When the oil-industry friendly Brett Bozell Media Research Center echo chamber isn’t spreading misinformation about the state of climate change science, it has other interests such as the war in Iraq.
Here’s some archived quotes from the MRC concerning the Iraq war: (added emphasis in italics)
Media Research Center, April 15, 2003:
“War is hell, but a short, successful war that ends with the natives dancing in the streets presents a particular hell for the ‘peace’ movement.”
Media Research Center, Feb. 5, 2003:
“All the evidence of the last 12 years points to the fact that Saddam Hussein and his regime have continuously lied to the world about his manufacturing and concealment of weapons of mass destruction.”
Media Research Center, April 15, 2003:
“Now it’s time for the conservative media critics to get our due. Now that the war is over and Iraqis are cheering in the streets, isn’t it high time to assess how all of the press’s negativity – especially before the war, if not just during – has made the Fourth Estate look positively goofy?”
Media Research Center, April 17, 2003:
“Gulf War II will be remembered for many things, not the least of them being another American victory that left the world in awe, just as America’s commanders predicted it would. It will also be remembered as having triggered another exercise in leftwing press agitation, with media armchair generalissimos making fools of themselves with one ridiculous pronouncement after another.”
Okay, so maybe Brett Bozell and the MRC team got a few things wrong on the outcome of the Iraq war, but hey, shouldn’t we trust them on climate science?
Here’s some other like minded (and like-funded) global warming denying “think” tanks and their thoughts on the Iraq war:
American Enterprise Institute, May 2, 2003:
“From start to finish, President Bush has led the United States and its coalition partners to the most important military victory since World War II… This was a war worth fighting. It ended quickly with few civilian casualties and with little damage to Iraq’s cities, towns or infrastructure. It ended without the Arab world rising up against us, as the war’s critics feared, without the quagmire they predicted, without the heavy losses in house-to-house fighting they warned us to expect.”
Frontiers of Freedom, Feb 24, 2003:
“It’s about the oil that pumps out of Iraq’s oil wells and into Saddam Hussein’s pockets in the amount of $20B plus per year. It because of this estimated $20 – 25B that Saddam can develop and hide his arsenal of chemical and biological weapons, and continue to advance his plans to develop first-strike nuclear capabilities.”
The Heritage Foundation, March 19, 2003:
“Iraq’s ongoing development of weapons of mass destruction means that the United States or its interests could be the targets of an attack with little or no warning.”
But let’s just forget about all this. Surely, they’ve learned their lesson and are dead on when it comes to their interpretation of climate science.
