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Clearing My Tabs #44: The Pundits Who Got Iraq Wrong

Craig Cheslog Craig Cheslog
March 24, 2023
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Today’s Lineup

Here are some of the topics that have caught my attention as I’ve been browsing the internet: remembering how pundits got the Iraq invasion wrong, Martin Santillan exonerated after serving more than 25 years in prison, how close to death does a woman need to be to get an abortion in Tennessee, this isn’t a time to end water-use restrictions despite California’s improved drought situation, why the Wisconsin Supreme Court election is important, Taylor Swift’s fantastic opening to her Eras Tour, TikTok ban debates avoid the real problem with consumer data privacy, the World Baseball Classic has an amazing finish, and Tucker Carlson demonstrates remarkable self-knowledge.

U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Juan E. Diaz. (RELEASED), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Leading Off

President George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq 20 years ago this week.

It may be difficult to recall just how intense the rush to support the invasion was in the wake of the September 11, 2001, al-Queda terrorist attacks against the United States. 

As Sam Seder often reminds his listeners during his Majority Report podcast, news networks at the time were willing to book on their programs only a very select few who were against the invasion. Those who did go on air to question the Bush Administration’s pivot to Iraq faced a vicious reaction. Seder’s then-Air America co-host Janeane Garofalo faced some of the worst of it because she was so compelling and fearless. 

Far too many reporters and pundits allowed themselves to fall for the Bush Administration’s framing that opposing the Iraq invasion was equivalent to attacking the troops. But, as Garofalo explained to the New York Times then, the anti-patriotism charge was designed to “shut down debate and thwart First Amendment rights…We are extremely supportive of the troops,” she said. “Anyone who says yes to peace and diplomacy is saying yes to the troops.”

Because of its hubris, the Bush Administration wasn’t interested in tolerating a debate about the invasion of Iraq. They held those who questioned them in disdain. They believed they were acting at a new level of politics, strategy, and history.  

In October 2004, reporter Ron Suskind shared a telling quote about this mindset in a New York Times Magazine story profiling Bush and his team prior to that year’s general election. Suskind quoted a senior advisor to Bush (who many, including me, guess was Bush Senior Advisor Karl Rove) reacting to those opposing the war preparations two years earlier:

“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

Talk about getting high on one’s own supply. Too many pundits took his dreck as received wisdom at the time. 

The Present Age’s Parker Malloy went back and read what pundits had to say about the Bush Administration’s case for war in 2002-03. Malloy writes:

I distinctly recall being astounded by the certainty of both reporters and pundits. Things like whether or not Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (or the capabilities to create them) were treated as foregone conclusions by many in the news, and opposition to the invasion was openly talked about as being “anti-American.”

Malloy reminds us of what some of the most prominent writers had to say at the time in support of the Iraqi invasion. She features articles written by Fareed Zakaria, Matthew Yglesias, Anne Applebaum, Jeffery Goldberg, David Remnick, Richard Cohen, Bill Keller, Leon Wieseltier, Anne-Marie Slaughter, David Brooks, and Jonathan Chait.

But the pièce de résistance, for me, is what New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman shared to justify the invasion on the May 29, 2003, Charlie Rose Show:

“What they [Islamic extremists] needed to see was American boys and girls going house to house—from Basra to Baghdad—and basically saying:

Which part of this sentence don’t you understand?: You don’t think we care about our open society? You think this [terrorism] fantasy [you have]—we’re just gonna let it grow? Well, suck. on. this. That, Charlie, was what this war was about. We coulda hit Saudi Arabia….We coulda hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could.”

As awful as that statement was, it was at least closer to the truth of the war’s rationale than the lies Bush, Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and others said about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction. 

But, tellingly, this objectionable reaction didn’t hurt Friedman’s career even as Iraq’s situation worsened. He is, of course, still a New York Times columnist to this day (talk about a job that should have term limits). Most of the people quoted by Malloy have prospered despite being wrong about one of the most consequential debates of our lifetime. 

