UPDATED: NOV 4, 2007
DOES TRUTH MATTER? PART I
Do Americans care that President Bush lied to get us into endless war and occupation of Iraq? It is obvious to the rest of the world that Bush wanted the terrorist acts of 911 to lead to the front door of Saddam Hussein. Read Richard Clarke’s sworn testimony. He was there when Bush and Rumsfeld told him and his team to tie 911 to Saddam Hussein. Just read the Downing Street Memo. It states how Bush wanted the blame (truth be damned) to be upon Iraq. The CIA told Bush that Iraq had no hand in planes crashing into the Twin Towers. That was before Bush lied and scared the b-Jesus out of us with his “Mushroom Cloud” fear speech in his 2003 state of the union address. Mangling the truth, Bush convinced Congress and millions of Americans that we needed to attack Iraq. Colin Powell scared us up good, in his speech to the UN that Iraq was amassing Weapons of Mass Destruction, and offered his cartoonlike, skimpy drawings as undeniable proof. Yeah, right. Four and a half years later, where are the WMDs? Why are we still in Iraq with no exit in sight? Thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands have died to finance Bush’s mad war of occupation where America has spent upwards of a trillion dollars the US Treasury does not have. In our madness we have borrowed from the Chinese and Saudis and other foreign governments to finance Bush’s Iraq War, Future generations of Americans are staring bankruptcy in the face. Their future looks bleak. One must pause and think. What became of truth? As each domino fell and more lies were revealed, why is it that America is quagmired still in this financial and immoral wasteland called Iraq? We Americans can see the truth all right. But does truth matter?
Truth? Look how it gets trampled and spins like a plate in Bush’s hands. Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney’s fall guy, was tried and convicted in federal court of perjury. In a bold revenge play the White House had exposed the secret CIA identity of Joe Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame. Why? Because Joe Wilson exposed the Bush/Cheney lie about Iraq trying to buy yellow cake uranium from Niger to build nuclear bombs. Well on the road to war, Bush got busted. Truth is, Scooter Libby fell on his sword for Bush, Cheney and Rove when he lied to protect those who directed him to expose Valerie Plame’s secret CIA identity. Due process under the law worked, and Libby was convicted all right. But Bush quickly commuted Libby’s sentence so that Libby would not have to do a day in prison. Can you believe it? Pinch me, is this still America? Would our own president overturn the sentence of a convicted felon? Could the truth be that Scooter Libby knew too much? And that the truth might come back to the White House and bite Bush and Cheney on the butt? Would Bush thwart justice to get the hounds off his own trail, make a mockery of our courts and our legal system to save his own guilty ass? He would. Does the truth matter that Bush placed our own and foreign agents in peril by exposing the covert CIA identity of Valerie Plame? Does it?
From the beginning, Bush has asked that the Iraq War be funded “off-budget.” That means that in addition to Bush’s annual budget he submits to Congress, the Iraq War carries its own separate budget. Bush comes like a thief in the night to steal from the Treasury when nobody is looking. These multi-billion-dollar (oops, sorry-it’s-twice-as-much-as-we-thought) Iraq War costs come around often, and before you know it, (cha-ching) we’re in the hole for another Trillion dollars. And if anybody questions Bush’s corrupt tactics, he demonizes them as those who will not support the troops who are fighting for our freedom. Republicans and Democrats alike buy into Bush’s guilt and fund whatever he asks for. Noting that several lies and points of deep deception exist in this paragraph, we buy into lies about lies about lies. And the madness continues. Why not just tell the truth? With each lie, the truth gets covered up and flattened under more layers of lies. If Bush makes the Iraq War “off-budget” don’t we begin to smell a rat? If Iraq War costs are honorable and true, then why sneak about in the dark of night and present them as a dire, “special” expense apart from our normal costs of running our government? Is Bush so ashamed that he cannot put the cost of the Iraq War slap out on the table? Is Bush afraid to put his Iraq War in the main budget and boldly shine the light on each and every billion that we are spending to bring “freedom” to countries on the other side of the world? And if not, why not tell the truth? Why sneak around and try to fool the American people? What is it about truth that Bush finds so horrifying?
