Schorr and Simon Waste Airtime

Dan Schorr and Scott Simon bounce around the current crises in the Middle East with remarkable lies and ignorance. Both seem surprised that civil war may be occuring in Iraq. Schorr tries to imply that the US Military was not lying back six months ago when it asserted that Iraq was nowhere near civil war.

A simple Google search of "civil war constitution" on Juan Cole's Informed Comment page reveals several pertinent facts: last summer's US-rushed Iraqi constitution nearly guaranteed civil war. As Juan Cole wrote on August 12, 2005: "And thus, this rush to a constitution, mainly for the benefit of the Bush administration, which wants it done so Bush can gracefully begin exiting next year in time to affect the 2006 congressional races, is highly unwise. It may well contribute to the outbreak of a civil war in the future in Iraq." You'd also see that Cole was describing the conflict in Iraq as an "unconventional civil war" in July of 2005.

Then onto Lebanon where Schorr and Simon continue the big lie that the US has been working overtime to find an end to the conflict--it just wants it to be "sustainable." This is pure nonsense; the stalling by the US in preventing a ceasefire has had nothing to do with "sustainable" peace, but has been a policy decision to allow Israel to complete the destruction of Lebanon's infrastructure and punish the civilians of Lebanon with the supposed goal of destroying Hezbollah. Even CBS news noted on July 25th that Sec. of State Rice in meetings in Lebanon was "repeating the same conditions for a ceasefire that Israel has laid out." And of course Fox News interviewing Rice on July 16th, reveals Rice agreeing with Chris Wallaces statement that the US opposes a ceasefire because "the Israelis are talking about a bombing campaign that could take weeks to basically rewrite the facts on the ground and put Hezbollah out of business in southern Lebanon."