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"Failure to Tell the Truth"
by James Glaser
As Bob Woodward, the reporter of Watergate fame described it on 60 Minutes last night, George Bush's last three years in office have been filled with a failure to tell the truth about what is really going on in Iraq. Woodward's book, "State of Denial," tells the story of how the Bush administration "has not been honest with the American people." Woodward explained how the Pentagon and the White House would have one report that gave good news about the war in Iraq, at the same time having another report that gave the bad news. The "good" news report would be released to the American people, while the "bad" news report would be classified so the public could never hear the truth. What this means is that our government, at least the executive branch knew what was going on, the Iraqi people knew what was going on, and the insurgents in Iraq knew what was going on. Only the American people were kept in the dark. Some things in this book shed new light on George Bush and his war. First off, nobody has any strategy for victory. Henry Kissinger is back in the White House giving George Bush the same advice he used back in the Vietnam War. Kissinger wants George to "stay the course" in Iraq. He claims that victory is the only meaningful exit strategy. Trying to achieve victory in Vietnam ended up costing us over 58,000 American deaths and some place close to a million and a half innocent Vietnamese civilian deaths. Remember the Vietnam War lasted over ten years, and we are only about a third of the way to that time table in Iraq. We still have plenty of time to lose a lot more American troops. George Bush is now called the Cheer Leader in Chief by many. George only sees the bright side of any war. Bush has claimed that "American troops will stand down when Iraqi troops stand up." There are now more than 300,000 Iraqi troops, and we are still adding more American troops to the combat in Iraq. Woodward's book explains how there are now eight to nine hundred attacks on American troops a week. In the book Bush administration graphs show these charges to be the truth. Along with the graphs, Woodward had the 60 Minute program editors listen to the tapes of interviews that back up everything in the book. Bob Woodward is a seasoned professional journalist, and he backs up everything he writes about with verifiable proofs. If he didn't, the White House would be out on every TV news program trashing this book. George Bush has been lying to the American people for over three years, and it has cost over 2,700 brave Americans their lives, over 20,000 have been wounded, tens of thousands are asking the VA for help with psychological problems, over 100,000 innocent Iraqis have been killed, hundreds of thousands have been injured, untold numbers have been displaced out of their homes, and George Bush continues to lie. The killing goes on with about two American being killed each day, 18 -20 more are being wounded, and a hundred innocent Iraqis are also killed each day. Many of them are tortured to death, and George Bush continues to lie. With a record like that, there can never be a victory in Iraq for George Bush or America. Over 70% of Iraqis want our troops to leave their country and over 60% think attacks on American troops are good thing. . . . and George Bush continues to lie. George Bush lied. . . and he got caught. Bob Woodward's book gives us the proof. I think most Americans had figured that out already, but having it laid out in black and white gives even Bush's strongest backers something to think about. |
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