Dana Perino, the mouthpiece of the of the Bush administration has, unquestionably, one of the most difficult jobs.
Not because skills it requires you to possess or risks to assume but rather because what it requires you lack. Self-respect, decency, humanity, a sense of shame are unneeded as White House Press Secretary. She’s made absurd, vicious, inexcusable statements; lies to and manipulates all the world’s people and their “leaders” daily; and struggles to re-brand America’s illegal terrorist aggression as a fight for liberty and democracy.
I find it really unfortunate — disgusting and shameful, actually — that Dana Perino uses her position as U.S. Press Secretary, to suggest that the government of the United States is not killing innocent people and that it acts to ensure “everyone has the opportunity for liberty and freedom and democracy” when that is patently not the case. It is just absurd and very offensive… to rephrase her words.
Why couldn’t she say aloud the number of dead innocent Iraqis? Voice cracking, saying first there are none, then indicating regret for their noble passing?
The 2006 British Lancet Study claimed the unprovoked aggressive war in Iraq had produced 654,965 direct and indirect excess deaths. Associated Press estimates more than 75,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed directly. And IraqBodyCount.com tracks the number daily, currently somewhere between 77 and 85 thousand. The Bush Administration spends so much time anonymously editing Wikipedia articles they most likely have seen this one, “Casualties of the Iraq war”
Her strain and sadness begins to show in that video. And I’m pulled to consider it, feel for her position and, hopefully, internal conflict.
Her so-called career, and this video especially, reminds us that Perino is too pathetic and manipulated to be compared to a higher-demon like Goebbels. Perino is a modern day “Eichmann in Jerusalem“. And she will, like him, remind us that sometimes evil can be as banal as a press conference. After all the damage she has done , she can hope that that reminder does some good.
The curious can find the full transcript below the fold.
[HELEN THOMAS] Does the President want no troops out from Iraq on his watch? I’m talking about all the troops.
MS. PERINO: Well, 5,700 troops will be home by the end of the year, so that is some troops coming home. The President said that troop levels are going to be made by commanders on the ground, and that we’re going to have to talk about –
[HELEN THOMAS] Why should it be? Why can’t the American people have a say?
MS. PERINO: — return on success. The American people have had a say. They elected a President who is their Commander-in-Chief and is making decisions based on what his commanders on the ground are telling him.
[HELEN THOMAS] And you think that was the vote of the American people?
MS. PERINO: They elected a Commander-in-Chief, and the President is bringing home 5,700 troops, based on the recommendations of his commanders on the ground and based on return on success. Hopefully in the future we can bring home more, but it’s going to depend on what General Petraeus reports and remember he will come back in March.
[HELEN THOMAS] Why should we depend on him?
MS. PERINO: Because he is the commander on the ground, Helen. He’s the one who is making sure that the situation is moving –
[HELEN THOMAS] You mean how many more people we kill?
MS. PERINO: Helen, I find it really unfortunate that you use your front row position, bestowed upon you by your colleagues, to make such statements. This is a — it is an honor and a privilege to be in the briefing room, and to suggest that we, at the United States, are killing innocent people is just absurd and very offensive.
[HELEN THOMAS] Do you know how many we have since the start of this war?
MS. PERINO: How many — we are going after the enemy, Helen. To the extent that any innocent Iraqis have been killed, we have expressed regret for it.
[HELEN THOMAS] Oh, regret. It doesn’t bring back a life.
MS. PERINO: Helen, we are in a war zone, and our military works extremely hard to make sure that everyone has the opportunity for liberty and freedom and democracy, and that is exactly what they are doing.
I’m going to move on.
Via Pensito Review
{ 0 comments… add one now }