E&P: Columnists Question Bush's Sanity and Media's Coverage

Columnists Question Bush's Sanity and Media's Coverage

By E&P Staff

Published: December 06, 2006 11:10 AM ET

NEW YORK Two Creators Syndicate columnists had some scathing words for President Bush and the media in Iraq-related pieces.

Paul Craig Roberts, in a column posted on CounterPunch.org, said Bush "is so deep into denial [about the Iraq War] that he is no longer among the sane."

Roberts, a former Reagan administration official and a former Wall Street Journal and National Review editor, added: "Bush has destroyed the entire social, political, and economic fabric of Iraq. Saddam Hussein sat on the lid of Pandora's Box of sectarian antagonisms, but Bush has opened the lid.

"Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed as 'collateral damage' in Bush's war to bring 'stable democracy' to Iraq. Tens of thousands of Iraqi children have been orphaned and maimed. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have fled their country. The Middle East is aflame with hatred of America, and the ground is shaking under the feet of American puppet governments in the Middle East. U.S. casualties (killed and wounded) number 25,000.

"And yet Bush has not had enough! What better proof of Bush's insanity could there be?"

Columnist Norman Solomon, writing for HuffingtonPost.com and other sites, took aim at the mainstream media for still not having enough skepticism about the Iraq War.

"The lead-up to the invasion of Iraq has become notorious in the annals of American journalism," Solomon wrote. "Even many reporters, editors, and commentators who fueled the drive to war in 2002 and early 2003 now acknowledge that major media routinely tossed real journalism out the window in favor of boosting war.

"But it's happening again. The current media travesty is a drumbeat for the idea that the U.S. war effort must keep going. And again, in its news coverage, The New York Times is a bellwether for the latest media parade to the cadence of the warfare state. ...

"Instead of authoritative media information about aluminum tubes and mobile weapons labs, we're now getting authoritative media illumination of why a swift pullout of U.S. troops isn't realistic or desirable. The result is similar to what was happening four years ago -- a huge betrayal of journalistic responsibility."

For Solomon's full posting click here. For Roberts' full column click here.

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E&P Staff (letters@editorandpublisher.com)