by James Glaser
September 20, 2002

Every President except Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford have lied to me since I became an adult. We can start with Lyndon Baines Johnson, who lied about the Gulf of Tonkin incident and just this year I heard a tape of Johnson telling Secretary of Defense Robert McNanmara we were going to lose the war with Vietnam. He was saying this at the same time he was having a massive troop buildup in Vietnam. I was part of that buildup, believing that America was helping the poor people over there and we were going to win. Johnson's lies led to the death of over 58,000 young Americans.

Next there was President Richard Nixon. He had many lies. " We are not bombing Cambodia and Laos," while at the same time not only were we bombing them, but we had already sent our troops into those countries. He also lied about that break-in at the Watergate Complex.

Then there is Ronald Reagan and George Bush the First. I liked them both, but they did lie all the way through their respective terms. There were the constant lies about what the United States was doing in South America. We have to face the fact that both of these men were dealing with terrorists and "Iran Contra" was just one of these deals.

Everyone Remembers the "Read my lips, no new taxes" as George the 1st big lie, but that was small potatoes. The Reagan-Bush team was not only negotiating with terrorist nations, they were secretly selling arms to the terrorist nation of Iran and then taking the profits from these arms sales and giving them to the terrorist Contra rebels in Nicaragua. To me that is lying to the American people.

Bill Moyers said "At ten high level meetings, top officials have discussed the arms shipments to the terrorists. George Bush has attended at least five. He also heads the President's Task Force on Terrorism." Now you know why George Bush the 2nd stopped all Presidential Papers from being made public. He wants to save his dad the embarrassment of having the whole world know he lied to us.

George the 1st said "Today I am proud to deliver to the American people the results of the six months effort to review our policies and our capabilities to deal with terrorism. Our policy is clear, concise, unequivocal. We will offer no concession to terrorists, because that only leads to more terrorism. States that practice terrorism, or actively support it, will not be allowed to do so without consequence." Even as the Vice President spoke, the Reagan Administration was selling arms to terrorists. Bush knew it. He had attended meetings on arms shipments.

Just before this first President Bush went to war with Saddam Hussein, his administration came out with satellite photos reporting to show that Saddam had 250,000 troops and 1200 tanks on the Saudi border, ready to take over their oil fields. Well photos taken by commercial satellites of the same area at the same time showed only empty desert.

Bill Clinton, while not the biggest liar certainly was the most bald faced liar. Bill looked me right in the eye on TV that night and said "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." Even my Mom knew he was lying and she is a Democrat. The deal about what the definition of "is" is, was a lie too. The man had to give up his license to practice law for his lies.

To tell you the truth the lies of George W. Bush bother me more than his dad's and maybe the most of all. I think his expounding his Christian ideals all though out the campaign set me up. I so wanted him to be that different President. Bill Clifton had taken the Presidency to new lows and I had high hopes for George number two. George W. Wants this war with Saddam so bad he will say anything to get us to do it and he falls into the lying of those other Presidents.

It was about a month ago that he started. Well really I have questions about what he knew and what warnings the CIA gave him back in August of 2001 before the Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, but he is keeping that a National Secret, so who knows? About a month ago he start talking about United Nations reports and photos that showed Saddam was building up his nuclear facilities and the UN came right back and said that wasn't true.

Now President Bush is talking about a report put out in 1998 by The International Atomic Energy Agency that he says, Iraq in 1998 was "six months away" from developing nuclear weapons. The only trouble is that Atomic Energy Agency says that that report does not now nor did it ever exist. George's side kick Tony Blair has quoted from the same report.

Deputy Press Secretary Scott McClellan said the President was "referring to 1991 there." Mark Gwozdecky, the International Atomic Energy Agency chief spokesman said on September 26th and published in the Washington Times, "There has never been a report like that issued from the agency." When asked about a 1991 report, Mr. Gwozdecky said no such report was issued by IAEA in 1991.

I would have to say that those that work for President Bush also make him look bad when it comes to honesty. Just this week Donald Rumsfled and Condoleezza Rice have been telling the world about an "al Quada- Saddam" connection. Then the CIA comes out and says that there is no proof of that connection. Donald goes on to say "Sometimes the truth is so precious it must be accompanied by a body of lies." That gem was on the Friday night PBS News Hour.

This quote by George, tells me just how screwed up George W. Bush is on not only the truth, but common sense too. "War is a deep desire for peace." Our President uttered those words while getting money out of his faithful backers and they loved it.

I can't tell you why so many American Presidents feel that they have to lie to us. If any of these men just laid out the truth of their actions the vast majority of Americans would go along with what they wanted to do. However once a President is caught in a lie like each of these men have been, then every move they make is questioned.

Our current George Bush has just sent to Congress a resolution he wants passed to give him the right to attack Saddam. Well because he has been less than honest, that resolution got a special close look and right away members of Congress were asking why he wants permission not to attack Iraq, but the whole Middle East Region. Also the reasons that would warrant that attack were not limited to Saddam's building of weapons of mass destruction, but also things like Saddam cheating on the "oil for food" program. George Bush hates Saddam so much he is not only willing to lie to you and me, but he willing to risk thousands of Americans in a war about cheating on an "oil for food" United Nations program.

When an American President starts down that path of dishonesty with the American people, everything he does is questioned and nothing he utters can be taken at face value again.