PBS Remembers 9/11 With Democratic Line on Iraq War
Will the networks have trouble remembering 9/11 without getting in their digs against President Bush and the lack of wisdom in his Iraq war policy? The Democratic Party narrative certainly slipped into a 9/11 remembrance segment Friday night on PBS's Washington Week. NPR reporter Tom Gjelten proclaimed the usual “we took the eye off the ball” line about Afghanistan, and later, reporter Alexis Simendinger underlined a large lack of confidence in Bush's going into Iraq: MAJOR GARRETT, National Journal: It was a short war on the front: rapid victory over the Taliban, consolidation of that country, elections, all of those things looked very positive. And then the president and his administration became extremely focused on Iraq. TOM GJELTEN, National Public Radio: Our attention and resources were diverted from Afghanistan to Iraq. Special operations forces that were key to the fight in Afghanistan were redirected to Iraq. As a result, there was not an end game in Afghanistan, and ten years later, we are still there. John Harwood of CNBC explained that the wars “became very polarizing,” and that everything we didn't like about the contentiousness of our politics (after the 2000 election battle, I'd assume) was made worse. Then Alexis Simendinger, with National Journal during the early Bush years and now with Real Clear Politics, underlined Iraq again as protester signs were shown: ALEXIS SIMENDINGER: President Bush felt so strongly that he wanted to rebuild confidence, and in fact his two-term presidency was undermined to such a large extent by the lack of confidence in some of the steps that were taken afterward, obviously going into Iraq, et cetera, weapons of mass destruction. The signs read “Why is our economy in the toilet? It's the war!” This is almost amusing considering how much better the economic indicators were in the Bush years compared to now. The other said “Bush out of Iraq” with the words “Nixon” and “Vietnam” crossed out and “Bush” and “Iraq” scribbled in red. There were only two historic soundbites in the remembrance, which took most of the show's half-hour: the first sentence of President Bush's remarks on the night of 9/11 (no National Cathedral speech, no standing on the rubble with a bullhorn), and the first sentence of Bush's announcement of war in Afghanistan.
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PBS Remembers 9/11 With Democratic Line on Iraq War
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on September 10, 2011. Filed under