Excellant piece, but i would take issue with one point regarding Countdown. As you might recall, MSNBC had the only show with a liberal host (Donahue) and pulled him when he wasnt playing the game and banging the war drum. If Olberman would have pulled the shit he is now (special comments attacking the pres and rummy) before he had built up a decent following, he would have been yanked too. He had to wait till he was MSNBC’s #1 show before he started really throwing haymakers.

Because Bush and the rest of that crew sent young men to die for something they believed in

Namely, becoming a “war President” so as to gain enough political capital that he’d be able to abolish Social Security. And by golly he still believes in it!

I am a phony.

taibbi’s piece is right-on. and his comparison to the end of the vietnam war is particularly astute. americans get in and out of wars with no real conviction. they go to war for no good reason and end wars with no profound change of heart or epiphany.
it’s particularly disheartening that all of those who fought in or against the vietnam war, have to see the same ill-informed, dishonest, lazy, murderous, amoral excuses for the horror of war, have their way with a bloated, dumbed-down media and apathetic public.

pretty much hit the nail on the head. He’s probably Canadian. Cause no offence to some of you Americans, but the rest of the world saw this war was unjust from the very beginning….

“Letterman’s subsequent reasoning — that seeing one death turn into dozens and then hundreds and thousands made him reconsider the whole thing — all that tells you is that this is a person who makes life-and-death decisions without considering the consequences.”

This is the paragraph that completely destroys this article as a thought provoking piece. Lettermen makes life-and-death decisions? Since when? Do people die during the Top Ten if it’s not funny?
This whole piece is both giving Letterman far too much credit as a political figure in a America and far too little credit as being a complex intelligent human being. As a long fan of Letterman I too felt annoyed at the beginning of the Iraq War that Dave seemed to be a supporter but to imply he changed his mind recently as part of a pop culture movement is just silly. Also if you go back and watch the last five years of Letterman you’ll find that he still booked guests from both sides of the political spectrum. Anti-Bush artist like Pearl Jam, Springsteen or the Dixie Chicks have always been welcome on Dave’s set wether it was 2000, 2003 or 2006.
Dave is also the one who once annoyed Alec Baldwin back in 2000 when he openly admitted he was voting for Nader.
The other main point missing from this article is that Dave is entertainment. It’s a comedy show, and not even a political one like the Daily Show. Have you seen “Will it Float?” Not exactly scathing political satire. Dave fighting with Bill O’Reilly was far more about entertainment than about politics. This is why Bill returned after they already went through this routine months ago.
The other statement missing from this piece is the fact that the whole argument began because Bill implied americans are gonna swing Democrat because they would prefer to watch “Dancing with the Stars” than be concerned with world issues.
Who’s the bigger idiot? Dave for once flip-flopping on “life-and-death decisions” or Bill for supporting those who make those descisions yet make them very badly.

I believe Bush is a war criminal. I don’t believe it’s a radical statement to say so. Letterman is unfunny at worst. To equate the 2, is absurd.

Wow…just wow. Hats off to you Matt.

“…the real responsibility for the Iraq war lay not with Bush but with the Lettermans, the Wolf Blitzers, the CNNs, The New York Timeses of the world.”

Taibbi, are you out of your fucking mind? Surely Letterman and the rest of your targets had a dumbass kneejerk response to the terrorist attacks- as did the whole of middle America. But the “real responsibility”? Don’t kid yourself- an Iraq invasion was decided upon by the Bush administration long before Letterman and the news media had a chance to utter a word.

Taibbi’s argument is less eye-opening revelation, more dogmatic “I told you so, you idiot” finger pointing that is very much akin to the styles of the right wing evil he bashes.

In my opinion, Public opinion would not have mattered with Iraq. The media and Bush’s own think tank did just enough to sell the justification, but anyone who was geniunely interested could have seen through the BS. Maybe the real killer is the subliminal American apathy hidden underneath beaming patriotism. Either that, or Left/Right wing fuckos who love to shout how right they were when they can press their advantage politically…yes, you Matt Taibbi.

You are a hypocrite.

Matt- Great article, except for the last paragraph. Don’t jump the gun. The elections haven’t happened yet.

The democrats are too confident. I have a feeling they’ll be eating humble pie on election day. When Karl Rove is satisfied with the numbers he’s seeing, there is cause to be concerned.

