Shock and Awe! They Lied

The Center for Public Integrity has published a paper claiming that the Bush Administration told 935 lies in the two years leading up the the attack on Iraq in 2003. The lies were told by Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Ari Fleisher. Among other things, they lied about Iraq and Al Qaeda, WMD’s, and yellow cake from Niger.

My question is this: Why are they surprised? I was born in 1950 – during my lfietime there have been wars and attacks in Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Iraq (twice), Kosovo, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador, Afghanistan, along with countless proxy wars, police actions and covert operations. They lied about every one of them. (Well, not the coverts. Those they don’t talk about at all.)

But as a rule, here’s how government works: They lie, they lie, they lie.

There’s a reason for the lies. We, the American people, are kind of a nuisance. We don’t really know anything, and we are fickle. First we like something, then we change our minds. We generally like wars, but they have to be short and not cost us much. We liked the current war at first, predictably, and just as predictably, turned against it when it got long and invisible coffin rumors surfaced.

Why would they consult us about anything? Do parents consult kids about major decisions?

There are people in government whose job is to manage public opinion. When it is time to go to war, their job is to bring us along. They are public relations specialists, or professional liars. They construct campaigns designed to appeal to our hatred and prejudice. Usually they try to scare us. Sometimes they stage events, like the Gulf of Tonkin affair.

In Gulf War I, George H.W. Bush was actually test marketing reasons for the war. He said it was about jobs. No go. He said it was about oil. No go. He said that Saddam Hussein was the next Hitler. That one worked, so they ran with it. It worked so well, in fact, that they dusted if off and used it again in 2003.

I don’t say all of this to be a downer. There are certain aspects of democratic rule that just don’t work, and leaders following mass opinion is one. We should be so lucky as to have leaders who care about our well being, who only attack other countries to benefit us. But we’re not. They attack for a myriad of unstated reasons, and we are not to know anything about any of them.

Anyway, I suppose the Center for Public Integrity has performed a useful public service here, telling us that government lies and all. What next? Are they going to shock us with stories about how the Pentagon wastes taxpayer dollars? Shock and Awe! I can hardly wait.