Rachel Maddow reopens the lies of Iraq

Rachel Maddow's new documentary, which first aired on MSNBC on Monday night (and which you can view here), recounts the story of how the Bush administration fabricated its case for war against Iraq. And although I can already hear right-wing apologists complaining about the "inherent bias" of MSNBC and Rachel Maddow, the case she presents is irrefutable.

In case you missed it, I provide this succinct summary: the Bush administration lied to start a war that resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.

For anyone who was paying attention back then, at the beginning of the last decade, this is nothing new. Rachel's documentary covers how the administration promoted lie after lie: the Prague meeting between Mohamed Atta and Iraqi intelligence officers that Dick Cheney promoted on Meet the Press, Condi Rice's aluminum tubes, Curveball, the Iraqi informer with his own agenda.

Rachel doesn't go into motives in her documentary. But it's easy enough for me to speculate. Dick Cheney, Junior, Condi, Rummy, and all the bit players (Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Doug Feith, Elliot Abrams, John Bolton, and more) --each had his own motives, not one of which was "serving the public interest."

Watching this documentary reignited the burning hatred (and, yes, I use that word carefully) I hold for these irredeemable scoundrels.

So long as these people go unpunished (and I've given up any hope of justice) our high-minded egalitarian ideals are just chaff in the wind. Any fool who's managed to stay alive long enough knows that the notion of human justice is a childish fantasy.

I don't know. Maybe that's just how it is. Maybe the power hierarchy, where some people operate above the law, is an inherent part of civilization.

Thank you, Rachel Maddow, for compiling a comprehensive account of the lies and deception that the Bush administration used to fool the people of the United States. I knew back then, and your documentary was a painful reminder: we'll be paying for their villainy for the rest of my life.