It’s one thing to win in popular opinion polls, which are conducted via random phone surveys, but it takes real effort and motivation to stand in line on election day. Most of us don’t give a damn about mid-term elections, but the republicans have a more reliable base. They’ll do just fine.

Taibbi is an idiot!!

Right on, Matt. It’s all about making money — the war, the reporting on the war, the talking heads pushing one agenda or another. Hell, Rolling Stone only publishes your stuff because it brings readers and keeps the ad revenue flowing in. That said, I think you are an important contrarian voice of outraged reason, and an impressive investigative reporter. Keep it coming!

I should say, Rolling Stone wouldn’t publish your stuff if it didn’t bring readers.

This piece has the same formula as something that dickhead O’Reilly himself would say. It has a few interesting kernels of “truth”, but mostly it’s a misguided rant that goes astray far before it ends. Taibbi apparently believes that Americans base their beliefs and lives on what a talk show host says. Also, he paints Letterman as a flag-waving-war-monger-turned- pacifist-hippie. Letterman’s very general statement that he felt something needed to be done holds true to this day. We needed to (and apparently still need to) find Bin Laden. Bush did have the majority of the country’s OK to go after him, not to go after Hussein and look for weapons that weren’t there. The Iraq war has been as futile and unwinnable as Vietnam since the get-go. It is not going to end well no matter what happens. It took them a while, but maybe Americans are finally realizing this. Better late than never? That’s goddam right. Why is Bush the better man for “sticking by his guns” and countinuing a war that everyone finally realizes can’t be won?

What Matt and every other jerk on the far left or right never really understands, is that the overwhelming majority of Americans sit exactly in the middle. They think of Matt and Rush and O’Reiley as one in the same – someone who is completely inflexible. If Matt and his companions on the left had done a better job of convincing the American people in 2004 of what they now see as facts, they wouldn’t have to throw mud at the very people they begged to vote for them in the first place.

Congrats, Matt. You’ve written a piece of propaganda so dimwitted, so ludicrous, as to make yourself and Rolling Stone seem just as idiotic, ignorant and inflammatory as to make your publication look just as stupid as Fox News.

Do you know anything about journalism? About citing sources?
I took part in the pre-war protests and remember months of coverage, at every level of media. Further, the NY Times and Washington Post did extensive coverage of claims that Bush’s pre-war intelligence was incorrect.

Letterman believed his President–we didn’t, because we’re educated, informed and cynical. If others have careers and families and interests that don’t allow them to pay sooo much attention and, therefore, believed the top ranking Executive and Congressional officials who thought Iraq had WMD you cannot fault them. Or, rather, you can, but it would be stupid to.

Now that most Americans have come around to OUR side, you want to push them back. Are you 12? Your a spoiled, selfish child and you write like one.

Your also conflating two subjects that are unrelated. Whether people feel that O’Reilly is an idiot and whether they backed the war are two totally different things. To paint all those who were for the war as somehow also being pro-Fox News and Rush Limbaugh is just dumb. To do so would be similar to painting all those who have always been against the Iraq War as also agreeing and sympathizing with you. I’d rather be dead or in jail than to have that happen, as you are the biggest idiot ever to try and speak for the left.

That a majority of the American public was apparently persuaded by the Bush forces,who shamelessly coat tailed the fear resulting from 9/11 to set a war agenda, does not negate the Bush administration from its part in this sad scenario. The atmosphere set up that if you even suggested that Iraq was a arrogant pursuit made you unpatriotic permeated this country to the extent that even those of us who were immediately skeptical held back our voice. Let’s not skewer Letterman. At least he has admitted his late but sincere regret at not speaking out more visably.

I think this is kind of a chickenshit thing for Taibbi to say, and, given that he’s loaded down his copy with coded and uncoded references to conspiratorial, X=Y thinking on the part of the media, I can’t help but get a little conspiratorial myself. After all, he’s part of the “media” he’s going after, right?

Gee, Matt, what’s your hidden agenda here? Surely you’re not feeling sorry for Bush? Looks like you could be a speechwriter for him in ‘07, or maybe later in ‘06 when he could really use the boost.

No one is exactly enamored by what Letterman or anybody else in the mainstream is saying about their slow awakening to the reality of the cursed Iraq experience. No one is slapping Dave’s back, saying “That’s OK, buddy. I understand.” if they are, show me — show all of us.

