Something we really need in this country is Media Education. Educate every citizen about how Corporate Media really works and what goes on behind the scenes. One misperception is the idea that politicians and news anchors are honestly expressing their heartfelt views. When in fact they all have carefully studied talking points, and they have been trained to appear honest so as to be more convincing. They all have agendas, motivations and they all know anything they say on the teevee can be used against them.

That said, it’s really hard to believe that Rep. John Murtha is not speaking from his heart. Either that or he’s a heckuva actor. With 37 years in the Marine Corps and over 30 years in Congress, it’s hard to believe he is motivated by ambitions of achieving higher office through corporate campaign contributions. Murtha speaks in direct plain language, cites evidence and gets fired up about things he cares about.

[Quotes are from my notes, not transcript.]

Bob “Crankypants” Schieffer: Do you believe General Pace who said this morning on Meet the Press that the War in Iraq is “going very, very well”?

Murtha: Why would I believe him? This administration has constantly misrepresented what is going on in Iraq.

Murtha said that when the Administration makes these statements he asks his staff to get latest the State Department report on Iraq and get the facts. There is 60% unemployment in Iraq, 80% of Iraqis want us out of there, 47% think it’s acceptable to shoot US soldiers.

He said that the troops are doing everything they can, but they’re caught in the middle of a civil war.

The US public is “way ahead” on this issue, 70% of the troops want to pull out of Iraq.

Al Qaeda and Iran and China want us to stay in Iraq, because we’re depleting our resources. We’re diverting our resources from the war on terrorism which is global.

The US pretends to be able to tell Iraqis and the Iraqi government what to do. But “Our man” Chalabi got 1% of the vote, Allawi got 8%.

Before the US invasion there were no terrorists in Iraq. If we get out, the Iraqis will get AQ out. They know who and where they are. The Iraqis don’t like having foreign jihadists in their country. But we’ve unified the Iraqis and the jihadists against us by our presence.

Bombshell:

UPDATE: Schieffer mentioned rumors that the Administration plans to pull troops out of Iraq in early 2007, after the midterms. [He’s obviously been reading Corrente] I must have hallucinated that part. It’s Murtha who brought it up. He’s the one who’s been reading Corrente.

Murtha: Other Democrats tell me “you’re helping the Republicans [by talking about redeployment] because if the GOP sets a schedule to get out it will help them in the elections.”

Shystee Prediction: the Administration and the GOP will beat the Dems to the punch on announcing a plan for pulling out of Iraq.

Karl Rove sure as hell reads the polls and he knows that staying in Iraq is politically untenable. Whatever Neocon fantasies about forcibly democratizing the Middle East Republicans might entertain, maintaing one-party dominance in the US is a much higher priority, if not the only priority.

That the Beltway Dems would be chastising Murtha for taking a position on Iraq that the majority of the voters support is… mindboggling? disgusting? pathetic? enraging? It shows a contempt for the public’s opinion and lack of will or understanding about how to win elections and about what is good for US citizens.

After years of going along with the Bloody CharlieFoxtrot [military speak for ClusterF**k] that is the Iraqi occupation, the Dems might have already missed the opportunity to ride the wave of public opposition to the war. And they show no intention of getting a clue. When you start to think about why, that’s when you really get nauseous. Do Beltway Dems just not get it or do they not want to get it because they have other priorities?

Schieffer briefly brings up PortGate. Isn’t this just some irrational fear?

Murtha: “All we have to fear is fear itself”. These guys [Bushies] have used fear as a club!

No mention by either of them that the deal has already gone through.

Iran’s Nucular “ambitions”:

Murtha: Iran knows we can’t deploy ground troops against them, we’ve depleted our resources in Iraq.

Schieffer: But if we withdraw won’t that look like we’ve been defeated, won’t that boost our enemies’ morale?

Murtha: That’s the fear they try to sell to the american people. If we get out, Iraqis will take Al Qaeda out, that is what is important to us.

Dick Lugar

The contrast in style and substance between Murtha and this guy are like night and day. Lugar basically avoided answering any of Schieffer’s questions and stuck to his talking points:

- Civil war in Iraq? Maybe…

- It’s up to the Iraqis to decide if they want to be iraqis or sunnis, shias, etc… They’re going through transitional period, of course it’s going to be ugly. [The implication that it’s not really the US’ problem and we don’t have any control over the situation]

- We have to give the Iraqi government assurances that we will stay.

Lugar: There is still hope for Iraq. Among Repugs there is general support for the president and the troops. Sure everyone reads polls. But politics is a fickle business. If things go well the polls will tick up.

Schieffer: sounds like my golf game, if I can just improve my stroke everything will be better.

Schieffer’s Final Word

Bob’s glad that the tapes of Bush being thoroughly briefed about the potential for humanitarian disaster in the wake of Katrina came out.

But didn’t we know this already? That FEMA was stacked with political hacks?

We really should just move on. “We have to stop the tape and go live.” “People want to know what happens now.”

Hurricane seaon is months away and there is still no plan. Can’t we just get over these squabbles about responsibility for thousands of dead or missing Americans?