We failed to reckon with the lies told by the Bush Administration. We haven’t held those who lied to us accountable. We didn’t elevate the people who were correct in their analysis of the situation. 

So many people were killed and injured because of the Bush Administration’s lies and zealotry and the failures of our reporters and other politicians to question Bush’s assumptions. But, hey, at least Bush and all of those reporters had a chance to get some laughs out of the situation. 

Things I Find Interesting by Craig Cheslog is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Martin Santillan Exonerated After DNA Evidence Review

Dallas County District Court Judge Audra Riley declared Martin Santillan innocent of a 1997 murder for which he served 25 years in prison. 

The Dallas Morning News’ Krista M. Torralva reports about the case, the wrongful conviction, and the exoneration hearing: 

“Recent DNA testing led investigators to a man in Colorado who they believe shot [Damond] Wittman in the early morning of July 14, 1997.

In a news conference after Wednesday’s hearing, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said that man was a juvenile at the time of the crime and state law prevents the release of his name. The suspect was detained this year in Colorado and will face court proceedings in Dallas County, Creuzot said. He could be certified to stand trial as an adult, at which point his case would become public, the DA added.

The case against Santillan rested on a sole eyewitness who picked him out of a six-person photo lineup on his second time viewing the photos with Dallas police, according to court records.

Santillan insisted he was innocent and provided an alibi, but a jury found him guilty of capital murder on March 5, 1998. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Five witnesses testified at trial that they were with Santillan at a different nightclub about 12 miles away on the night of the shooting, according to court records. One of the witnesses was a security guard, according to The News archives.

Prosecutors were wrong to take the case all the way to trial, [Dallas County District Attorney John] Creuzot said.

“Today, we would not have taken it to trial,” he said.”

And that is a point worth emphasizing—this case should never have gone to trial. 

This case also provides another example demonstrating the importance of District Attorney elections. Prosecutorial misjudgments like the one this case highlights (from a previous DA, Cruezot was elected in 2018) lead to innocent people going to jail. 

Torralva also reports about how difficult it was for Santillan and his attornies with Centurion (a national nonprofit dedicated to helping the wrongfully convicted) to get the DNA test required to clear him of the crime. 

It should be easier for people in prison to access the courts for reviews of their cases when new evidence comes to light. The goal should be to find the person guilty of the crime, not just to get a conviction at trial. 

How Close to Death Must a Woman Be to Get an Abortion in Tennessee?

Yes, this is an actual question we must confront in the wake of the radical conservative U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last summer to end the federal right to abortion. While Tennessee’s abortion ban is the strictest in the country, other conservative states appear likely to enact similar restrictions. 

The Guardian’s Stephanie Kirchgaessner explains what is happening in Tennessee as lawmakers debate whether to add exceptions to the state’s abortion ban. 

“Now a political debate over how to change the law is centered on questions that would have been considered unthinkable before last June’s reversal of Roe v Wade: like how close to death a woman must be before a doctor may legally treat her if it means terminating her pregnancy, and whether women should be forced to carry embryos with fatal anomalies to term.

Will Brewer, the powerful lobbyist of Tennessee Right to Life, a Christian anti-abortion group that wrote the current ban, has been accused of waging a campaign of intimidation against lawmakers who he has said are seeking to “weaken” the law. In public testimony and private meetings, Brewer has said women should only be offered terminations if they are facing acute emergencies – such as when they enter an emergency room “bleeding out” – and suggested some complications can “work themselves out” without medical intervention.

Speaking last week before the West Knoxville Republican Club, Brewer also questioned the veracity of medical diagnoses involving what is known as lethal fetal anomalies.

“Who’s to say with any kind of certainty what a medically futile pregnancy is or a fatal fetal anomaly, which is some condition with the baby that will not allow it to live outside of the womb?” he said.”

Doctors, you bleeping vermin. Doctors can say. 

