The media still hasn't learned enough from its Iraq debacle

The savaging of Dick Cheney's op-ed was the exception, not the rule

Cheney
(Image credit: (AP Photo/CBS, Chris Usher))

With Iraq's Sunni insurgency now making a comeback, Americans have been confronted with another resurgence: That of the Iraq war's architects. It is just the neocon's latest campaign to salvage their reputations, pin the blame for Iraq on the current president, and reinvigorate the case for an ultra-militaristic foreign policy — but it is getting a lot of airtime.

In most cases, the claims being made by these folks are self-refuting. But the fact that, for example, former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz recently published the most instantly mockable op-ed in recent memory — "Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many"? Really, Dick? Really? — shouldn't distract us from the actual problem here.

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Matthew Duss is president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, based in Washington, DC.