Look, Iraq has been a nightmare for both sides, all sides. But the only ones who should take full and clear-eyed responsiblity
for their actions, however, are the war planners, the nut cutters, the political “visionaries” who mapped this thing out like a frat-boy road trip.

A big part of that road trip was to scare the bejeesus out of the rest of us. Condi Rice did it, so did George, so did Rummy and the rest. They were very effective — for a while.

To blame the tens of millions of us who were cowed through that period — and that includes our counterparts in the Fourth Estate — is disengenuous at best, cruel at worst.

It’s simple: You don’t cast blame when somebody realizes they’ve made a horrible mistake. Let those recriminations come later, when something constructive can come of them. For now, we should be thankful that the system is groaning and waking up — and it’s still pliable enough to accept new thinking about terrible, terrible wrongs.

It may take three years, or five or 10, but someday we’re going to realize that there are war criminals running in our midst. Perhaps we’ll stop, take stock of that, and move on — and vow never to elect them or their kind again.

Jimbo- that you would use the term “investigative journalist” to describe Taibbi is an insult to anyone who has ever investigated or reported about anything.

Upton Sinclair. Woodward and Bernstein. Seymore Hersh. These are investigative journalists. Taibbi is a glue-huffing retard who, miraculously (and, with the help of 1,000 monkeys) who has learned to type. Apparantely, he “investigates” by watching television and eating twinkies…the impending sugar high leads to non-sequitar invective and juvenile rants. Taibbi, at best, is a terrible editorialist and even that is a stretch of symantics.

Rrowr –This particular post was more of an editorial rant, I agree. If you read more of his stuff, however, you’ll find that Taibbi investigates by: going to Iraq earlier this year, traveling to Kashmir to report on the aftermath of last year’s devastating earthquake, heading into NO on a small boat days after Katrina hit, following candidates on the campaign trail, talking to congressmen and their staff about how things really work in DC, etc.

He’s seen the world and appears to be driven by a desire for people to be treated as human beings, not as pawns in political games; whether or not they are American is irrelevant. He’s not partisan to the Democrats, either — read “Spanking the Donkey” or some of his recent online posts for proof.

Jimbo–

I don’t know where else Taibbi publishes. I’ve read all but one or two of his posts for RS.com and have found all of those stories to be similar in attitude/lack of depth/lack of research. For example, calling Hillary a “rusty vagina” and railing against her campaign for President without citing a single source or even mentioning an issue. His anti-Lieberman post was similarly absurd and overly abusive (and believe you, me, I’m no fan of either of the above “Democrats”).

I trust you that he has done actual reporting elsewhere and if my last post seemed to attack you as much as him, that would be unfair. Trust me, though, that his defeatist/indignant/juvenile attitude in his RS columns will insure that I will not seek any of his other work out…if he wants to be respected as a journalist of any kind, he should write like one here.

Oh, and Jimbo, without being a prick, I would like to point out that Stone Phillips was in NOLA and Iraq long before Taibbi ever went to either place. But it is not on those grounds alone that I consider Phillips to be a better reporter.

O’Reilly, Blitzer, and Letterman are all whores. They sell soap and cars and nice visions of a middle American dream. Our political leaders on both the right and middle (there being an absence of left these days) sent our sons and daughters off to die for no reason. Let’s focus our anger on those who deserve it, not on the bobbleheads that whore themselves on the tube.

Vietnam showed us that an unjust war can never be won and that staying on only compounds the agony.

One could also say Tabibi’s post is too little too late … it all is so self referentially, recursively irrelevant to the fact

… we should never have gone into Iraq and no amount of justification or blame, can allow us to stay a day longer.

But Bush/Rove/Cheney etc. got us in there and used all of the fear mongering to keep everyone else including Colin Powell buffaloed, so Bush deserves prison time, let alone impeachment for this sham on humanity.

Look, Tiabbi is right about the centrists. Do centrists expect to be complimented for their good intentions (which takes a lot on faith, anyway) when Powell’s dog and pony show contained no clear evidence, only dramatic show and tell which did not meet the humble test required of science fair projects? The conservative whine about the 1960’s and 70’s “liberal” media turns on the misperception that the media does anything other than follow trends to gain an audience. If it seems that the media is endorsing a certain viewpoint, just wait until the pendulum begins to swing a different way, along with ad dollars, whuich are paid for stuffing people’s heads regardless of their political “philosophy”. When Wolf Blitzer does or says something you like, he is still being a good employee of CNN, and we have FAARRR too many like him, famous or not.