To be clear, the proposed exceptions won’t help people who can become pregnant access care—but they may mislead voters into thinking these forced-birth Republicans are being more reasonable. We should not fall for the ruse in Tennessee or any other state. 

Also, we can expect the situation to continue to get worse, based on what almost happened in Oklahoma this week. 

Thank you for reading Things I Find Interesting by Craig Cheslog. This post is public so feel free to share it.

Quick Pitches

California

The amount of rain and snow California has received from a series of bomb cyclones and atmospheric rivers has dramatically changed the drought situation in the state over the past six months. The graphic in this story includes a slider illustrating the changes. (Harriet Blair Rowan, Bay Area News Group)

But while things are better with California’s water storage system, I think it is insane that parts of the state are already lifting water use restrictions. The changing weather patterns created by the climate emergency should lead to constant caution about water use going forward. (Ian James, Los Angeles Times)

Politics

Former President Donald Trump is holding a rally in Waco, Texas, this Saturday. This event will fall during the 30th anniversary of the siege against the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, an event that has become symbolic for the far-right in this country. Trump is being as subtle here as Ronald Reagan was when he launched his 1980 general presidential campaign with a “states’ rights” speech in the same community where the Mississippi Burning murders of three civil rights workers occurred 16 years earlier. (Will Carless, USA Today)

The April 4 Wisconsin Supreme Court election could be the most important one of the year. That court has had a conservative majority since 2008, but a victory by Janet Protasiewicz would create a 4-3 liberal majority. “While state Supreme Court races have historically been overlooked in the wider electoral landscape, their composition has widespread ramifications for voting rights, civil rights and a slew of other state policy implications. State Supreme Courts are also often the final arbiters of election disputes, as demonstrated in the 2020 election cycle. Given Wisconsin’s swing state status and the looming 2024 presidential election, the outcome of this Wisconsin Supreme Court race will have impacts not only on the state, but the entire country as well.” (Ellis Champion, Democracy Docket)

We can’t make this point often enough: people who are angry about so-called “wokeness” are just doing what people with their beliefs did when they used political correctness as an epithet years ago. “To say that traditional hierarchies are just and good, well, that’s simply conservatism. It has been since the 18th century. And to say that those hierarchies do not reflect justice and that people should be equal under the law—all the people, not only propertied white men—well, that’s more or less just liberalism. But if you don’t like it, you’d probably call it woke.” (Adam Serwer, The Atlantic: h/t to Stacey Greer for sharing the article)

“You might think that any American judge would be severely penalized for tormenting an innocent child in open court, but you would be wrong. Federal judges, protected by life tenure, can mistreat people in their courtrooms, including spectators, with near impunity and little fear of meaningful punishment. That is just what happened last month in San Diego, when senior Federal District Judge Roger Benitez committed what can only be described as a blatant act of child abuse.” Judge Benitez ordered a defendant’s 13-year-old daughter handcuffed as he threatened her. There is no excuse for this abuse. In a sane world, Benitez would resign or be impeached and removed from office. (Steven Lubet, Slate)

Here is the story of the day a sitting president, Ulysses Grant, was arrested for speeding in his horse-drawn carriage. (Martin Pengelly, The Guardian)

How is this okay?

Science

Mysterious streaks of light seen in Sacramento last week were likely created by the re-entry burning of Japanese communications equipment that astronauts jettisoned from the International Space Station in 2020. (Jennifer McDermott, Associated Press)

The United States maternal mortality rate rose significantly in 2021. I believe the abortion bans that came into force in 2022 will lead to further increases. (Jacqueline Howard, CNN)

Rolls-Royce will receive funding from the United Kingdom’s Space Agency to build a nuclear reactor for astronauts to use on the moon. (Anmar Frangoul, CNBC)

