Back in 2003, just as the march to war was at its height, Clare Short told Tony Blair that her conscience wouldn't allow her to serve in the same Cabinet as him. All it took was the offer of another Government post and Ms Short had a sudden change of heart and stayed put and no amount of twisting, turning or heart rendering justifications could make her look anything other than a complete hypocrite.
By contrast, Robin Cook's decision to march out of Blair's Cabinet in protest and into the sunlit uplands of the moral high ground was surveyed with admiration.
Now former Bush mouthpiece, Scott McClellan, derides the Iraq War as "not necessary," and has decided that "Waging an unnecessary war is a grave mistake."
"When words I uttered, believing them to be true, were exposed as false, I was constrained by my duties and loyalty to the president and unable to comment," he said. Welcome to the party Scott and to think all it took was a massive book deal.
Not for you an eloquent demolition job on the Presidents position at the time, much rather continue to pump out the propaganda your boss handed to you to read although, as you yourself state, your loyalty to your President, despite your supposed reservations, over-rode any of those overpowering feelings of remorse you have been miraculously struck with now.
If you felt that what you were saying at the time was such a grave mistake, why wait until 4 years later and safely out of the way before uttering any opposition to them?
Your chance of making any impact on public opinion and helping to prevent an 'unnecessary war' was when you had a live worldwide audience and plenty of opportunities to voice your opinion or refuse to be complicit in a potential genocide if you felt this strongly about matters.
The harsh truth is that you are a seedy opportunist with the integrity of a used car salesman who liked being in the spotlight, being well paid and being the mouthpiece justifying your boss's actions more than you cared about your country bombing Iraq.
You may make a few dollars from your grubby book deal but that just makes you the worst type of coward and a utter hypocrite with a few extra dollars.
I don't actually read books,but it strikes me as terribly wrong to write such a book at this time. Maybe after the President was out of office it would have been OK.
ReplyDeleteI imagine the publishers wanted to bring it out while Bush was still in office for maximum effect.
ReplyDeleteI know he's been a lying sack of excrement and, if we're to believe what he's saying now, kind of a dim bulb - but I'm so glad he wrote the book. I hope everyone buys a copy. This is pissing off Bush and his co-conspirators royally and that gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. There is no way for too many people to say too many times how terrible this administration has been.
ReplyDeletei agree with zenyenta, as you know. he's pretty scummy, but i am glad he affirmed what so many of us felt all along. if it keeps mc
ReplyDeletesame from being elected in november, all the better. whatever it takes to save the f-ing universe!
keith olbermann interviewed
mc clellan tonight, for the better part of the program.
He! Voss! Jost! Folloving! Ordersss!
ReplyDelete"Ja wohl, Mein President!"
I think we should sincerely thank McClellan for doing the honourable thing, and coming clean about lying... and then we should waterboard the little bastard.
We should give Colin Powell a good dousing at the same time. He's another 'yes-man' who suddenly grew balls after he was in a position where he could actually influence things.
It just goes to show - even with a bunch of stars'n'bars on your jacket, you can still be a gutless streak of piss.
Scum, both of them.
Yawl are much tougher on Scott than most folks on this side.
ReplyDeleteQ