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True Lies?
Cobb has this interesting take on the whole "Bush Lied!" thing:
A number of people make the point that GWBush lied to the American people about WMDs. I think it's reasonable to say that most folks bought what it was he was selling. I don't think he lied. I think he persuaded. We all saw Colin Powell's UN presentation and we all bought it. By we, I mean those of us near the tipping point.
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I don't understand why the Clinton and Bush administrations did not want to use the term 'genocidal' to describe Hussein's activity, but I think it's appropriate to describe what he was all about. So the question about the truth-telling somehow focused on the how but not the what. I don't know the cause, but many in the American public have been snookered into looking for a smoking gun rather than a genocidal maniac.
I'm still puzzled that some people seem to think getting rid of a supposed liar is far, far more important than getting rid of an incontrovertible genocidal maniac.
Of course, now that we've gotten rid of one, they may just feel it's necessary to get rid of the other.
As long as the liar remains effective at bringing genocidal dictators to heel, he's got my vote. There's still plenty dictators left in the world.
Posted by: Tatterdemalian on January 22, 2004 04:59 PMI've been somewhat disappointed that the WMD's haven't been found, but there's no question that most people in and out of the know assumed they were there as well. Bill Clinton has even expressed surprise that they haven't been found yet.
Why did the administration "sell" it to us this way? Because there are plenty of unenlightened people on both sides of the political fence who simply don't care about "foreigners." If he had pressed the humanitarian angle, the critics would have responded with "Don't we have enough problems in our OWN country?" You've heard it lots of times.
Our own media is just as guilty. Whenever there's a disaster somewhere, what's the first thing thing they report? How many Americans were killed/injured. The obvious inference is that if the victims are of another nationality, they simply don't matter.
Posted by: Rob on January 22, 2004 05:15 PM