Most movie theatres have red seats because of how our eyes react in low-light situations. Red is the first color we lose the ability to discern as the lights dim, known as the Purkinje effect. “As the lights dim in the theater, the seats — and the walls and curtains, which are also often red — quickly fade into darkness. That helps our eyes focus their attention on the screen, making the movie-viewing experience more enjoyable.” (Dan Lewis, Now I Know)

Technology

I want to emphasize this point that explains how banning TikTok won’t fix the privacy problems created by technology. “We’ve noted for a while now how the great TikTok moral panic of 2023 is largely a distraction. It’s a distraction from the fact we’ve refused to meaningfully regulate dodgy data brokers, who traffic in everything from your daily movement habits to your mental health diagnosis. And it’s a distraction from our corrupt failure to pass even a baseline privacy law for the internet era. Most of the folks crying the loudest about TikTok were the same people that created the policy environment that lets TikTok (and anybody else) play fast and loose with consumer data in the first place.” (Karl Bode, Techdirt)

Microsoft announced a new artificial intelligence addition to its applications, Copilot, based on the new GPT-4 from OpenAI. (Tom Warren, The Verge)

I don’t think we should be surprised to learn that there was a significant rise in antisemitic tweets on Twitter after new owner Elon Musk restored the accounts of antisemitic people. (Cristiano Lima, Washington Post)

Culture

The Ringer’s Nora Princiotti and Nathan Hubbard take a deep dive (IYKYK) into the first weekend of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour from Swift City, Arizona (the city of Glendale temporarily changed its name) in the latest installment of their Every Single Album podcast. Forty-four songs over three hours, with no intermission, surpassing what Bruce Springsteen and Prince did in their legendary concerts. I did enjoy checking out some of Swift’s performances via TikTok live streams. 

Also, what future NFL Hall of Famer J.J. Watt said: “You can tell when somebody does something at the top of their game.”

The Bay Lights art installation of lights on the western span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge were turned off earlier this month while fundraising continues to install a new and improved version. Somehow, though, some of the strands of lights turned themselves back on a week later. That required Ben Davis of Illuminate, the nonprofit that creates public works of art, to join a team from CalTrans to literally pull the plug from a room in the bridge’s center anchorage. A reporter joined them for the trip that included the need to overcome several complications. (Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle)

The 2022 World Nature Photography Award winners are as remarkable as you’d expect them to be. The top honor went to “Jens Cullmann of Germany for his arresting image of a crocodile camouflaged in caked mud, only one of its bright yellow eyes looking directly at the camera.” (Rebekah Brandes, Nice News)

Sports

Japan went undefeated to win the 2023 World Baseball Classic, finishing the job with a 3-2 win over the United States. The final matchup of the championship game featured Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels pitching against teammate Mike Trout. You couldn’t script a better finish. 

But now let’s move this tournament in 2026 to November so players can recover from the inevitable injuries during the offseason. 

Also, Ohtani deservedly made the All-World Baseball Classic Team both as a pitcher and as a designated hitter. He is achieving things no previous player has accomplished. 

The 2026 Men’s World Cup Final may have to move from Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium because the field is not wide enough to host a soccer game without taking away too many seats and therefore reducing the potential attendance below current FIFA requirements. The stadium’s owner, Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, also owns Arsenal of the English Premier League, so I am unsure what excuse he’d have for such an oversight. (Neil deMause, Field of Schemes)

What’s Coach Beard reading? While we have to wait a week between new episodes as we progress through season three of Ted Lasso, you could use some of that gap to read this analysis of every book reference from Season 2 of the show. (Danika Ellis, Book Riot)

The Closer

We have to give Tucker Carlson credit for self-knowledge. 

Post-Game Comments

Today’s Thought from my Readwise collection:

“If one of the miseries of being human is that happiness can be snatched away at any moment, one of the joys is that it may be restored equally unexpectedly.” (Robert Harris, Dictator: A Novel of Ancient Rome)

Thank you for reading my newsletter. Let me know what you think about what you’ve read. You can email me at craigcheslog@substack.com. 

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