Monday, August 21, 2006

The Big Lie

The greatest foreign policy disaster in our nation's history, and Bush thinks he can just lie his way out of it. From Carpet Bagger:

After the president had just gone through a litany of the inevitable tragedies that would occur if the U.S. withdrew from Iraq, Cox News' Ken Herman noted that "a lot of the consequences you mentioned for pulling out seem like maybe they never would have been there if we hadn't gone in." Bush responded, "You know, I've heard this theory about everything was just fine until we arrived, and kind of 'we're going to stir up the hornet's nest' theory. It just doesn't hold water, as far as I'm concerned. The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East."

Herman interrupted, asking, "What did Iraq have to do with that?" prompting Bush to ask, "What did Iraq have to do with what?" (Laurel & Hardy, of course, came to mind.) When Herman clarified, asking what Iraq had to do with 9/11, the president said:

"Nothing, except for it's part of — and nobody has ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a — the lesson of September the 11th is, take threats before they fully materialize, Ken. Nobody has ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq."

Incompetant and dishonarable. A petulant child waiting for Daddy (or Daddy's fixer, Jim Baker) to come in and bail his ass out of another mess. This is Lie and Die politics - he lies, American soldiers and Iraqi civilians die.

Trouble is, it wasn't just Bush or even the Bush Administration or, for that matter, the neocon political machine. It was also an American public that wanted an excuse to invade Iraq and kill people. Yes, the media helped immensely, and had kept up the lie longer than it otherwise would have, but the fundamental truth is that the majority of the American public fully approved of the lie, knowing it to be a lie.

Bush will be gone in a little over two years. The dishonor of the republic will linger a lot longer than that.

Anglachel

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