Matt Taibbi has got it exactly right about the U.S. media.

A little point on the following quote:

“Letterman’s subsequent reasoning — that seeing one death turn into dozens and then hundreds and thousands made him reconsider the whole thing — all that tells you is that this is a person who makes life-and-death decisions without considering the consequences.”

What’s interesting about this line is that Letterman is a “smug ex-weatherman” who doesn’t make life or death decisions… he makes schtick-based television.

But somehow, I’m with Taibbi when he says Letterman was a major part of the problem.

Am I right? Do we as Americans, on some level, look to affable, “non-ideologized” centrists for our late night comedy AND our geo-political stances?

I could be wrong…

But that, to me, was the most interesting part of this article: the omitted American public…

Where were OUR minds???

I really think the American public (well, the majority) doesn’t give a rat’s ass about any of this; they just want to live unhindered by any form of “threat”. With that said, both the media and the government are the two main producers of fear and apathy to the issue. Oversaturation and rhetoric makes people desensetized, especially if the middle ground of an issue isn’t addressed.

This is pretty intriguing stuff; I thought the article by Taibbi was excellent but then the following comments were even more educational than the article itself. I dunno what to say now, it’s all so complex.

What happened to 9?11 Truth? Where’s the battle-royale between Matt and the conspiracy clan?

DAVID LETTERMAN IS A TIRED OLD BABY BOOMER. His opinions will go down in history unwritten.

The really important question many are waiting for: Why did Ed Asner abandon 9?11 Truth?

Oh, and, “Frank”-Most Americans know, at this point in the Political Game, that if we Don’t Vote, we could be in Bushland with endless wars without reason, more billions being funneled out to Bush friends and politicians, catastrophes left unaided(Katrina) and, a country robbed of its infra-structure so that the Ken Lays(Still think he’s alive-if you can call him human)and, other Bush cronies live it up at American taxpayer’s expense and, those who are in need of help/health insurance, pensions, retirements, higher wages get shafted…

Yea, Frank, why worry about voting mid-terms(We all want more of Bush B.S. and Destruction).

Get Out The Vote-Don’t listen to Bush Apologists-Fear and Smear are Out…

This article is not up to Taibi’s better efforts, but is still pretyy spot on. One would take issue though with the comment that Bush and his gang went into Iraq because they “believed” in something. Unless you can say you “believe” in oil, greed, power and all that.

So let me get this straight, Matt. The New York Times has been carrying the water for the neo-cons for ten years? And the ’sinking ship’ this year’s elections supposedly represent are reflective of a huge momentum shift in America? And Tet proved that Vietnam was unwinnable? Folks like you are so delusional that debating is a lost cause. Read some things about Tet, Read some history about mid-term elections and do a Lexus-Nexus search of the NYT database. What a twit. I hope Daddy’s proud.

Congrats, Eric. Not only are you one of the chosen few who know ‘what’s really going on’ you are also, quite obviously, insane.

Clinton a ’secret crony’ of Bush I? Of course! Because most politicians are secretly buddies with the guys who slay them.

9/11 a reenactment of Hitler’s blowing up the Reischstag? A-ha! You’re right. How the rest of us couldn’t figure this out, I’m not sure. Did you learn that from one of the hidden survivors of flight 93 or the aliens that come into your room every night to do a little probing? Perhaps the chip that J. Edgar Hoover had implaned in your head told you…

In response to the argument that “Lettermen doesn’t make life-and-death decisions”:

First, in a democracy we all make life-and-death decisions regularly, and should all feel genuine responsibility for them. Letterman is one of the most visible representatives of the prevailing status quo so his attitude toward the war really did result in deaths. (I know this is a startling point of view for those who have never taken the concept of democracy seriously; it’s true nonethless.)

Second, we entered the Iraq war by means of monolithically gung-ho media support—in the crucial period, it seemed the only one who didn’t climb on board was Michael Moore. If those in a position to voice disagreement had done so, the White House’s Iraq plans could have been blocked. Yes, even David Letterman, comic talk-show host, could have made a difference. As could all the media people Taibbi listed.

