Through the Looking Glass...
Remember all those times we've heard, and sung along to, The Who's Won't Get Fooled Again? And we meant it, too, damn it! Every word, scream, riff and yowl. 'Cause we're too smart for'em now. We've been schooled.
Well...uh...no, that didn't last too long, did it? Oh well...
I remember President George W. Bush saying his new administration was going to bring "values" and a "moral" core to our government. But, now two and a half years in, when you consider that no one in this administration appears to have the slightest sense of reality, truth or scruples, or appears capable of saying anything that is not a lie, I find it odd when we still get shocked by their ongoing attempts to cover their butts when their plans don't work.
No one in this White House appears remotely capable of taking personal responsibility for ANY of their actions. And, for some reason, we nod and accept the lie. Oh, damn! Fooled again. Man, I hate that!
As the man said, "I'll have what the administration's drinking."
The Plan is all. The Plan does not change. They lie right to your face (or more often, the Fox News camera) without even a smirk. They have no qualms about twisting any information necessary to make it fit the Plan—even if that forces them to fudge what they actually know to be true.
Now, in the religious training many of us received as children, this is called a lie. And a lie is a sin. And, if it's bad enough, a lie might cost you "your very soul."
Yet, members of this administration think lies are just fine. Just normal business practices. They have no problem scheduling classroom photo-ops for the president (and/or first lady) at the very same moment their legislative team is pushing through education cuts that will gut that very school. They can have the president hug NYC firemen on the ashes of the WTC victims, promising all the financial help this greatest and most wounded of American cities needs to rebuild—as a symbol to the world of American resolve, darn it!—all the while, fully planning to renege on those same funds once the cameras pack and leave.
You get absurdities like this:
Beginning with Vice President [Dick] Cheney last August, administration officials delivered a series of speeches expressing absolute certainty the Iraqi weapons existed. "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction," Cheney said in an Aug. 26 address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Or this:
In October, [Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D.] Wolfowitz said, "Saddam Hussein is not going to easily give up the horrible weapons that he has worked so hard to obtain and paid such a high price to keep," using a phrase that he and [Defense Secretary Donald H.] Rumsfeld were to repeat often. "This is a man who has shown that he'll give up billions and billions of dollars every year," Rumsfeld said in November, "so that he can be free to develop those weapons and to have those weapons and to use those weapons to terrorize other countries."
Only it was a lie.
It was ALL a lie.
YOUR GOVERNMENT LIED TO YOU.
There (were/are) NO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION!
And just what IS "a weapon of mass destruction," anyway, other than a really cool buzz-word phrase which lets you say nothing and still sound scary at the same time? If you mean nukes, say "nukes." But, then, everyone knew there were no nukes. If you mean, biological or chemical weapons, then state that. Then, let your citizens know how horribly difficult it is to deliver any more than a couple of square feet of that stuff—which we're well aware of because we have more of the stuff than anybody—instead of terrorizing the majority of your own population.
And when we discover there ARE NO WMDs, then. at the very least, come up with a governmental version of "Oops, my bad!"
For if there are not—and were not—any WMDs, then there was no threat to U.S. interests, citizens or landscape after all, was there? The first Iraqi divisions to surrender did so, their commanders were quoted as saying, because they were armed with World War II rifles and scared; hardly a match for the technological blitzkrieg we unleashed in the desert. A couple of campground's worth of our best separatist militia/NRA-types could have handled any real provocation or invasion of Malibu, Asbury Park or Hermosa Beach by the Iraqi army. We may not even have needed to get taxpayer money involved.
An untruth. A prevarication. A fib on a massive scale.
Both the trained professionals at YOUR United States CentraI Intelligece Agency and the knowledgeable, experienced United Nation's weapons inspectors on-site told the White House (and you and me) repeatedly for months that the administration was barking up the wrong tree, and, in essence, that there was "no there, there."
But we chose not to believe them.
We chose to believe the White House.
We chose to believe the lies.
We Got Fooled Again.
YOUR GOVERNMENT LIED TO YOU.
And, because of that, American soldiers are dead.
Understand now?
This shouldn't make you feel very good at all. In fact, it should probably make you nauseous.
And angry. Very, very angry.
The disgusting height of folly now is the White House's pressing the CIA to "investigate" what "happened"—but not what really happened. This Bush administration of "values" and "morals" won't allow that. It would entail tripping over the truth. It was bad enough the intelligence community was consistently sent back to their offices to come up with a "better" report that included "evidence" that backed up the administration's party line; "evidence" that would match that made up by Wolfowitz's new, outlaw Dept. of Defense intelligence unit. Now, the CIA is being forced to make up drivel that will clearly state, for Fox News Channel consumption, that this fiasco wasn't the DOD and White House's fault. That there is no blood from thousands of dead Iraqis—and more to the point—168 dead Americans on this administration's hands.
Of course, now that the world knows they were either a) lying or b) totally wrong, administration types are scurrying to alter the standard lie to fit the new landscape, in order to avoid saying they were anything other than bold, decisive, strong, powerful and morally justified. It's easier to focus everyone on the rolled up socks in Bush's crotch as he preened and strode about the USS Lincoln, rather than having the media talk about his desertion during a war he was not in charge of. Or ask about the administration's manufacturing of the one he was in charge of.
In their world, a lie is the truth. As long as it's their lie.
I just wonder how this all fits with "values" and "morals," and how this will all work itself out when these guys (and Candy!) meet the Creator we were once taught about?
"...Yeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh!...Won't Get Fooled Again...!"
Get Angry! Write your elected officials now!
posted by Gotham 3:37 PM
