Over the last few weeks, the Bush Administration, through its proxies like Fox News and ABC, has begun a process that is typically associated with totalitarian regimes, and that is rewriting history. In so doing, conservatives have decided to go back to their favorite pastime of the 1990s – Clinton bashing.
Yes, believe it or not, President Bill Clinton is once again the focus of conservative critics as they tell us that the events of 9/11 are his fault because he didn’t do enough to deal with Osama bin Laden. In the process of rewriting history, the Bush Administration seeks to cleanse itself from its disastrous rule over this country by invoking the name of a politician that has been a polarizing and unifying force within GOP circles. Their hope is that their base’s rabid hatred of Clinton will help obscure the vision of all Americans when trying to put recent history into context.
The beginning of “Blame Clinton” as our new history was on display in the ABC docu-drama “Path to 9/11”. The nefarious roots of the script and intent of this production have been covered extensively in the blogosphere, however it’s important to note that the story presented was more akin to a neo-con’s wet dream rather than a truthful analysis of events during Clinton’s presidency. In typical conservative style, a simplistic version of “truth” was presented without any factual context. The new history tells us that Clinton was too distracted to deal with Osama bin Laden effectively and that he wasn’t focused enough to catch him. Our new history also states that Republicans would have supported retaliatory measures against bin Laden even amidst the Lewinsky affair.
Anyone with half a memory realizes that this is complete fiction. Let’s remember who created the alleged distraction – the Republicans. In their extreme hatred of Clinton, the Republicans searched high and low for something to burn the President with and what they found was Monica Lewinsky. And they heaped her upon this nation for the better part of two years. If Republicans really wanted our President focused on bin Laden, why were they distracting him with the Lewinsky scandal?
Of course, Clinton wasn’t distracted from the problem of terrorism and Osama bin Laden. When he tried to deal with it through rocket attacks against al Qaeda bases, Republicans criticized him for manufacturing an incident in order to distract the American public from his personal problems. In other words, conservatives didn’t want ordinary Americans to be distracted from the true distraction. That criticism of Clinton certainly doesn’t jibe with conservative commentators, like Fox News’ Brit Hume, who have stated that they would have supported strong measures by the President against al Qaeda in 1998, and that’s because its complete fiction. Or if you like, it’s revisionist history. During the Clinton Administration, there was never anything but partisanship from Republicans and to claim differently is simply a lie. Also, “The Path to 9/11” makes no mention of the conservative agenda to oust Clinton through any means possible regardless of its affects on the country.
In a continuation of the rewriting of history, Chris Wallace of Fox News questioned President Clinton on his effectiveness in dealing with bin Laden and thus perpetuated the new conservative theme that Clinton was to blame for 9/11. What perhaps was unexpected, was that Clinton was quite forceful in his response to the questions and he spoke the plain truth – a fact that conservative commentators are completely glossing over. But Clinton’s words were important because he stated in no uncertain terms that the current Administration did absolutely nothing with regards to Osama bin Laden in its first eight months in power even though a detailed anti-terror program had been turned over in late 2000. Those words clearly resonated with MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann as he ended his Monday evening program with a “Special Comment” regarding the same subject as this post – the rewriting of history. Olbermann’s voice has become a singular beacon of clarity, courage and reason among a mainstream media that is bloated with pseudo-journalists who have no concept of the ramifications of the events transpiring before their eyes.
In Mr. Olbermann’s “Special Comment”, he referred to the words of George Orwell from his work “1984” when referring to the rewriting and control of history. Instead of referring to a brilliant writer’s work of fiction (or perhaps vision of the future), I’ll refer to the work of Richard J. Evans and his thorough three-part analysis of the Third Reich. While Hitler’s Third Reich is best known in this country for World War II and the Holocaust, Evans takes us through every societal facet and detail during the rise of the Nazis and their time in power. The parallels between the Nazis’ system of government and style of rule, and what the Bush Administration is trying to do in this country is truly frightening. The casual reader may think that I’m exaggerating or that I’m showing myself to be an extremist. That person would be dead wrong. This administration is that scary, and it is destroying this country and everything it is supposed to stand for.
Silence in the face of such peril to our nation is no longer acceptable and Keith Olbermann realizes that. He delivered a very powerful “Special Comment” on the fifth anniversary of 9/11 that was highly pointed in its criticism of Mr. Bush and his politicization of 9/11. The rewriting of history must also not be met with silence, or else, the new history replaces the truth and pushes our nation further along the path to doom. We must not stand for it.
