Doug Bandow, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, wrote a fantastic piece over at ReasonOnline called Whose Fault? Accountability According to the GOP. Here he confronts head-on the intellectually vapid GOP mantra that the problems in Iraq are all the fault of "the media."

The failure to understand why the American people have turned against the war demonstrates that the administration and its allies are simultaneously arrogant and tone-deaf. While conservatives routinely denounced President Bill Clinton for failing to accept responsibility for his actions, the GOP now is taking the cult of the victim to new heights.

Bush Administration rhetoric of mushroom clouds, bioterrorism, unmanned aerial planes that could hit America, etc. weren't created by "the media." The American media didn't falsely promise that Iraqi's would shower our troops with rose petals or that the occupation would pay for itself. The media didn't predict that our troop strength in Iraq would fall to 30,000 by last summer or that our traditional allies would be falling all over themselves to jump on the victory bandwagon.

"Once we have victory in Baghdad, all the critics will look like fools," said Cheney. Not quite. And don't blame the media.

It's not just Iraq, either. By diverting massive resources away from Afghanistan, and to Iraq, the Bush administration short-changed operations in Afghanistan. The "government" of Ahmed Karzai is little more than a glorified Mayorship of Kabul. Other War Lords refuse to aknowledge the "federal government" of Karzai. Foreign investors shun Afghanistan significantly more than they did under the Taliban regime, pointing towards a very bleak and bloody future for the Afghani's. And it's all tracable to the Bush administration's lust for Iraq. Not only is the media not to blame for that, they aren't even covering it much.

A conservative Independent friend of mine has sent me numerous emails blaming Kerry (and McCain) for the brutalization of the Hmong ethnic minority in Vietnam. The basic argument is that Kerry and McCain are responsible for this because they helped normalize relations between the governments of Vietnam and the United States. Normally I seriously doubt that the Religious Right would care. But, the Hmong happen to be overwhelmingly Protestant Christians. So the conclussion is that they are being brutalized because they are Christians - ignoring the historical fact that the Hmong were brutalized before they ever converted to Christianity. Therefore, so the logic goes, it is a Christian duty to oppose John Kerry. There are a multitude of problems with that point of view. But, what's interesting is that Christians are being persecuted in Iraq right now.

Christians are being brutalized and Christian churches are being bombed; 40,000 Christians have fled to Syria, an ugly anti-American dictatorship. Journalists aren't to blame for these problems.

One can search any of the usual Freeper hangouts online and find numerous references to the Hmong and Kerry. But, try to find even one about Bush and the persecuted Christians in Iraq.

The media has done nothing more than report on the results of Bush administration policies in Iraq.