Watch and See

[Daveparts]

Could it be possible that the most trivial and in consequential might very well be the most insightful. Even the twenty something percentage of the population that still claim to stand with the President will grudgingly admit that some time perhaps the administration plays fast and loose with the truth. Of course all politicians play games with the truth but there are lies and then again there are lies.

When Roosevelt left the country to meet with Churchill to form the Atlantic Charter the US public was given a cover story, which was in fact a lie. A lie with an obvious reason, to protect the President as well as the safety of the Prime Minister. When Eisenhower had his stroke it was presented to the American public that he had needed dental surgery. Again a blatant lie, again with obvious reasons, this was after all the height of the cold war with all its associated hysteria and paranoia.

Clinton’s famous lie, “I did not have sex with that woman.” Again it was a blatant lie unless you want to play that game, “What your definition of is, is.” Don’t think I’m bashing Clinton here there are plenty of arguments to bash Clinton about but this is not one of them. Clinton was telling a lie about his personal life a seamy and tawdry event in his personal life that had more effect on his own personal affairs than the publics. There is not one person in a thousand that doesn’t have some personal event in their life that while under interrogation at Guantonomo and threatened with a firing squad would not lie about.

As Mark Twain recounted, “The trouble with lying is that the field is over run with amateurs.” We all lie for a good reason to protect the feelings of others to protect friends and family members. Politicians lie to do the same but some how we take offense when a politician lies to try and save himself.

Politicians are the stage managers of our political theatre; they operate both in front and behind the curtain. When Ronald Reagan compared the Contras to our own founding fathers he was well aware that they were burning down schools and clinics. This was an administration policy to remove what they considered an unfriendly government. Reagan was telling a paternal lie like eat all you vegetables so you’ll grow up big and strong like Popeye.

Sure Mom wanted you to grow up big and strong but she also wanted you to clean your plate so she didn’t have to try and save half a cup of peas. It was in your interest but it was also in hers to tell a lie, albeit a little one. All Presidents’ do it regardless of party affiliation. When the Iraqi government under Saddam tried to have sanctions removed the vested powers knew that Saddam had no chemical weapons left. That the shelf life of most chemical weapons is measured in months not years informers from inside the regime had made them aware that Iraq’s fledgling nuclear program was dead. Scott Ritter U.N. weapons inspector said, “We had accounted for 98.9 % of Saddam’s weapons.”

So why did so many people of all different nationalities and political stripes lie jumping up and down swearing to high heaven Saddam still has weapons? Just like mom eating your peas made less trouble for her and swearing Saddam still had weapons made it easier and less trouble for the world to contain him.

To the OPEC nations who feared Saddam were also quick to catch on that limiting Iraq oil on world markets kept oil prices up and their share of quotas up. Kuwait who had been accused by Saddam of slant drilling into Iraqi territory could now carry on unmolested.

To the United States the sanctions on Iraq made forward bases in the Middle East justified and made the need for the OPEC states to play nice with Uncle Sam imperative lest he let the tiger out of the box. The no fly zones in Northern Iraq gave hope to the Kurds that they yet might achieve independence but Uncle Sam was quick to point out only if they cooperated thus Turkey is placated.

To the Europeans, the Iranians and the Japanese the mad man was contained in his box and as long as he could be kept in his box they could all sleep easier about their own interests. To Israel it was the best thing since cherry Coke a potential threat hobbled. The lie fitted and suited the world’s purposes and worked well except maybe for the hardships it placed on the Iraqi people but politicians care little for hardships on people especially other people just as Reagan didn’t care about the Nicaraguans that didn’t have a school or a clinic.

But as most of us are aware and were warned by our mothers that sometimes when you lie it can come back to haunt you. After 9-11 and the Bush administration began the ramp up to war in Iraq the centerpiece of their argument was Saddam hidden weapons. The nations of the world were caught in the teeth of their own lie, no argument reguardless of it’s good intentions or it’s beneficial aspects for the worlds economy could buy them absolution.

It aptly explains why the UN would go along with the Bush administration in it’s demands against Saddam but recoiled from the final resolution allowing military action.The liar’s best defense is to tell more lies but they were hamstrung and unable to tell the truth at the moment of truth because they had relied so much on comfortable lies while at their leisure.

The world had been had and the confederacy of liars was broken and exposed; only the UK remained in the liars club. The UN mumbled and grumbled and has been at odds with the Bush administration ever since. But the administration claimed they had all the authorization they needed due to Saddam’s hidden weapons and the world’s leaders mumbled and shuffled their feet and staring at the ground saying quietly, well of course you do.

There is little doubt now that the invasion of Iraq is the worst foreign policy debacle in history outstripping even Vietnam. In Vietnam the US was in interloper in an all ready ongoing conflict, while in Iraq we were the instigator we created war where there was none. The administration has tried to paint this jalopy more times than Earl Shibe and as soon as each lie is exposed they pull out another before the paint is even dry on the last coat.

So this week the President had his watch stolen in Albania, so who hasn’t had things stolen from them? But instead of just saying, “Oops” the administration chooses to tell an all time whopper. The Video footage is on You tube it has been aired on national news programs and yet Tony Snow borrowing a line from Groucho Marx says, “Who you going to believe me or your own lying eyes?” Tony Snow, insisted that Mr. Bush had put the watch into his pocket for safe keeping. "The President put it in his pocket and it returned safely home", he said.

A slight of hand worthy of Penn and Teller or David Cooperfield his post-White House career is assured. Starring at the Belliagio, The Amazing Georgeo! We shouldn’t be surprised after all he made the surplus disappear just as fast didn’t he?

But it speaks volumes about this administration the most trivial and in consequential event really more trouble to lie about than to tell the truth but they just can’t. Like the bar room know it all when corrected they concoct the absurd as a defense and will lie even when it is obvious to all that they are lying it’s pathological.

Just like they lied about the President’s military service or John McCain in South Carolina, or John Kerry in Vietnam. Or about 9-11 or about the need to go to war in the first place or the desire to get Bin Laden. Or about Abu Garib and Guantonamo or the Patriot act or about the economy or about our losses in Iraq or about the money lost or squandered. Or the secret renditions and violations of the FISA act. About the Presidents senior drug program that aides drug companies more than seniors or about the deficit. Or about our plans to stay in Iraq forever and the plan to steal the Iraqi’s oil or about the fired US attorneys. All lies all the time, I won’t believe them if they told me the building was on fire and I smelled smoke the truth is just not in them and if they would lie about something so small as a wristwatch they’re lying about everything