Thursday, October 27, 2005

"True Pretenses", or, the measured right-wing response to the call for Congressional inquiry into the actions of the White House Iraq Group

I haven't been able to find anything written on the Right about the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), and for good reason. No publicity about the Group can be good for the Right's arguments about war aims. This blog entry is the very first thing that I've found written anywhere on the Right side of the internets about the group that gave this blog its raison d'ĂȘtre.

First, of course, is the typical Rovian ad hominem attack on your attacker as shown in the title of this blog posting: Conservatives Are Always Right :: Socialist Anti-American Pansy Demands Inquiry into "WHIG". After more obligatory name-calling about the "Socialist, anti-American, pro-bin Laden pansy who is incapable of any kind of rational thought or comprehension" (a.k.a. Dennis Kucinich), Mr/Ms Conservativesarealwaysright quotes from the Wikipedia definition of WHIG for the benefit of his/her readers ("... One example of the WHIG's functions and influence is the "escalation of rhetoric about the danger that Iraq posed to the US, including the introduction of the term 'mushroom cloud'"), and dismisses attacks on the group with this gem:
"That's it. That's the problem: A group worked to drive support for the Iraq war based on true pretenses." [emphasis added]
To which I would add a helpful quote from Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10e):
pretense, or pretence \\ n (15c) 1: a claim made or implied; esp : one not supported by fact 2 a : mere ostentation : PRETENTIOUSNESS {confuse dignity with pomposity and ~ --Bennett Cerf} b : a pretentious act or assertion 3 : an inadequate or insincere attempt to attain a certain condition or quality 4 : professed rather than real intention or purpose : PRETEXT {was there under under false ~s} 5 : MAKE-BELIEVE, FICTION 6 : false show : SIMULATION {saw through his ~ of indifference}
Pretenses have never been truer than the pretenses of the White House Iraq Group.


crossposted from WHIGGATE UPDATE @whiggate.org

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