On Fox News, It's 2003 All Over Again

By Frances Langum — January 3, 2020

[Above: May 2018, Dick Cheney argues for a permanent war in the Middle East because "WMD's."]

Trump's overt assassination of a leading Iranian general (and subsequent victory lap) has led Fox News to get all the old Iraq War pimps back together again. (Hat-tip to Media Matters's Andrew Lawrence for taking the hit on these tweets.)

There's tremendous effort on Fox to make SURE their viewers don't equate the attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad with Benghazi. Because Fox News viewers "remember" Benghazi. It's one of the brainwash words Fox News has used for years to trigger hatred for Hillary Clinton.

But don't call it "Trump's Benghazi"!

Fox News is currently Very Upset that the media is comparing one attack on an embassy to another attack on an embassy pic.twitter.com/1t0auHp4Rk

— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) January 2, 2020

On the other hand, Fox News viewers can't possibly remember the Iraq War because Glenn Beck's Fox News-sponsored Tea Party movement was the Bush-off machine (h/t Driftglass) that allowed all Fox News viewers to forget there ever was a George W. Trump. Er, I mean...

WHY then have on Ari Fleisher to deliver Dick Cheney's old fail "we will be greeted as liberators" speech?

Ari Fleischer: "I think it is entirely possible that this is going to be a catalyst inside Iran where the people celebrate this killing of Soleimani" pic.twitter.com/UfcTOkvqAw

— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) January 3, 2020

And Karl Rove?

Karl Rove and Ari Fleischer currently on Fox News breaking everything down pic.twitter.com/Xm3DwyCF3u

— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) January 3, 2020

I'm dead.

pic.twitter.com/XHIALtvLu3

— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) January 3, 2020

And then there's this...breaking up the tension with Joe Piscopo.

Now currently on Fox News pic.twitter.com/iJnqkl6v2n

— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) January 3, 2020

Happy New Year!

The only reason Trump did this is that he believed years of fake Fox News propaganda that we "stood down" in Benghazi, and he felt under pressure to put on a big, visible show that was the opposite of that.

This isn't just Trump's war. It's Fox News's war too.

— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) January 3, 2020

The Bush administration had to actually work to sell the Iraq war: elaborate presentations about fake WMDs, wild stories about uranium from Nigeria, lies linking Saddam to 9/11, etc. But it’s the day after Trump’s bombing and the US media is already all in. Cowards

— mike (@aniceburrito) January 3, 2020

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