The left-wing righteousness was heavy in the air on Tuesday, the tenth anniversary of the U.S. war starting in Iraq. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow booked Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) to decry all the lies told to Congress and the American people about the intelligence out of Iraq. Conservatives aren't just hostage-takers on taxes or the sequester.
Duckworth called the run-up to war a "hostage situation," since members of Congress were "being threatened and had their patriotism questioned." That sounds just like the anti-conservative blather from then-MSNBC president Erik Sorenson in the early weeks of the war in Afghanistan in 2001: "Any misstep and you can get into trouble with these guys and have the Patriotism Police hunt you down." Here's how Maddow spurred the latest conservative-hostage-takers metaphor:
MADDOW: It is ten years today from the date that we invaded Iraq, and you and I have talked a number of times, politics in the Iraq war and the way that there's a real distance between those of us who didn't fight and those of you who did and who sacrificed so much and whose families have sacrificed so much. Ten years out, what do you feel like the lessons are that we still need to learn as a country in terms of how we got into that war and how we behave once we were there?
DUCKWORTH: I think the lesson with we need to learn here, Rachel, is real questioning honest discussion and real questioning of the information that`s being given to you. I feel very strongly that in the run up to Iraq, not only were the American people lied to, but members of congress were lied to.
In fact, I call it a hostage situation. I think a lot of members of Congress voted for the war because they were being threatened and had their patriotism questioned. As if, you know, you were not a true American if you wanted to know exactly what was going to be happening. I think that we are in a better place now than then.
I hope that as we talk about Iran and Syria and other places where people want to just push American troops onto the ground, that we have a real honest discussion. And, you know, Rachel, I`ve said this to you before, it`s one of the reasons why I ran for Congress because I'm going to be here, along with my fellow veterans, to say we're going to have a real discussion.
Earlier: Calm Morning Joe? Newsweek Boss Tina Brown Says GOP Are 'Suicide Bombers'
