Lying
And Deception As The Government Policy
By Ramzy Baroud
09 March, 2006
Countercurrents.org
What
is even more imprudent than the invasion of Iraq and the 'war on terror'
is the Bush administration's determination to interpret the tragedy
of that stricken nation in a way that lays blame on just about everyone
else but itself. And yet this is just one thread within an elaborate
web of lies and deceit initiated by the Bush administration years ago.
Immediately after its seizure
of power by a court negotiated ruling, the Bush administration seemed
determined to marginalize the American public. The terrorist attacks
of September 11 were the needed element that transformed that determination
into policy: anything goes - from unleashing unwarranted wars abroad
to monitoring people's reading habits at public libraries and tapping
into their telephone conversations - as long as the goal is to safeguard
'national security'.
While many Americans seemed
willing to concede part of their freedoms to preserve the rest - or
so the cliché goes - Bush's detrimental policies, at home and
abroad, remained heedless and self-serving. The relatively small gap
between the government and the public turned into a bottomless abyss.
Not as if past US governments
were known for their integrity and painful honesty with the American
people regarding their backroom dealings and undemocratic tendencies
from Latin American, to Indochina to the Middle East. But the Bush administration
has undeniably pushed the conventional and sometimes acceptable margin
of a government's deceit to the point that lying becomes the primary,
if not the sole form of public policy.
Despite the ruthless marketing
of pretenses and policy shams, the US public has grown weary and skeptical.
The blanket public approval enjoyed by the president after September
11 - seen then as a green light to take on Afghanistan, perhaps the
poorest country in the world - is steadily
diminishing as the Bush administration stumbles at every corner. According
to a February 28 CBS News poll, President Bush's approval ratings have
hit an all-time low of 34 per cent. The same poll indicates that Vice-President
Cheney's numbers are even lower, at 18 per cent.
On one hand, one has to wonder
when and if such low ratings will ever inspire serious debate in Congress
regarding impeachment possibilities - after all, dragging America into
a bloody, senseless and destructive war that merely benefits the profit
seeking few at the expense of uncounted lives, is as one would assume,
an impeachable offence. On the other hand, it is somewhat exhilarating
that most Americans have managed to see through the clever propaganda,
the smokescreens and fear tactics to realize that they were purposely
duped into consent.
Unfortunately for the Bush
administration, cant and deceit are the only lifelines still available
to win back the discontented public. Numerous opportunities have been
lost, including that of providing a tangible timeline as to when the
US will withdraw from Iraq, signaling the end of the nightmare. The
confounded public is even denied the mere courtesy of being informed
with a realistic assessment of the US 'war on terror' and the Iraq quagmire.
In the meantime, America - its economic prospects, its people's welfare,
its reputation, its internal struggles, and more - all are being held
hostage to a 'war on terror' that even the administration's own pundits
are finding it difficult to define. The botched war is a disaster save
for a few neo-conservative think tanks, their followers and a dwindling
number of rightwing dreamers, who haven't a clue what this war is really
like.
Iraqis are of course suffering
the consequences of the administration's imprudence as well. In fact,
the price they have paid is most unmatched. They were promised freedom
and were delivered a torturous war and civil strife that can only worsen.
They too were victims of double talk and rosy promises that are yet
to actualize.
Not that deceit doesn't have
its generous rewards for some. By checking on the growing profits of
Lockheed Martin, Halliburton, CACI and Titan, BKSH & Associates,
Bechtel, ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco, one will understand that the
war in some strange way is not as 'senseless' as one might think.
The Bush administration is
likely to carry on fighting descent at home and elusive terrorists abroad
so that the status quo is maintained. More Americans are opposing the
direction in which the country is headed, but no tangible policy is
yet in place to translate such resentment into effective tools to put
an end to this violent nightmare. The looming civil war in Iraq is just
another outcome of sectarian division, brimming for many years, but
cemented by the US policy of divide and conquer. The calamity shall
carry on as long as our dissent is merely transmitted through opinion
polls that might sound vindicating, but are negligible in the eyes of
our government's determined militancy.
-Arab American journalist
Ramzy Baroud teaches masscommunication
at Curtin University of Technology and is the author of the forthcoming,
The Second Palestinian Intifada: AChronicle
of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London), now available at Amazon.com.