I assume many of you saw Rachel Maddows documentary last night on the Iraq War; Why We Did It. I recorded it and watched it earlier this morning. If you didnt, and no spoiler alert required, heres the Lindner synopsis: Thumbs Up: While much of it was rehash, there were some new revelations wed never seen before, for instance those British oil documents. Kudos to her and her staff for coming up with them. And who did they have to blackmail to get Paul Bremer to appear on camera? Thats an amazing get, considering his role in the Iraq debacle. Thumbs down: Last year at this time, Maddow produced another documentary; Hubris, based on the book by David Korn and Michael Isikoff. As with that otherwise good effort, you simply CANNOT come close to telling the Iraq War story in a one hour time slot. Factoring in commercials, its probably more like 43 minutes. I wish the networks would put a little more trust in their viewers, and realize that theyll stay tuned to a two hour (or more) documentary if its well produced. PBS aired an outstanding documentary in 2008 called Bushs War, and in my opinion, its the gold standard for exposing the incompetence and criminality of our invasion eleven years ago (though it focused more on the how, rather than the why, as Maddow does). It ran for around five hours, split over two nights. Its available for streaming on the PBS website for free, or you can buy it on Amazon. Conclusion: If there was a God, Richard Bruce Cheney would have been struck by lightning and reduced to an ugly smudge years ago. His lust for oil and blood destroyed one country, and damn near brought down our own. And his punishment for this high crime is a life of wealth, 24/7 security -- paid for by you and me -- and the satisfaction he takes in belittling his successors for not following in his footsteps, whenever he gets the urge on Fox News. Ive said it before, and Ill say it again; I have a very special bottle of scotch with Cheneys name on it which Im gonna crack open on the day he dies. And Ill save him a dram in his honor... once Ive filtered it through my kidneys. If you missed Why We Did It, I highly recommend it. Itll probably be rebroadcast by MSNBC in the coming days, possibly this weekend.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 13:24:59 +0000