By your own logic, then, Vincent, the people killed on 9-11 must have deserved it.

Thanks for the article. of course, it’s absolutely on the mark.

Screw the neo-con scum and their you-know-what sucking, enabling media whores. I’m sick of their murderous B-S.

What exactly is the REAL bug up your ass about Letterman, Matt??
Is it that you don’t like Paul Shaffer and his band?

“By your own logic, then, Vincent, the people killed on 9-11 must have deserved it.”

? ? ?

Wrong. Bush and his fellow hemmorhoids never “believed in” the Iraq “war”. It was a sham right from the beginning and they knew it. Hell, five months before the invasion, both Colin Powell and Condaleezza Rice were on national news saying Hussein was (and I quote from the video footage on my blog) “…no longer a threat, even to his neighbors. He is completely contained. He no longer even has significant conventional weapons.”

And the original weapons of mass destruction? Courtesy of Herr Rumsfart, Gorge senior, Dickless Chainy, and Captain Alzheimer Rayguns. The crowning irony over which they must derive so much amusement at our soldiers’ expense.

“If you make a decision to fight, you had better not be scared of blood.”

Great line. Great piece.

We should all be ashamed that we let the Iraq war happen, especially people–like me–who should have known better but believed the lies, bought the hype, drank the fear.

Even more, however, I believe we should be ashamed for letting what the Supreme Court did in the 2000 election to stand. Our country was hijacked, and in response we basically turned the channel when we should have been out in the streets. Out of that moment has come so much evil. So much death. So much destruction to the very essence of what we are as a country.

Thanks for the reminder.

“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.”

We have a lazy electorate and a lazy press. We also have a consciously cruel and extraordinarily spoiled president surrounded by people with greed that is amazing to behold. Blitzer and his ilk are disgusting. Letterman is a talk show host. Bush, Cheney, Rice and Rumsfeld are worse.
Blitzer wouldn’t have been exposed for the money hungry shill that he is if not for the most arrogant, childish, entitled, and just plain soulless administration in history.

Wow, Matt. Really appreciate you stating the obvious. No really. I’m not shitting you. Such balls. Ha ha.

Mr. Taibbi,
On occasion from the spin and the squalor the true arises. It’s so sad that rational, clear minds are listened to only in times of dispair. I’m glad you are here to tell us what we should already know. Discouraged at the costs of re-learning the same lessons over and over again.

“Because Bush and the rest of that crew sent young men to die for something they believed in, fucked-up as their reasoning might be and have been. But these shitheads in the political middle who are flip-flopping right now sentenced teenagers to death for the cause of expediency and careerism. ”

Matt, what Bush believes in is careerism; he milked this war to get reelected. That you admire him for being unwavering in this aspect is psychotic.

Is the mainstream media at fault? Sure. But they didn’t start the war, they simply profited off it. They’re pieces of shit for sure but not on the level of someone who lied to the men and women in the military about why they were giving thier lives.

And the sad joke is that these men and women in our military gave thier lives to make us LESS safe. But Hell, at least they got W. reelected right? George W. Bush is the best reason to never join the U.S. army.

Matt, well, O.K. , but, see, David Letterman is a comic, a TV guy, not a hard-hitting journalist like you. For him to express doubt about the Preznit, for him to manhandle what”s his name
is noticed and is powerful.

Most people are fence-stradlers. They’ll turn whichever way the wind is blowing. I’ve lived long enough to know that this is average behahvior. It doesn’t upset me anymore.

I’ll take a wishy-washy, timid, fence-stradler over a rigid, self-righteous, authoritarian any bloody day of the week. The fact that authoritarian personalities are inflexible is not something to be admired.

Amen, amen, amen. Matt you are so right. I remember, oh how I remember, all the arguments I got into, all the lonely rage I bottled up against this war and the Bush administration. I remember how they went after Michael Moore and the Dixie Chicks and Cindy Sheehan. That’s the loony left they said. The irony now is that they’ve coopted the loony left’s position but still despise us.

But I predicted even this. And I’ll tell you what. If this had been easy, if this had been the cake walk they predicted it to be, those TV talking heads would still be fawning over Bush as a cool guy to drink a beer with.

