Bereuter's Opposition to Iraq Ignored by Conservative Media

As a native Nebraskan who has always been frustrated and slightly baffled by the fact that the majority of Cornhuskers vote Republican, I was pleased to learn that US Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Nebraska, a senior Republican member of the House International Relations Committee, spoke out against the war of Iraq. His decision to break ranks with the GOP chickenhawks suggests that not all Republicans are willing to be puppets of Cheney and co. and is a sign that political independence.

As John Nichols reports in The Nation:

US Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Nebraska, the vice chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence and one of the senior Republican members of the House International Relations Committee, announced after a thorough review of the information available to him that he had come to the conclusion that the US invasion and occupation of Iraq was unjustified. "I've reached the conclusion, retrospectively, now that the inadequate intelligence and faulty conclusions are being revealed, that all things being considered, it was a mistake to launch that military action," explained Bereuter, who added that, "knowing what I know about the reliance on tenuous or insufficiently corroborted intelligence used to conclude that Saddam maintained a substantial WMD (Wepaons of mass destruction) arsenal, I believe that launching the pre-emptive military action was not justified."

Infuriatingly, Bereuter's remarks and his reasons for concluding that the pre-emptive militrary strike on Iraq was a mistake have been largely ignored by the mass meda, which continues to assist Karl Rove by focusing attention on the lies propagated by the so-called "Swift Vote Veterans for Truth," . Once again, the conservative media bury a real news story in favor of sensationalistic, discredited propaganda.

I'm curious about how Nebraskans, particularly those who back Bush, feel about Bereuter's conclusion regarding Iraq and the nasty campaign being run by Bush/Cheney. Any reports from readers in Nebraska are welcome.