How Our Nation's Newscasters Let Us Down

I couldn't believe what I was hearing and seeing on television this week as several television news shows aired footage of then Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney, in 1994, declaring that any invasion by the United States on the country of Iraq would be a serious and disastrous mistake for the United States. At the time of the interview on C-Span, Dick Cheney was explaining why ,after our victory in the first Gulf War, President George Bush Sr. did not have his generals invade Iraq and finish off Saddam Hussein. He spoke with such certainty of the utter disaster that such an invasion of Iraq would bring.

Flash forward to the days before the actual invasion of Iraq by the United States in 2003, and who is the leader in the propoganda war in the rush to invade Iraq ? None other than that very same Dick Cheney.This new Dick Cheney that promised our soldiers would be treated as liberators and flowers would be thrown at their feet. This same Dick Cheney that said the war would be over quickly. This same Dick Cheney that actually said we had a plan.

But what I find most puzzling is that in the subsequent years, as Dick Cheney has made speeches and appearances promoting this ill-fated war, and especially in the election of 2004, when he had stated ad-nauseum why this invasion would ultimately be successful and why we needed to reelect George Bush and Mr. Cheney, because this war was so necessary, where was the press? How is it that in the entire news corps of the United States, not one investigative reporter or newsman found this interview which would have exposed Dick Cheney for the hypocritical liar that he is?

I know that C-Span is not as widely watched as CNN, or MSNBC, and certainly not as widely watched as nightly news, but it certainly seems that someone in the news industry would have or certainly should have remembered the stance that Mr Cheney took on all of the reasons we should not attack Iraq in 1994. I am mystified by the lack of investigative journalism that lead to this tragic lapse.

All during the Republican drumbeat for invading Iraq in 2003, before the Congress gave approval to the President to attack , Cheney led the charge to war. This public tape showing Cheney claiming rather forcefully of the folly of such an attack, might have very well swayed both public opinion and may have easily altered the vote for invasion. His complete "flip-flop" on this issue certainly would have given many pause to reflect.

Perhaps if this story had gotten out before or during the election of 2004, exposing the hypocrisy of this call for war of the Bush/Cheney administration, the very close election might have ended differently, and our country might have done the sensible thing, and not gotten deeper and deeper into this tragic war. Think of the lives of our soldiers that might have been saved. Think of the money we could have spent on our own people and country, instead of the billions we are still throwing at this tragic tactical error.

I admit I am biased. I am against the war. I have been since the beginning. Iraq did not invade us on September 11. Not one of the nineteen hijackers were Iraqi. We should have instead been focusing our resources at the Pakistani-Afghan border, from where Al-Quada launched its attack, and where Osama Bin Ladin is probably still hiding. Do you remember him? Perhaps our country might have have our priorities straight if we had only listened to Defense Secretary Dick Cheney. But, of course, thanks to the news media, we never got to hear this Dick Cheney.

We will never know for sure if the airing of this tape would have changed anything. After all, many Americans are too busy watching reality television to really have time for the news. And maybe, just maybe, Americans having been exposed to the truth, would still would have voted for George Bush and his war. But, we still should have had access to this vital bit of information that would have provided so much insight into the hypocrisy and lies of this administration.