The Blame Game

Everyone has seen by now the ways in which the Bush administration refuses to accept responsibility for the war in Iraq and the buildup to it. Not only are the mistakes not their fault, but they are also deserving of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The intelligence (specifically the way it was hyped up with the best marketing team ever assembled outside L.A.) was not their fault. The failure to plan for the post-war scenario was not their fault. Low troop levels and inadequate equipment problems were not their fault. The systematic torturing of prisoners is not their fault (after all, we don't torture!). And the stonewalling of essential info to Congress and other agencies is, well, that's probably not their fault either.

Each member of the administration, and their remaining supporters, has a scapegoat of choice. Republican bloggers blame Bill Clinton and John Kerry and Hillary Clinton (ohh those pro-war Demoncrats). Dick Cheney also blames the Democrats and says that for them to imply the administration did anything wrong is the most disgusting thing ever done in Washington DC ever. Donald Rumsfeld blames George W. Bush; Neocon Rummy certainly didn't want to go to war. He just went along with the President- sweep it all up (under the rug), Rummy!

And who does President Bush blame? Condoleeza Rice, apparently. The article on the FoxNews site I posted on earlier states: "So what is the administration’s response now? Members of Congress should not have been so foolish as to rely on Dr. Rice’s presentation; All 435 members of the House and all 100 senators should have crowded into those small rooms in the Capitol and personally inspected every piece of intelligence". So they all have their scapegoats.

Apparently, if you listen to their rhetoric now, no Republicans (in the administration or otherwise) wanted to go to war, it just sort of happened. Because the Republican's favorite President, Bill Clinton, said it was U.S. policy. Because the Europeans we love oh so much had some concerns about Iraq. Because Saddam was bad. And because the Democrats voted for it. Oh, and 9/11. Yea, definitely 9/11.

Gotta stay the course, though. It doesn't matter if its an erratic and deadly course. We gotta stay it! Why? BECAUSE. That's why. Can't let the 2,100+ dead soldiers have died in vain... at least not until right before the '06 elections.

The thing I find so interesting about all of this is how badly the Bush administration is making their own situation worse. The more they try to defend themselves, they more guilty they make themselves look. The old quicksand factor. They started out by calling Murtha and anyone else who opposes the war traitors and enablers of our enemies. Once they realized that the public found that in bad taste (after all, that's the majority of the people now), the administration immediately dropped the treason rhetoric, but stayed on the attack. In addition, they are starting to turn against each other, like I noted above (Rummy blames Bush, Bush blames Condi, Cheney blames all you unpatriotic little @#*$'s out there!). That unified front they had before is lost. And their "rewriting history" talking point against the Democrats is working against them- as they try to deny the things they said about Iraq in '02/'03 even though we live in the media and internet world where what they said is easily accessable. Nasty rhetoric, eating each other alive, and lying about past statements... these are not the actions of innocent men. Bush and company doth protest too much, me thinks. They are scared and they will do anything to prevent history from catching up with them.

As I wrote last week, this administration is like the 'Family Circus' kids pointing to the Not Me ghost when mommy comes in and sees crayon on the walls.

"Jeffy, who claimed you can't distinguish between Saddam and Al Qaeda when you talk about the war on terror??!!"
-'Not Me!'

"Billy, who said that Saddam had, in fact, reconstitued his nuclear weapons programs?!?!"
-'Not Me!'

"Dolly, who failed to prepare for a post-war occupation of Iraq?!??!"
-'NOT ME!!!'

I even made some Photoshop fun to illustrate the point:



To quote my Nana at Thanksgiving dinner- "If you listen to the things they say and the things they do, you'd think this was a cartoon!". You said it, Nana.