An
Edifice of Lies
October
18, 2003
By Mike Shannon
I'm no chemist but from what I understand the vial -- the
one lousy stinkin' vial -- of botulinum that David Kay's team
found -- after a three month, 1,200 person, 300 million dollar
search -- is closer in chemical makeup to the botox that has
so been liberally pumped into Arnold's forehead and Meg Ryan's
lips than it is to its weapon grade cousin Botulinum A.
It's very difficult to determine which is more disturbing:
that the central reason offered by Team Bush for the Iraq
war -- Saddam's vaunted Weapons of Mass Destruction -- turns
out to have been nothing more than what so many of us knew
all along; an exaggeration and misrepresentation of a threat
to the safety and well being of America that has few rivals
in our history, or the shameless and pathetic efforts of its
apologists to beating this thoroughly dead horse.
It can no longer even be questioned: The members of the
Bush administration, and their legion of toadies, will say
anything to advance their case. Just when you think they can't
get any more duplicitous, they let loose with another whopper.
Just when it appears as though they are finally caught in
the web of their own making, they change the rules. Just when
you think that their ability to outrage has been tested to
the extreme, they surpass even themselves.
The current Bush administration will be remembered as one
of the most dishonest in American history. Their obsession
with "protect the message" is Nixonian and their naked and
slavish devotion to the cause of corporate/private profit
at the public's expense is reminiscent of the mass larceny
which took place amongst land speculators and those involved
with the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the Grant administration.
Now that the preliminary Kay Report has been released, rereading
the following quotes (Thank you Josh Marshal, www.talkingpointsmemo.com)
from two of the Bush administrators biggest "stars"shows just
how distant these people truly are from reality:
"He will provide an interim report later this month,
and I am confident when people see what David Kay puts forward
they will see that there was no question that such weapons
exist, existed, and so did the programs to develop one." Colin
Powell, Meet The Press, September 7th, 2003
Not only did the release of the report do no such thing,
Mr Powell's prewar UN testimony has now been called into serious
question. Greg Thielmann, a high level member of the State
Department's weapons team has come public in the past several
days with the assertion that not only did Mr Powell "mislead"
the American and world community on Iraq's weapon's capability,
but that his tour de force presentation at the UN back in
February was, "I think my conclusion now is that it's probably
one of the low points in his long, distinguished service to
the nation."
And speaking of low points what to make of this?
"David Kay is not going to be done with this for quite
some time. And I would not count on reports. I suppose there
may be interim reports. I don't know when those will be, and
I don't know what the public nature of them will be."
Condi Rice, Press Briefing, September 22nd, 2003
This is the head of the National Security Council, and one
of the President's closest advisers, telling the world less
than two weeks before Kay would testify before Congress that
hopefully the report would never see the light of day.
This level of disassociation from reality is finally catching
up to them and now that it has; the Bush team has an enormous
problem. It is a problem which lies at the root of all their
other problems. Their shell of credibility has been breached.
It has not been shattered -- at least not in the eyes of an
ever shrinking majority -- but it is definitely showing a
few cracks. These cracks can either be dealt with immediately
or they could very quickly lead to a scenario where putting
Humpty back together again will be nearly impossible.
If a lie is believed then there is no need to prop it, you
just let it lie and move on, but when the lie begins to show
its innate vulnerability it must be maintained with all means
available. This requires both that you repeat the initial
lie as often as possible as well as create any number of ancillary
falsehoods in support. If this process were represented in
geometric form it would be a classic pyramid in shape; with
one major difference, it would be inverted. The lies that
come in support of the original lie do not "support" the lie
in the engineering sense of the term. Rather they put ever
greater pressure on it.
What will it take to topple this albatross of an edifice?
I don't know but I do know that its collapse is all but certain.
You may contact Mike at shnnn613@cs.com.
|
