Tonight PBS offered part one of "Bush's War" in it's Frontlines series. Generally the program was ok in it's calm, matter-of-fact way. But it left a lot unsaid.

It showed the medacity of evil well enough but it didn't give enough background information. The program leaned on tactics in propaganda and statecraft, but did not discuss motivation.

For example, there was no background on Cheney's energy policy and the thirst for oil. In March of 2001 Colin Powell made the demand that Afghanistan accept pipelines to serve the various oil companies - "either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs" by October, 2001. Even Enron had a hand in those pipelines, with their electric plant in western India requiring natural gas. And we bombed them right on schedule.

There was no discussion of normal extradition channels of bin Laden. The Taliban government made the normal request for evidence and the Bush administration shuddered at the thought. Little was discussed about our Afghan 'northern alliance' of drug/gun/slave traders, or the strange escape of al Qaeda and Taliban leadership prior to Tora Bora.

There was absolutely no discussion of anti-war activity until the Iraq bombs fell. Only then was there a minor clip of protesters in the distance. The entire purpose of this program was due to the largely effective opposition the people of America and the world made in countering the lies of the Bush NeoConartists. All of the Bush machinations would not have been necessary if not for the good works of the diverse coalitions of peacemakers.

When the program turned to torture, there was no mention of the Massacre at Mazar al Sharif - when approximately 3000 prisoners were put into cargo containers, without air, driven over 100 miles into the desert and the survivors shot to death and buried in mass graves. But the program did acknowledge that rendition is and was a standard. It did factually state the horrid conditions of prisoners then and now.

There was absolutely no mention of the Downing Street Memos, so the true entrance of Great Britain into the Iraq war was left to an odd 'pledge' Tony Blair is said to have been tricked into making.

Some information was broached about the civil-service turmoil in DC regarding these Constitutional violations. The real patriots are not mentioned, only the culprits and cowards. The true history of these hidden patriots will someday be acknowledged.

One odd clip that I found useful was when VP Cheney said "we must go into the dark side" on Sept 16, 2001. That was made the morning that Barak Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, gave the famous "chickens home to roost - God Damn America" speech. It all makes sense that a religious man, seeing a master criminal talk of consorting with darkness, would make such a speech so soon after Sept 11.

Overall, the program is well crafted but lacking a lot. PBS provides a service when it calmly describes this coup, but we wish they would have alerted us a long time ago.

Part two airs tomorrow night. Will America survive? Stay tuned...
///\\\
The entire program can be viewed on-line at the following PBS website.