or $7 gas, Americans will pick $7 gas. Anyone thats says otherwise is either nuts or a republican, IMO.
WA-
‘[While I think Bush lied about them, it could be he was simply incompetent]
Presidents lieing to start a war is not incompetence, ITS CRAZY!’
If the second sentence it’s true you are correct. But, I stated the first sentence, which leaves open the real possibility that Bush is a moron, yet not an evil provocateur of war. That you or Moyers do not get such fine points is my point.
But, you are not so big a problem as you are an anonymous commenter whom a few dozen wil read, and misread, as you have my words. Moyers is on a national stage, watche dby millions, and disseminating more of the bilious partisan rhetoric that folk like you decry in Bushco. But bile is bile- be it Left or Right.
I grasp that plainly, far more than you or Moyers, apparently; and having watched and read Moyers’ tracts, he does not comprehend much else any better.
To call a spade a spade- even if a Left spade, is simply fair, esp. if you are gonna call Bush a spade- or liar!
So, Shaun, are you too afloat in refried 60s hippyism to call this bilious spade what he is, or do you still want to play the partisan pointles games you decry in others?
And Kim- are you willing to retract your blatantly partisan claim that, ‘he doesn’t flaunt his liberal views at you,’ when the first sentence of the transcipt abnegates your claim?
If not, then you are worse than strawmanning when you call others out on their blind support for Bush. Same goes for Shaun.
You simply cannot ignore the ill your side does and rail when the other side does it, and then rail at those on the other side who refuse to decry Bushco. To be fair, you cannot stand behind such folk as a Moyers- or a Maher, or a Franken, and rail about the bilge on the Right.
If you do, listen to Pogo: ‘We have met the enemy and he is us!’
White Agent:
My experience has been that when liberals such as you resort to visceral and emotional comments like your response to my post, the post was probably pretty close to the truth. Thanks for validating me. You are all too typical. You think that all these Hummers, Beamers and SUVs here in America are equivalent to the gas conscious cars (not to mention bicycles) that are used in Europe and other countries? It’s all about what standard of living we are willing to accept. You can go ahead and ride your bike to work. I’ll stick with my Honda Civic.
Regarding health care, to think that the monumental shift from quality patient care to profiteering by HMOs is insignificant and merely a “tweak” is an opinion from Jupiter. Keep on living in your bubble. Just don’t make me live in it with you.
White Agent:
Oh, you’re from Souther California. That explains EVERYTHING you have been saying!
Cosmoetica- I may have not written it as I was feeling it- I know he doesn’t hide the fact that he’s a liberal- I meant that his style is more eloquent than Rosie and Franken who are bombastic and offensive. Its a question of style. Even when I agree with them in substance, they are so offensive to me that I turn them off. Moyers, on the other hand, draws me in- I didn’t mean to indicate that he has no liberal bias, jurt that his presentation of his views is more scholarly, and I’m attracted to that.
DLS- We have seen how the press hasn’t asked the hard questions, especially after 9/11. Most are patriots like everyone else, and the national mood didn’t call for questioning. Now we look back on it (at least some of us do) and ask why the press seemed to buy whatever the WH was selling without any skepticism. We saw it in Judith Miller’s WMD reporting. And investigative reporting is sadly on the wane. I find out more on the internet, from bloggers who put 2+2 together, than from WaPo or the NYT’s.
The thing is if you support the President and the war, you probably think that they only report the bombings, and that they should never have written about the secret prisons in Eastern Europe. A lot of people emotionally called for prosecuting reporters, which I believe would destroy the 4th estate.
DLS Stop drinking the coffee and take a couple of Valiums. On the WMD what happened with the aluminum tubes, mobile labs and unmanned drones that threatened the ME and Europe? Are Colin Powell and his adviser still in the Bush camp? The press and even Shawn were supporters of the war run up. It isn’t like the Democrats said Bosnia was “wag the dog”.