Thursday, May 29, 2008

Scott McClellan, Pinhead or Patriot? By The Mental Pugilist

The media world has been a buzz this week over former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's Scathing book of the current administration. What was surprising was that such a book would come out from a Bush loyalist while the President was still in office! So what gives? Scott McClellan was responsible for putting forward the Bush administration's public stance during the build up to the Iraq war. He is a Texan who goes back to the President's days as the governor of Texas. The book itself does not seem to reveal anything new about the white house stance and why we invaded Iraq. It seems to verify what many people suspected about the manipulation of intelligence that lead up to the invasion. I remember right before the war started , I wonder why we where going into Iraq? A more appropriate target seemed to be Iran, which is the greatest proliferater of terrorism in the middle east! Strategy suggest if you have three targets (Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan) you go after soft targets before you hit the hard target.
This might have been the case. I am an avid listener of talk radio and have herd various analysis from O'reilly, Gallagher to Ingram postulating why he wrote the book. They speculated on his motivation ranging from money to being a disgruntled employee. It was funny the tactic they used against Scott McClellan. They all attacked his credibility and his reputation instead of his argument. They made jokes about his physical characteristics and why he had not said anything about his misgivings while at The White house. This is a technique often used to persuade you about the fitness of the author. Attack the messenger not the message!
I never herd anyone utter that maybe the reason he spoke out was because he had a crisis of conscious. Funny the never mention that! It is interesting to not as late as 2007, McClellan was on Bill Mahr defending the Iraq war. What changed in less than a year? I don't buy the argument of money being the motive or his editor made him change the book to a spicier version. He is from a rich Texas family!
So do we consider Scott McClellan as a patriot or an opportunist? I say that if we had more Patriots inside the White House and the CIA who had spoken out before the invasion, things might have been different. The idea of creating two democracies on each side of Iran in the hopes it will spread is a noble endeavor but is it worth the blood and treasure we have spent? In the end history will be the judge. I just wish the White House would have been more honest to the American people about the motives to invade Iraq. Then again they wouldn't have been able to sell the war! Anyone who speaks the truth is a patriot!

No comments: