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muriel_volestrangler

(105,187 posts)
4. It's as if the last 30 years have taught them nothing
Wed Sep 24, 2025, 01:42 PM
Sep 24

(maybe much longer - Watergate, the Iran-Contra scam ...)

In the early 2000s, U.S. president George W. Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair both falsely asserted that Saddam's weapons programs were still active and large stockpiles of WMD were hidden in Iraq. Inspections by the UN to resolve the status of unresolved disarmament questions restarted between November 2002 and March 2003, under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441, which demanded Hussein provide "immediate, unconditional and active cooperation" to UN and IAEA inspections. The United States asserted that Hussein's lack of cooperation was a breach of Resolution 1441, but failed to convince the United Nations Security Council to pass a new resolution authorizing the use of force. Despite this, Bush asserted peaceful measures could not disarm Iraq and launched the Iraq War. A year later, the U.S. Senate released its Report of Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq which concluded that many of the pre-war statements about Iraqi WMD were not supported by the underlying intelligence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction

In a 2004 article appearing in the New York Times Magazine, Suskind wrote:

The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'.

International relations scholar Fred Halliday writes that the phrase reality-based community (in contrast to faith-based community) was used "for those who did not share [the Bush administration's] international goals and aspirations". Suskind has maintained his refusal to name the speaker, but the source of the quotation was widely speculated to be Bush's senior advisor Karl Rove.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community

Recommendations

5 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

I know, I'm tired of the reporting on this. I don't believe a thing coming out of this administration, why should we? Walleye Sep 24 #1
I believe Nothing, Nada, Zilch from TSF nor any agency in his administration. iluvtennis Sep 24 #17
Reporters know how to vet information ificandream Sep 24 #21
No, I trust the reporters, I don't trust the current FBI Walleye Sep 25 #27
It is not a matter of AGREEING with him or not. The corporate media doesn't CARE. RockRaven Sep 24 #2
Maybe I am giving them too much credit senseandsensibility Sep 24 #3
The corporate Republican owned/operated mass media popsdenver Sep 24 #16
Actually, they care a lot. ificandream Sep 24 #22
It's as if the last 30 years have taught them nothing muriel_volestrangler Sep 24 #4
Yes senseandsensibility Sep 24 #5
Winnebagos of Death! BidenRocks Sep 24 #6
Of course. choie Sep 24 #7
Everything about illegitimate Presidents is illegitimate. czarjak Sep 24 #8
LOL Skittles Sep 24 #9
Anyone who wants real information. ificandream Sep 24 #23
I smell a rat. A big fat Kash Patel shaped rat. Ray Bruns Sep 24 #10
I trust Just Jerome Sep 24 #11
What shooter? I looked at LBN....🤷‍♀️ littlemissmartypants Sep 24 #12
Yes, he killed one detainee and injured two others. chowder66 Sep 24 #14
Thanks. ❤️ littlemissmartypants Sep 24 #18
As I wrote in my letter to the GM of my Sinclair ABC affliate pat_k Sep 24 #13
Also undeniable... Dark n Stormy Knight Sep 24 #19
You mean Elle Reeve of CNN? Yes, she's a good one. ificandream Sep 24 #24
Yes. pat_k Sep 24 #26
Stenographers n/t BaronChocula Sep 24 #15
Corporate media is complicit with the destruction of our democracy. spanone Sep 24 #20
You can pin the blame on the fox propaganda network for starters. ificandream Sep 24 #25
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