The President of the United States and his advisers are desperately struggling to distance themselves from the disastrous consequences of their constant lies. An article on the Tunis Hebdo warns that no matter how clever George W. Bush and his team are, sooner or later their lies will be exposed.
Bush, whose foreign policies are dictated by the Christian right and the Israeli lobby, have, since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, suffered one setback after another. A recent study by two prominent U.S. professors states that the “combination unwavering support for Israel…has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardized U.S. security."
The report also accuses the “pro-Israeli lobby [AIPAC]," of "actively working" to influence American diplomacy. "Other special interest groups have managed to skew U.S. foreign policy in directions they favored, but no lobby has managed to divert U.S. foreign policy as far from what the American national interest would otherwise suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that U.S. and Israeli interests are essentially identical." The two professors, one from Harvard, Stephen Wolt, and the other from the university of Chicago, John Mearsheimer, also insist on the fact that Israel “doesn’t act like a loyal ally.” They also cite a report from the Government Accountability Office stating that Israel spies on the United States more than any other ally.
The price paid for following Israel in its obsession that Iraq’s defeat would open an era of Israeli-American hegemony is huge. More than 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died because of Bush’s lies. At least 2,300 Americans have died - because of their President’s lies. And about $177 billion have been spent so far in Iraq and Afghanistan because of lies. “I hate to admit it but it appears clear the President of the United States is a pathological liar," says political scientist George Harleigh, who worked in the Nixon and Reagan administration. "His pattern of deception exceeds anything we saw in the Nixon era."
Members of the U.S. Congress, Republican and Democrat, agree. Many predict a foreseeable Republican defeat in the mid-term elections next November, with Bush’s approval ratings hitting new lows, mainly because of the Iraq War. (Recent polls show that 66% Americans are against the war). "The biggest threat any Republican running for election or re-election this year faces is not from the Democrats but from the President," says a GOP political consultant who, for obvious reasons, demanded anonymity. "George W. Bush is a major liability to Republicans in the mid-term elections."
To save their face, Bush and his team continue to lie. They all lied, without exception, about the Iraq War. When news broke last week that Bush personally authorized the leak of secret intelligence ahead of the Iraq War to justify the invasion, Republicans couldn’t defend their corrupt and morally-bankrupt leader, admitting privately that Bush’s Presidency will go down in history as a monumental failure. And Democrats cited Bush’s repeated denials of any knowledge of secret information leaks.
The greatest lie resides in Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction. The Washington Post reported today on another example of how Bush lied to the world, detailing a deliberate White House pattern of misinformation on the so-called “biological warfare” trailers captured soon after U.S. troops invaded Iraq. It turned out that the trailers had nothing to do with biological warfare. Intelligence officers in the field knew it and they informed the White House. Yet Bush ignored the truth and trumpeted the trailers as "proof" that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction.
The invasion itself was based on a lie. According to a very recent revelation, Bush was determined to invade Iraq two months before the war began, even if he failed to win a UN resolution to back it, or if UN arms inspectors didn’t find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Bush personally revealed his intentions to Tony Blair during a private meeting in Washington. And the current lie is about the democratization of the Iraqi society, while in reality, the Iraqis are caught up in a civil war that claims the lives of at least 50 people a day.
The Bush Administration also lies about its widespread abuse of human rights, in U.S.-run prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, Iraq as well as the CIA’s secret jails in Europe and some Arab countries. They also lie to cover up the actual death toll of U.S. soldiers as well as the material damage in Afghanistan and Iraq.
And the charges of torture, human rights violations and even out-right murder by American soldiers continues. Bush can pretend that it is not happening, but the truth always does return. It’s a certainty that many Americans realize but so many refuse to admit.
- Knowing that President Bush sold Iraq invasion to the American people with lies, should he be impeached?
Al Jazeera