Topic category:  Corruption of American News Media

In Greek tragedy, hubris is excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis.

Nemesis is the inescapable or implacable agent of someone's or something's downfall.

It is apparent that the authors of Hubris, leftist journalists Michael Isikoff and David Corn, regulars on Crazy Chris Matthews' "Hardball," fancy themselves nemeseses of the members of the George W. Bush Administration who decided that taking military action to end Saddam Hussein's reign in Iraq was necessary and are out to bring them down and make sure that Condoleezza Rice is not on a national Republican ticket. (In sharp contrast, Colin Powell, who made the case for war as United States Secretary of State at the United Nations, but subsequently supported the Obama presidential campaigns supposedly as a Republican, was "whitewashed," that is, treated as an honorable fellow who was deceived and used by others hellbent on war, because Paul Wolfowitz despised Saddam Hussein for decades and finally managed to convince President George W. Bush to invade Iraq.)

The "gods" whom these terrible Bush Administration members defied seem to be Saddam Hussein, then Senator and now President Barack Obama and those of the same ilk as Isikoff and Corn.

The book description of Hubris is as follows:

"THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE INVASION OF IRAQ

"Now an MSNBC Documentary, hosted by Rachel Maddow

"Filled with news-making revelations that made it a New York Times bestseller, Hubris takes us behind the scenes at the White House, CIA, Pentagon, State Department, and Congress to show how George W. Bush came to invade Iraq - and how his administration struggled with the devastating fallout.

"Hubris connects the dots between Bush's expletive-laden outbursts at Saddam Hussein, the bitter battles between the CIA and the White House, the fights within the intelligence community over Saddam's supposed weapons of mass destruction, the outing of an undercover CIA officer, and the Bush administration's misleading sales campaign for war. Written by veteran reporters Michael Isikoff and David Corn, this is an inside look at how a president took the nation to war using faulty and fraudulent intelligence. It's a dramatic page-turner and an intriguing account of conspiracy, backstabbing, bureaucratic ineptitude, journalistic malfeasance, and arrogance."

The Hubris take on the invasion of Iraq is fundamentally flawed, as the MSNBC documentary and the discussion that followed it confirmed.

In their zeal to demonize those who decided that invasion was necessary and after the September 11, 2001 attacks, were loathe to give the benefit of the doubt to Saddam Hussein, Hubris disregards the reality that Saddam Hussein could have avoided the invasion by demonstrating that he did not have the weapons of mass destruction he was suspected of having and complied with United Nations resolutions instead of refusing to do so.

After Pearl Harbor and September 11, the United States should be resolved not to suffer another sneak attack. Blame Hitler for World War II. Blame Saddam Hussein for the invasion of Iraq. He could have avoided it, easily.

Michael J. Gaynor

Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.