Americans Love to Be Deceived

When the call of duty arises from the Commander in Chief, those in the military do not question the orders; instead, they go willingly because they honestly believe that their Commander would only send them to their deaths on sound evidence. This is the norm in a military that has forgotten the deception of Vietnam. Young, spirited men and women volunteered for this military. There was no draft. They knew when they signed up for this job that war was always a possibility. Trust is a major code of ethics in all branches of the US military: trust in one another; trust in the chain of command. So how do you tell these men and women who have been so trusting that they have ultimately been deceived?

This deception is mounting every day that the call to war in Iraq was built on fabricated, "murky" evidence. The data from a British report concerning Hussein's attempt to purchase uranium from Africa was proven falsified before the war started in March; however, it appeared in Bush's State of the Union Address. The CIA reported over and over again that there was no sufficient evidence to link Hussein with Al Qaeda. And yet, Bush insisted on saying that this was so. Inspectors testified that there were no WMD left in Iraq, that the majority of them had been destroyed in the 90's and Hussein claimed that he destroyed most of his remaining arsenal before the war started. And yet, Bush, Rumsfeld and Powell all reported horrifying WMD as their main reason for the war. To date, no weapons have been found.

The latest spin is no longer WMD, but instead WMD programs. Someone needs to get out a dictionary and explain the difference to the Bush Administration between an arsenal and a program because a program is less of an immediate threat to the security of the US and our allies than an arsenal is.

So again, how do you explain to the men and women of the military that they are being slaughtered at a rate of 1.5 soldiers per day on the bases of a WMD program? They went to war under the guise of defending the US from an arsenal of WMD. They expected to be attacked by some of these WMD because the Bush Administration told them that the Iraqi military had readily available weapons. Of course, one can only imagine their relief when no such attacks occurred; however, they still expected to find these surmounting arsenals after the war "officially" ended.

And now, the deception is complete. In his Rose Garden speech a few days ago, Bush took full responsibility for every word in his State of the Union Speech: every lie, every fabrication, every unsound, misleading word of it. And we still allow this man to be the Commander in Chief? He can spout off words like "Bring 'em on!" which further incited attacks against our men and women, and we still allow him to be President? While this man is off on yet another vacation (this time a month-long vacation) our men and women are still in danger, still being attacked, still sweltering under the desert heat and dying of unknown diseases. Where is the outrage? Where is the call of impeachment? Why are we allowing this man and his administration to remain in office? There is only one possible explanation: Americans love to be deceived.