Either the war is wrong or not. Easy doesn’t mean right and difficult doesn’t mean wrong. I wish I could time travel to about 100 years from now and read what the histoty books have to say about us – not Bush, us.”A bunch of stupid, evil fucks.”

Outrage is nice. Makes you feel like a winner. I went through so much in the 60s and 70s, not to mention 2002 to 2005. BUT, it is time to STOP this war. MORALITY would be great. But not at the cost of more dead bodies.

Wolf Blitzer could dye his beard black; don a Che beret; suck Raoul Castro’s cock and I’d still upchuck my Wheaties at the first word out of his mouth. Other than that…

Good piece, but I’m waiting for you to give us your science on how the twin towers fell like you promised.

This is a parody right? I mean seriously, you’re joking, right? “But in fact the real responsibility for the Iraq war lay not with Bush but with the Lettermans,…” You can’t be serious. David Letterman? Oh, yes, I remember the headlines: “Letterman Pushes For War – Bush Acts”. “Bush Claims Saddam Has WMD’s – Americans Await Letterman’s Response.” Taibbi, I like your writing, but this is pure bullshit. Just try and follow your own logic: Bush gets a pass because he stuck to his guns and never changed his stance even when the bullshit of his reasons for war was exposed. Letterman is an asshole because he drank the Bush Koolaide along with rest of the media and now realises he was duped. Brilliant! Note to Matt: Letterman doesn’t have a press pass.

Way to go, Matt! Keep that streak going: one great piece (”The Worst Congress Ever”), followed by a ludicrous broadside like this one. Surprised you didn’t charge Regis Philbin with legalizing waterboarding.

Is your idealized vision of America that of a totally politicized society, with every entertainer impressed into the ranks, Stalin-soviet-style, of the Exalted Speakers of the Truth? Allow some leeway for the vagaries of human nature. Also, don’t conflate talk show hosts with policymakers. The moral equivalent of the President who gave the order to bomb Iraq is not a TV personality who failed to inveigh against it.

“Are you throwing up yet?”

I was throwing up at the time.

Those who say the media did not have life or death power are mistaken. The case for the war was so shabby that it could not have happened had we had a critical press. I would only add the national Democratic party to the cast of villains.

Good piece, Matt.

I say this sudden surge in democrats “popularity” with the press is just one more Rove ploy -”Okay, the idiots are celebrating the victory they think they’re going to have on November 7. Time to let OUR media feed their egos a few crumbs, just to soften them up a bit for the kill. Doesn’t anyone see the pattern in the play? They’ve been using psychology on us for six years and we swallow everything hook, line, and sinker! We turn against those they program us to turn against, seeing them as they’re insidiously portrayed to us. Bill Clinton is a damned good example. I think they’re playing us in this election like suckers on a line. We’ll see in four more days.

Want to know why we have a timid wishy-washy press?

“Are you throwing up yet? Surely that behavior is more shameful than anything coming out of the White House.”

I see, it is obviously a more serious crime to wait for something to screw up instead of immediately trashing it on evidence no more substantial than what got us into Iraq.

I’m sorry, but you have no clue. The news media in this country is a business and businesses can only push so far against market trends. The whole country was being idiots about the run-up to the Iraq invasion. I don’t think Letterman will be heading to the Hague any time soon.

Idiot media critics need to focus their attention on manipulation, no question about it. To say that Letterman is worse than the Whitehouse? You’re out of your mind.

David Letterman is a centerist from Indiana trending toward conservative. It has been interesting to watch how his viewpoint has evolved over the past coule of years. He’s a microcosim of how a lot of milldle Americans who may have initially supported George Bush now feel.

I don’t think Dave Letterman speaking up before the war would have done a damned thing. Look at what happened to Bill Mahr when he said that whatever the hijackers were they weren’t cowards. That it takes balls to fly a plane into a building. He was axed by ABC quicker than you can say Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip and like other people have noted, invading Iraq was in the works long before 9/11. 9/11 was just the excuse needed to implement that plan.

For the most part, I agree with this article, but I can’t really bring myself to criticize Letterman. He’s seemed disinterested in everything for the past 10 years or so, so I don’t think you can blame him for not paying closer attention in 2003.

