Real History and the War againstIraq The Index to the Traditional Enemies of Free Speech Alphabetical index (text) http://www.consortiumnews.com/Print/091003.html consortiumnews.com September 10, 2003 Bush’s New War Lies By Robert Parry IN a healthy democracy, the grave act of going to war wouldn’t be justified under false pretenses and false impressions.

Plus, government officials responsible for spreading false rationales wouldn’t be allowed to slide away from the first batch of lies and distortions to begin offering a new set of slippery excuses. David Irving comments: OUR source for this essay adds: ” This piece provides a good summary of the changing lies of the Bush administration. But all these lies would not work if the people made the effort to inform themselves about the issues.

The article concludes: “As in any democracy – even a troubled one – it remains the ultimate responsibility of the people to shoulder the burden of citizenship, which includes getting the facts and acting on them. That responsibility also demands that the people hold politicians accountable when they lead the country to war with lies and distortions.” I must add that there are some errors in the piece, the most glaring being the author’s belief that Bush is actually making policy.

Quite obviously our befuddled president does not have the mental capability to do this. He is simply repeating what his largely neocon handlers tell him. ” David Irving speaks on the parallels between the actions in Iraq and those in World War II which led to the Nuremberg trials, in the United States this Fall. [ Details ] But the United States is not a healthy democracy at this time.

It is dominated by a politician who chooses to manipulate rather than lead; who would rather trick the people into following him than engage them in a meaningful debate; who has demonstrated such a shallow regard for democracy that he took office despite losing the national popular vote and then only by blocking a full counting of ballots in one key state. A healthy democracy wouldn’t put up with this trifling of the people’s will.

But in today’s United States, there appears to be little shame in gullibility. Indeed, for some, it is a mark of patriotism. Others just act oblivious to their duties as citizens to be informed about even basic facts, even when the consequences are as severe as those of wartime.

This sad state of affairs was highlighted in a new Washington Post poll, which found that seven in 10 Americans still believe that Iraq’s ousted leader Saddam Hussein was involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks although U.S. investigators have found no evidence of a connection.

As the Post notes, this widely held public misperception explains why many Americans continue to support the U.S. occupation of Iraq even as the other principal casus belli – trigger-ready weapons of mass destruction – has collapsed. [For more details on the poll, see the Washington Post, Sept. 6, 2003.] Bush’s Speech The search for Iraq’s WMD apparently has become such a farce that George W. Bush barely mentioned it during his nationally televised speech on Sunday.

He slipped into the past tense in saying the former regime “possessed and used weapons of mass destruction,” without attaching a year or a decade to his statement. Iraq’s alleged use of chemical weapons dates