This week over at The Nation Reed Richardson wrote, The Beltway Media Gets the Iraq War Band Back Together. It’s a good article and well worth reading. But I was struck with something specific he wrote. He noted that it was like deja vu from 2002. “The experience is almost reminiscent of those old, late-night K-Tel commercials selling compilation albums of songs by bands long since forgotten, and for good reason.” That does bring back memories, “Original hits! Original stars!”
So I started writing an email to Reed, and it got totally out of hand. Hence, this article:
Unforgettable politicians saying unforgettable things. Including…
- George W Bush with, “My answer is bring ’em on!”
- Dick Cheney with, “We will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.”
- After more than a trillion dollars, who doesn’t love Paul Wolfowitz with, “There’s a lot of money to pay for this. It doesn’t have to be US taxpayer money. We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.”
- Douglas Feith’s great, “There have been linkages between the Iraqi government and al-Qaeda going back more or less a decade.”
- Condoleezza Rice with, “But we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”
- Colin Powell’s brilliant UN innuendo, “First, it strikes me as quite odd that these tubes are manufactured to a tolerance that far exceeds US requirements for comparable rockets.”
- Donald Rumsfeld’s classic, “You go to war with the army you have—not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”
But if you act now, we’ll throw in other hits like:
- George W Bush with, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”
- Dick Cheney’s all time classic ballad, “You shouldn’t be my friend if you don’t want to be shot in the face.”
- Karl Rove’s entire 2004 campaign song, “Vote against the fags so we can destroy your Social Security!”
Just $4.99 on LP, $6.99 on 8-Track!
But if you are like me, you don’t have to be reminded. But for most of the people in the mainstream media, maybe they ought to buy a couple of copies.
I don’t think that’s out of hand. It’s an easily-scanned short list. (The stuff I tend to type gets outta hand.)
I think I’d include in this playlist of hits Thomas Freidman telling Iraq to "suck on this." Although maybe that’s a B-side. Along with some Hitchens . . .
@JMF – That’s great! Surprisingly, it didn’t even occur to me. If it had, I think I would have started the list with it. It sounds like much like a song, "Suck on this!"