I do, however, blame the networks, ABC especially, Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson in particular (my wife, to my dismay, watches GMA every morning). Diane’s interview with the Dixie Chicks during their controversial period made me want to throw up. She kept trying to bait them into apologizing or feeling remorse for their comments. The Dixie Chicks, to their credit, never budged.

I was equally aghast last year when Diane interviewed the president a day or so after Katrina and he said “nobody knew the levies were going to break”. She should have jumped and yelled bullshit but she just sat there.

Even if the MSM’s newfound courage is not genuine I’m still happy things are turning.

Taibbi states that Bush and his cronies at least believed in what they claimed to be the reason for invading Iraq. Bullshit. Cheney runs the show and Bush is our Queen Elizabeth. After the hand over to Halliburton of the support of the Armed Forces it was in the cards to charge into the abyss and run up the bills. Profiteers are in charge and doing very well thank you. Bechtels cut and run this past week from Iraq has shown the true ruse for what it is, War Profiteering.

Forgive my “San Francisco values” but I do not know one single person who thought for even one second that the war in Iraq made any sense at all. It was disgusting to watch the news media beat the drums of war even as the leaders were lying to us all (and the evidence of that came out very quickly). And much as the White House likes to revile the New York times I think they made me more mad than any of those airheads on CNN because they knew better the whole time.

So, yeah – Matt is right. we as a society can totally blow it by tossing out the Republicans and not seeing how complicit we all were in getting things to this point.

amazing that you people can manage to use a computer and yet can’t understand what war is about or why people support it!

I’m make it simple for the author and 99% of the posters here: we went to war so you could afford to drive your car.

If your the 1% of the other people not posting “what do I get out of this war” then the reason we went to war was : justice.

Where was Mr. Taibbi in the run up to the war? Wasn’t he peddling the false equivalence that the left and right were equally ignorant?

Superb writing by Matt. Things will never change because the American religion is worship of all things military. As long as people love the fighter jets flying over the sports stadiun while mitary people in their “cool” uniforms “present the colors” while the crowd sings “bombs bursting in air” this country will continue to get involved in needless wars. Bush is not a leader, he is a follower of the American public’s bloodthirst.

I very much disagree with the author. Personally, I voted for Bush, but the reason I’m against him and his administration right now is not primarily over the war.

It’s over the removal of habeaus corpus, the legalization of torture, and now requiring clearance to leave the country.

GW Bush is leading us toward fascism. This scares the hell out of a lot of people much more than liberals scare them.

Letterman is an entertainer. You become a successful entertainer by understanding what and how your audience thinks. All Leterman did was explain perfectly why the sheep (the general population of the US) supported the war in Iraq. Taibbi is wrong to criticize him. The fault does not lie in the media believe it or not. The fault lies in human imperfecation. When you consolidate the power of 300 million people in a small group of elites you are bound to have needless wars and poorly run government. It will be the fate of Americans to put up with this until we go bankrupt. There is nothing Letterman, the media, or Matt Taibbi can do about it.

Yes, the behavior of some of the war supporters was disgusting but this article is way too soft on the war-hawk republicans who led the way. Basically Bush, Cheney, et all are a bunch of war criminal who now need to be brought to justice. Their crimes are not at all on the same level as the transgressions of the Letterman types (which I agree are deplorable).

“I’m make it simple for the author and 99% of the posters here: we went to war so you could afford to drive your car. ”

Y’know what would make it even less expensive for me to drive my car? If the u.s. dropped its Israel dick-sucking policy and started importing oil from Iran.

And to stick another knife in your statement: regional instability increases oil prices, backroom deals do not. Going to war makes oil more expensive for us.

The article should be titled “Shoot the Messengers”

I sense a certain admiration for Bush & Co. for sticking to their guns on Iraq… Well the definition of insanity is doing the same stupid thing over and over again while expecting a different outcome.

The all-time corker is Bush’s recent comment “evil people kill innocent life to achieve political objectives.” He said it during an interview with hyper warrior Sean Hannity and the transcript is available at the Fox website.

The American media are a mix of propagandists and entertainers who seldom express their own opinions on much of anything. It is no surprise that some are backtracking.

Since the great “decider’s” decisions on Iraq have led to the death of 100’s of thousands of Iraqis and his decisions were based on falsehoods then his “stay the course” mentality could only be viewed as insane or criminal, perhaps a combination of both.

If they hang Saddam for whatever crimes they manage to pin on him then Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld should be right their swinging along with him.

Letterman et al. gets his ideas from TV and video games, hence don’t think about people getting killed in wars. Bush and many supporters undoubtedly hope that the war in Iraq will bring Jesus back sooner.

It it interesting that a lot of the “liberal antiwar” commentators here aren’t getting Matt’s extremely valid point. I don’t think Matt doubts the sheer criminality of the Bush crew. The point is that this crew couldn’t have gotten away with swapping in their own criminal agenda for the 9/11 event without the connivance – however mentally flaccid – of Matts’ “mushy middle”, fuelled as it was not by “high neocon” geopolitical ideology, but by the most vulgar anti-Arab/Muslim racism and bigotry, upon which folks such as Letterman drifted as genteel flotsam.

This is socially deracinated, depoliticized America, folks – and not just America, check out Japan some day – morally infantilized with consumer culture. In such a social environment people such as Letterman and others DO have enourmous influence, as bizzare as this may seem, and in this case they DO bear an important individual responsibility as the great enablers for the Bush crew.

We all hear about the great creed of the so-called “American Individualism” – well, it is time we all grew up and began to act like real adults, as real women and men and, to steal a famous line from MLK, “live out the true meaning of its creed”.

Matt writes as if he respects Bush’s standing by his failed policy. I think that is what most of the “anti-war left” and probably most other people are reacting against.

As for blaming the media maybe they deserve it, but does the chicken come before the egg? As Matt insinuates, the media is changing its stance because of the shifting of the majority of American opinion. Are they responsible for that shift or are they catering to the “racist anti-muslim” sentiment of thier customers? Methinks the latter. I think the majority of blame lies with the average American for supporting this president in the first place-BEFORE the war.

Matt misses the point with his comment on the corporate interests in the media. At the root, they all dance to the drum of Likud and the AIPAC crowd. It’s time we all understand that there are many among us for whom America is not the primary interest.

yeah man, fuck that guy.

“Are you throwing up yet? Surely that behavior is more shameful than anything coming out of the White House.”

For sure the corporate media is a disservice to our country. I submit that forget all of my fellow citizens who re-elected this gang in ‘04 contrary to all evidence availble are equally complicit by enabling the war mongers, but get real. The fascists installed the Whitehouse are the ones pulling the triggers.

Possibly war criminals and the media could redeem themselves by getting to the bottom of their misdeeds. But I suspect the mainstream media line will be – we all went along let’s just let it go. Like they did with Iran contra.

I’m offended by the media’s aiding and abetting the Bush war crime too, but this goes too far when it says that these media sycophants are “more” guilty then our principled President who is holding to his deluded guns. I disagree and say let the media whores live and even stay on TV, but Bush needs to be put in a prison for the rest of his life for crimes against humanity, desecration of the Constitution, high treason, illegal domestic surveillance and torture. He can spend his war profits in prison.

I think the most noteworthy point in this article is the comment on the value of human life. At what point does human life become valuable? I agree with Matt that this ‘3,000 lives is too many…now.’ stance that so many people have adopted. Even if you don’t hope to further your career by changing your position on the war, it is disturbing that you could support so massive a campaign without considering the possible side-effects.

AIPAC and Jews in the Democratic party will now thump for war on Iran.

This isn’t a partisan issue. Those media companies and advertisers are Jewish money.

Taibbi doesn’t mention that Bush’s problems with media and party politics started when he flinched on Iran.

Let’s watch the Dems maneuver for war on Iran and Syria. The same people who pushed for war on Iraq, are now running the Democratic party.

These are hyphonated Americans. We supply the bodies, they supply the money and the propaganda.

Modern wars no longer run at a profit. Pillaging and subsequent taxes used to pay for occupation of foreign territory.

The fact that there is no war that the U.S. can technically “lose” makes the general public more gung-ho and god-may-care-less attitude about unleashing hell on someone else’s home (despite learning how much it hurts in 9/11).

The theatre of war has become great gladiatorial entertainment for the TV channels, who enjoy great ratings, showcasing new weapons. What’s the incentive for the media channel to shut up and give peace a chance? Rupert Murdoch is not going to be firing a gun any time soon.

War is expensive, and is worse than a zero sum game. It is sad to think that the “war to end all wars” didn’t end anything at all.

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