Mandatory Viewing

I have a confession to make. In my heart of hearts I am still hoping Bush & Cheney were right. I hope every day that there will be a newscast that reports that someone like the Israelis have uncovered and destroyed an enormous cache of chemical weapons that were smuggled from Iraq to Syria at the top of the war. Really I do. It would be a good thing I think for them to be able to stand on national television and tell us all that they really were right all along.

Unfortunately, the cynical person in me thinks that there would be nobody more surprised at making that announcement than Bush & Cheney. Which, really is too bad.

Tonight while once again trying desperately to be interested in the NBA, and mostly because it was in high definition I caught an episode of Frontline: The Dark Side. Now certainly there will people that will say that PBS and Frontline have some kind of liberal bias. Those people are entitled to their fantasy life just like the rest of us. But for anyone who can be convinced that Frontline is in fact news and not commentary, this episode should be mandatory viewing.

Actually, I found myself thinking that they should put it on film and run it in movie theatres. That way people could pay the proper amount of attention rather than flipping every few minutes to try to catch the score.

From the Frontline Page:

After 9/11, Vice President Richard Cheney seized the initiative. He pushed to expand executive power, transform America's intelligence agencies and bring the war on terror to Iraq. But first he had to take on George Tenet's CIA for control over intelligence.

Basically it is the story of how Nixon era people around the President have manipulated policy, politics, the press, public opinion, and intelligence to take the office of the President and our country in a direction concurrent with their vision. The show lines out with glaring clarity how all of the tentpoles of Colin Powell's speech to the UN were fundamentally flawed, and demonstrates through people that were involved in the work the there was absolutely no way we could not have known at that time that they were flawed.

Someday it will make a wonderful outline for a prosecutor or even a House Manager.

Interestingly, Cheney & Rumsfeld aren't portrayed too badly. Its almost like they are a known quantity, so what were you expecting? Bush comes off pretty well too, as far as not being clueless, and not really being any kind of devious either. The real disappointments in hindsite seem to be George Tenet and Colin Powell, moreso the former than the latter. Somewhere along the way the head of the CIA drank the coolaid and any chance the country had for honest discourse went right out the window.

Anyway, its very well done although sad and depressing. Something everyone should have to see, if only to know who to be afraid of in the future. The connection to the Nixon era legacy was new to me and very interesting. Be sure to catch the episode yourself - soon you'll even be able to watch it online.

Unless, of course, I get my news report afterall and PBS turns out to be wrong. Fingers crossed.