by James Glaser
May 6, 2003

Spin by any other name is lying. These days our government in Washington lies to us even when they don't have to. Citizens of the United States don't know any more if what we are told is the truth or not, because for so long under every administration we are lied to. The truth does come out eventually, but by that time it doesn't matter any more. Just today fifty year old transcripts of the McCarthy hearings of 1953 that have been held in secret, were released

Washington fails time after time to trust the American people, feeling that a little embellishment of the truth will sound better or an out right lie will turn the tide of public opinion.

Here is an example of something that made no difference if our government told us the truth or the lies they ended up giving to us. This would be the story behind the rescue of Private First class Jessica Lynch.

Do you remember the green tinted video of Special Ops troops, Navy Seals, Army Rangers and of course the Marines performing that rescue? That should have tipped us off some what. It just so happened that we needed special troops from every branch for this rescue and wasn't it lucky those guys brought two video cameraman and one still photographer.

This group of Americans blew the doors off the front of the hospital upon entering, were directed to Jessica by hospital staff, and ended up thanking that same staff on leaving. Their were no Iraqi soldiers or hostile forces near the hospital that night as they had left two days before. The only reason that this "rescue took place was that an Iraqi civilian risked his life to tell us about Jessica. Later on American Army surgeons thanked the hospital staff for the excellent care given to their soldier.

No one in America would have gotten this story from the "Daring Rescue" on the nightly news. Would the truth have hurt the war effort? Would it have surprised Americans that caring Iraqi medical personnel would help this young American girl?

What is also so sad is that this new report on what really happened that night didn't come from American media, but from the Toronto Star in Canada. Mitch Potter, of their Middle East Bureau took the time to talk to Doctor Harith Houssona and the staff at the hospital in Iraq, to find out the true story. Of course if this story makes it to our main press that will screw up the movie Hollywood and Pentagon would love the American citizen to see. Rescues and heroes make even a bad war look good and maybe even make some forget about weapons of mass destruction or the lack of them.

How about the Rescue of the other prisoners. News reports kept calling it a Rescue, when in fact the Iraqis guarding these prisoners ran away and other Iraqis told the Marines that American prisoners were just up the road. Rescue does sound better, but why bullshit you and me? Heck we were winning this war hands down

Remember how truly indignant Washington got when Iraq started showing our troops, that they held prisoner on television? Immediately Washington started quoting the Geneva Convention about treatment of troops.

Well today I read a report that said, "The International Committee of the Red Cross has again called on U.S. Military forces in Iraq to allow its staff complete access to Iraqi prisoners of war. An ICRC spokeswomen in Baghdad said so far, the humanitarian organization's staff had not been given sufficient access to Iraqi POWs. She called on the U.S.-led coalition to comply with the Geneva Convention for dealing with prisoners of War."

A few days ago I read reports of America keeping children as young as thirteen in the cages we built in Cuba to hold dangerous terrorists.

Yes it does bother me to write about these things and it bothers me also that one can only find out about these things by reading the foreign press. I don't feel as though Canada and their media is writing stories about America and our Government's actions that are fiction. I just don't see where other nations have to make up things to have us look bad. The truth is bad enough, but remember this. Every nation on earth is reading stories about how Washington distorts the truth to make itself look better.

I understand what our troops had to go through in this war and it took lots of courage to perform their mission and set the Iraqi people free. Out leaders have no idea of what it takes to go into combat, so they feel they must make everything sound better, sound more courageous, and our leaders want to wave our flag on TV a little more. True I was against our unprovoked attack on Iraq and I do think the loss of innocent Iraqis was way too high for the results we will get when this is all over. However I do not fault the troops in any way as they were doing the job they gave an oath to perform. I fault Congress and the White House for killing and maiming so many young kids, whose future we took.

If America wants to impress the rest of the world with lies, I don't care as I know it won't work, but to try it on us, is a crime and again it won't work. Today with the Internet the truth comes out faster than in the past. America's embellishments only hurt our country and make every one suspect every thing we say.

Also today it was announced that in the Iraqi town of Mosel, the American military picked two hundred of the "leading" citizens to vote on a local government. So much for one man, one vote and Democracy.

If Washington would learn that the American people are trustworthy and part of the "team," they would be able to tell us the truth. If we could trust our government to be truthful, in no time the rest of the world would too. If our nation spoke the truth, soon people the world over would respect us again.