LETTERS: Putting Koppel and Brokaw Through the Wringer on Iraq

By: E&P Staff We've received lots of responses after posting the transcript from NBC's "Meet the Press" in which former network anchors Tom Brokaw and Ted Koppel say former President Bill Clinton would have gone into Iraq had 9/11 happened on his watch. Here are a few samples.

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Parlor Games

Re: Koppel and Brokaw Agree: Clinton Would Have Gone Into Iraq, Too

Russert engages in what in court would be called "leading the witness." He stops asking questions and enters the conversation. Very unprofessional. But, let's step back and consider the parlor game these three gentlemen are engaging in. That's really all it is, a parlor game that they are no more qualified in playing than anyone else. I would even risk saying that I can do it better.

For example, I would reply, "If Clinton (or Gore) were president, 9/11 would not have happened, therefore, no invasion of Iraq. How? Clinton/Gore keeps Richard Clarke at the 'principal' level, allowing him constant access to cabinet members. 'Chatter' increases through the spring and summer. Clinton/Gore order a 'shaking of the trees,' which nets the Phoenix memo and brings Colleen Rowley's concerns to the highest levels of the FBI. The CIA informs the FBI about the two terrorists in San Diego. They are brought in and the plot is unraveled."

See, it's easy. Why is this "news?

Chris Dodson

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Koppel and Brokaw Are Wrong

As my book, "IRAQ WAR: The Truth," documents, Bush did, in fact, outright lie -- he consciously falsified evidence -- in order to persuade the American people to believe, as Koppel and Brokaw still do, that it was "a uniformly held belief" that WMD existed in Iraq.

And, finally, in order for Brokaw and Koppel to be right in saying that Clinton would have done what Bush did and invaded Iraq in March 2003, Clinton would have to have been inclined to order the U.N. weapons inspectors out so that the U.S. could invade, as Bush in fact did do -- he ordered them out. All the evidence indicates the exact contrary -- that Clinton would not have terminated those inspections, but would have continued them until they were completed. Bush was at war against the U.N., but Clinton never was -- that just wasn't his policy.

These are the reasons why I believe that Tom Brokaw and Ted Koppel are part of a severe problem in American journalism: They know nothing else than to parrot what the President says; they served only as PR or propaganda agents for the White House line on any national security issue, and that's the reason why the American people ended up being just as deceived by Bush as Brokaw and Koppel were -- those propagandists merely transferred to the public the President's lies, and that's not real journalism, it's propaganda.

There's a difference between being a PR agent/propagandist, on the one hand, and a journalist on the other. Yet in this country it's not respected. Too many in the American "press" are like Brokaw and Koppel -- propagandists -- and not enough are like Doug Thompson and Russ Baker: journalists.

This is a huge scandal of the press itself, in the United States.

Eric Zuesse
Author, "IRAQ WAR: The Truth," and winner of the 1982 Mencken Award for the Year's Best Investigative News Report

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Pre-War Press Lacked Courage

Listening to Koppel & Brokaw rationalizing their part in the illegal and unnecessary and now fully tragic Iraq War sounds much like two guilty parties thinking up excuses for their misconduct.

Clinton would have gone in too? That's the best they can come up with to excuse themselves for their complicity in this mess. Pathetic.

Hadn't the first Bush proved how much a paper tiger Saddam was in Desert Storm. Did we really need Shock and Awe? Hadn't we rendered, with over-flights, bombing and embargoes, Iraq militarily impotent. Hadn't Saddam and his forces and the Iraqi society been wracked by wars for years. Did the world's most powerful military really need a victory over such a depleted enemy to avenge 9/11?

The truth is the American press didn't have the stomach to even attempt to test the truth of what they were being pitched before misinforming the American people. They simply lacked the courage.

Roldo Bartimole
Cleveland Heights, Ohio

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Joe Strupp's Top 10 Missing Key Story

Re: Joe Strupp's Top 10 Newspaper Industry Stories of 2005

I'm surprised by the absence of "Combining print and online newsrooms" as a top 10 industry story of 2005 in Joe Strupp's recent column.

Major newspapers like the New York Times and USA Today taking the aggressive step to merge their print and web resources has a lot of merit and the idea will surely trickle down for years to come. This concept is years overdue and will be the print industry's saving grace. Hopefully it's not too late.

Jason Christie
Former Print Sports Editor & Online News Director
Current: Vice-President Enotices.com

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Re: Newspapers Played Key Role in Dover 'Intelligent Design' Debate

It's the peculiar quasi-theology of this age that belief in a self-existent cosmos, appearing spontaneously out of nothing, is "rational."

The scientific method generates predictions from hypotheses and if possible verifies them quantitatively.

I agree that Intelligent Design, in that sense, is not scientific. That doesn't mean it's wrong.

Intelligent Design does belong in a class on Religion and Philosophy, but so does scientism, the belief, or faith, that the scientific method is sufficient to explain the origin and purpose of all that exists.

Pavel Chichikov
Washington, D.C.