By Anthony Wade
OpEdNews.Com
Does it matter to you anymore? Have we all become so jaded through the years of deceptions, one after another, that we have become immune to them? Have we become so conditioned by the masters of creating the Bush Brand, that we just don't expect anything less, than dishonesty? Has it all become acceptable to us? Does it matter to you anymore?
I am speaking about the truth. I am not talking about spin, or Congressional reports which are led by members of the same party of the President and hold no worth whatsoever. I want to make sure we all ask ourselves this fundamental question and remember it well as November approaches. Does the truth matter to us anymore? Should we hold our President to the simple standard of telling us the truth? We are supposed to be in a representative democracy after all.
There are some points we all must agree on, despite the recent whitewash by Congress. Anyone who paid nominal attention in the lead up to war, knows that there were two reasons why our President asked for our support. One, was the imminent danger Saddam posed because of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The second reason was an alleged "connection" between Saddam and the events of 9-11.
On the first count, there is an avalanche of evidence that this was the given justification for war. You must remember that in our society, war powers do not reside in the President; he must ask the people for the ability to wage war. His reason for asking for our support was WMD. The amount of lies told regarding this are in the 100's. There can be no doubt about this fact. In case you are still skeptical, here is a link to an 8 minute audio file, reminding you of only some of the blatant lies told by this administration about WMD:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5115.htm
Not convinced? Here is a link listing 237 separate lies about WMD, including source material:
http://www.house.gov/reform/min/features/iraq_on_the_record/
Skeptical still? Here is another compiled database:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/WMDlies.html
I could go on and on. The fact of the matter is that this President told us repeatedly, the necessity for this war, because of WMD, and that just is not supported. He lied. Now, the folks on the right will insist that he had bad intelligence, and try to blame the intelligence community. Ask yourself honestly if that absolves the President, whose job it is to determine what intelligence, is let's say, intelligent, and what is more suspect. When you actually get into the bowels of the Congressional report, you find that the President, unconvinced that he would hear what he wanted from the Pentagon, placed his own intelligence cell within the Pentagon, to report to him on Iraq. I want to make sure you grasped that. The President of the United States knew he wouldn't hear what he wanted, which could lead him to the war he wanted, so he placed his own inside people, led by Douglas Feith to circumvent the CIA. Then, when the lies are exposed, he wants to blame the intelligence community. You have to ask yourself, is that fair?
On the bogus Saddam-al Qaeda connection, any reasonable person knows these allegations have been debunked. The republican led 9-11 commission even found no relationship between them. The folks on the right will point to the work of discredited Weekly Standard writer, Stephen Hayes, who based his lies, on a "secret" memo, which of course was crafted by none other than Douglas Feith, yes the same Douglas Feith. So, lets see if I have this right. An extreme right-wing ideologue is given the responsibility of providing bogus intel to the President to propagate war, unbeknownst to the CIA. That same extremist is also responsible for writing a memo, which has already been debunked by the professional intelligence community, which is now being touted as the smoking gun of a relationship that no one really believes ever occurred. After these facts, we are still asked to believe that the President is simply the victim of bad intelligence.
The worst part of all of this is not even the lies. It is what has happened since the lies have come to light. One would expect a contrite Bush, at least taking some responsibility for the situation, as it is. Even if he wanted us to believe all of these "mistakes" have no real connection to him, he at least should be asking for some understanding, some forgiveness for how we have gotten here. Instead what we have is nothing but further proof that this man simply does not care what you or I think, as long as his empire dreams are realized. We first saw the horror of the casualness of Bush when Diane Sawyer interviewed him, on December 16, 2003. After the capture of Saddam Hussein, Bush was positively giddy as he agreed to step out behind his controlled media environment and actually do an interview. What Bush didn't expect, was an honest question. Diane Sawyer asked him what everyone needs to still ask him today. She asked him about the exaggeration of WMD, which led up to this war. You see, Ms. Sawyer correctly understood that the capture of Hussein, is essentially irrelevant in the face of such overwhelming evidence of purposeful lies by the administration. Bush was clearly not expecting the question and tried to dodge it. She persisted and asked again, and Bush again tried to push the question away. After she asked the question that should be on the lips of every American for a third time, we saw the true Bush. We saw how he truly feels about the lies. His response was:
So what's the difference?
Indeed, what is the difference. I suppose that question needs to be asked to the families of the over 1000 dead American soldiers. Ask them what the difference is Mr. President. I suppose that should be asked to the families of the over 11,000 dead Iraqi civilians. What's the difference? I guess that should be the question you need to ask yourself as you walk into the voting booth this November. You need to ask yourself, what's the difference. Don't lose this in the translation America. Don't fall for the scam the White House is trying now. Whenever the truth about the lies is asked of this administration, the answer now is "isn't the world better off without Saddam Hussein?" When you hear this foolishness you need to remind yourself that was not the point. We do not live in a Machiavellian society. The ends do not justify the means. By asking you to consider that the world is better off without Saddam, which it is, they are asking you not consider the fact that they lied to you to get their war.
Does it matter to you anymore? Does the truth matter to you anymore? Is the message we send this November that it is ok for our President to casually lie to the people he is supposed to represent. Is it ok for our President to try and absolve himself of responsibility, when he went out of his way to cook his own intelligence? Does the truth matter to us anymore?
When you walk into that voting booth this November, you need to ask yourself not if the world is better off without Hussein, but is this country better off with a man who so casually lies to you. Is this country better off with a man who is so callous about the lives he takes every day in this illegitimate war, that his natural reflex response is "what's the difference."
I hope we all show him what the difference is this November.
Anthony Wade is an independent writer from New York.
Email to takebacktheus@gmail.com
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