Reply #10: During the war?

[gratuitous]

No, the military was largely above such pedestrian concerns as actual truth, but it was a very different time. In the last 40 years, Americans have learned that the government is not always to be trusted, but in the 1960s and early 1970s before the full dimensions of Watergate became apparent, the majority of Americans believed what they were told about government, the prosecution of the war in Vietnam, and most other things. The only folks who actively questioned what the government was saying were the nut groups like the Weather Underground on the Left and the John Birch Society on the Right.

Giuliani, who has done as much as anyone to encourage this ongoing distrust of government, pines for the days when elected officials could make god-like pronouncements and the nodding electorate would simply follow along. The default setting for anything coming out of the crooked Bush administration is and should be distrust; they've been so conscientious about fomenting distrust, it would be impolite not to reward them for it by doubting everything they say.