Remember when Bush said, “I can’t just tap phones when I want because that requires a court order.” Say what? But as he said that, Bush knowingly was wire-tapping Americans without court approval from the FISA Court, and he knew the truth even as he lied to us. Bush lied. The truth and our rights to privacy under the Constitution got shredded at the same time. Do we care? Does truth matter?
Now it is late October 2007. Bush has just vetoed the healthcare SCHIPS bill that would have provided an extra $35 billion dollars for children in the United States. A week later Bush is asking an additional $46 billion to fund his Iraq War. If passed by Congress that will make almost $200 billion dollars alone for the Iraq War this year alone. Bush is talking about cutting budgets that fund the fuel oil for the poor by several billion dollars this winter. That will leave over 35 million lower-income Americans out in the cold this winter. Compassionate Conservatives, like, who needs them? Truth is, Bush’s war takes top priority over the good of the nation and the welfare of its people. His priorities focus on paying Blackwater, a private corporation of mercenaries, soldiers of fortune, 5 times the salary of our uniformed troops in Iraq. Truth is, these Bush gunslingers are proclaimed to be above the law with no fear of prosecution. Condoleezza Rice waved her magic Secretary of State wand and gave immunity to these Blackwater soldiers who allegedly killed 17 unarmed Iraqis. Can you imagine the look on the FBI’s faces when their investigation into the matter was abruptly halted? That’s right, the Blackwater troops told the FBI, “Secretary Rice gave us special immunity, so we won’t be answering any more of your questions, dudes.”
So who are these black hats called Blackwater? We Americans did not hear that much about it until recently when Iraq told the United States to get Blackwater out of their country. The CEO and chief mercenary, Eric Prince, is doing well for himself, given Bush’s affinity for starting needless wars and paying big bucks to private crony war contractors. Prince is a Bible-thumping, fundamentalist Christian who sponsors warriors for Bush. Big profits in that. Bush has paid Prince over 1 Billion dollars since the Iraq War started. That’s $1,000,000,000.00. If the truth were known, how many SCHIPS children and heating fuel for the elderly would that sum buy? Truth is, the majority of the American people are being gang-banged raped while the billions the United States borrows from China lines the pockets of cronies like Eric Prince and the Blackwater mercenary soldiers who work for him. Do you think Blackwater cares that Bush is bankrupting our National Treasury? Does Eric Prince or George W. Bush care about the future of our country, our currency and our children who will have to pay back these blood dollars that brought Bush and his war cronies wealth like the world has never known? It’s simple math, people. Not rocket science. Truth is, America is fast becoming a wasteland where the dollar used to buy things. Now this funny money we call Federal Reserve Notes is 9 Trillion dollars in debt, in the hole while the total cost of the Iraq War thus far sits at 800 billion dollars and climbing. How much of the No Child Left Behind Act Bush underfunds each year in his annual budget would that sum take care of? How long could Social Security and Medicare last with almost a Trillion dollar injection of cash instead of our trying to force democracy upon nations in the Middle East with guns, planes and tanks? Who shot truth in the head, dudes? If Bush and his followers accidentally swallowed some truth serum, what would they say was most paramount, preserving the Constitution and serving the American people or in serving themselves?
Bush asks immunity from prosecution for communications companies like Verizon and A, T & T because they complied with Bush’s demands that they turn over thousands of phone records of American citizens without court approval. The phone companies and Bush broke the law of the land, plain and simple. Yet Bush wants the lawsuits, already filed as a violation of thousands of Americans’ civil rights, dropped. What does Bush have to fear? Why immunity? Immunity from what? Will Bush tell us the truth?
Pregnant pauses are good. Lets us ponder the question, “Does Truth Matter?” Part II to follow soon.
Last Update: 11/11/2007