Bush speaks of truth, but doesn't tell it (Cynthia Tucker Alert)

As a candidate, President Bush pledged to restore integrity to the White House. Against the backdrop of President Clinton's repeated lies about a sordid adulterous affair, Bush ran on his claims to be a man of strong character -- a politician of plain speaking and straight talk. He wouldn't lie to us.

Yet, this administration has produced more dissembling and distortion, more fabrications and pseudo-facts than any White House in recent memory -- Richard Nixon's included. The Bushites lie brazenly and repeatedly, refusing to back down even when caught in the web of their own contradictions.

The falsehoods aren't limited to Iraq. In domestic policy Bush administration officials have shaded the truth, spread lies and even threatened underlings who believed in a moral obligation to honesty.

As just one example, the chief Medicare actuary, Richard S. Foster, has said his supervisor, Thomas Scully (who recently joined an Atlanta-based law firm that lobbies on behalf of hospitals and drug companies), threatened to fire him if Foster revealed to Congress the true costs of the proposed prescription drug benefit for Medicare. While the administration was ramming the costly benefit through Congress -- promising that its price would be no more than $400 billion over 10 years -- Foster had calculated the actual cost at between $500 billion and $600 billion, figures the White House disclosed after the bill passed.

But there is no area that better demonstrates the Orwellian quality of the Bush administration -- its insistence that black is white, up is down, war is peace -- than its deceptions about Iraq. Testimony under oath before the Sept. 11 commission and the Iraq uprising make increasingly clear that the central underpinning of the president's re-election campaign -- that he has conducted a tough-minded war on terror -- stands the truth on its head.

In fact, ousting Saddam Hussein has been a costly diversion from the war on terror. The Bushites came into office obsessed with Saddam, and when they could find no evidence that he represented an immediate threat, they simply manufactured it.

Now, our troops are trapped in a quagmire. Osama bin Laden is still at large. And the occupation of Iraq cannot help but breed a new generation of terrorists: Every time U.S. soldiers hit a mosque with mortars or strafe a carload of civilians mistaken for insurgents, another dozen teenage boys in Egypt or Saudi Arabia or Iran become America-hating jihadists.

Bush and his underlings lie when there is no reason to. In response to Richard A. Clarke's charge that his administration didn't view the al-Qaida threat as urgent, the president might simply have agreed and apologized. Few Americans would hold him responsible for failing to anticipate an attack as evil in its creation and brazen in its execution as Sept. 11.

Besides, Bush had already admitted his failure to forecast the immediacy of the al-Qaida menace. In "Bush at War," published last year, Bob Woodward quoted the president as saying he "didn't feel that sense of urgency" about bin Laden before the attacks.

Nevertheless, the administration greeted Clarke's charges with character assassination and fabrications. Vice President Dick Cheney went on Rush Limbaugh's radio show to dismiss Clarke as "out of the loop," a characterization National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was forced to refute, since Clarke was at the center of the administration's anti-terrorism efforts.

The entire premise of the Bush presidency -- that he is a man of principle, of honor, of candor -- is crumbling. The chaos engulfing Iraq is not just the result of guileless miscalculations. It is the inevitable outcome of a policy built on mendacity.

But there is no area that better demonstrates the Orwellian quality of the Bush administration [] than its deceptions about Iraq.

I'm sure the examples will follow... let's see...

In fact, ousting Saddam Hussein has been a costly diversion from the war on terror. Cynthia's Opinion

The Bushites came into office obsessed with Saddam, and when they could find no evidence that he represented an immediate threat, they simply manufactured it. Cynthia's [ill-informed] Opinion

Now, our troops are trapped in a quagmire. Cynthia's [wishful thinking] Opinion

Osama bin Laden is still at large. True. But according to Michael Moore (and many others) we already have him. W is just waiting for an October Suprise.

And the occupation of Iraq cannot help but breed a new generation of terrorists: Every time U.S. soldiers hit a mosque with mortars or strafe a carload of civilians mistaken for insurgents, another dozen teenage boys in Egypt or Saudi Arabia or Iran become America-hating jihadists. Iraq=Quagmire=Vietnam=US Soldiers=Baby Killers. I sense a pattern.

Bush and his underlings lie when there is no reason to. Examples must be here somewhere...

In response to Richard A. Clarke's charge that his administration didn't view the al-Qaida threat as urgent, the president might simply have agreed and apologized. Few Americans would hold him responsible for failing to anticipate an attack as evil in its creation and brazen in its execution as Sept. 11. I guess it never occurred to Cyn T. that maybe Dick Clarke was lying.

Besides, Bush had already admitted his failure to forecast the immediacy of the al-Qaida menace. When did Bush admit failure to see the future?

Nevertheless, the administration greeted Clarke's charges with character assassination and fabrications. Examples coming I'm sure...

Vice President Dick Cheney dismiss[es] Clarke as "out of the loop," Brutal Character Assassination Indeed!

The entire premise of the Bush presidency -- that he is a man of principle, of honor, of candor -- is crumbling. Because of the 0 examples put forth by CynT.

We will, in fact, be greeted as liberators." -- Vice President Dick Cheney, March 16, 2003

Here are just a few of the captions that accompanied the tender and telling photos taken across the liberated country:

"An Iraqi girl waves an American flag to U.S. Marines of the 15th Expeditionary Unit at the Marines Battalion Combat Operation Center in Nasiriyah, southern Iraq."

"U.S. Army Spc. John Dresel from Oxford, Conn., is kissed by an Iraqi child in Baghdad. The soldiers from the A Company 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment took over a section of northern Baghdad with a warm welcome from many residents . . . "

"A Kurd kisses a picture of United States President George W. Bush during celebrations in the streets of Sulaymaniyah, northern Iraq . . . "

"Lance Corp. Shawn Hicks of Arizona gets a kiss Wednesday from an Iraqi man as they celebrate the arrival of American troops in central Baghdad."

"An Iraqi man puts flowers on the head of a U.S Marine in Saddam City in eastern Baghdad. Iraqis joyously welcomed U.S. Marines driving through eastern Baghdad . . . "

"Two U.S. special forces soldiers are seen atop their jeep, front, as Kurdish fighters pose for a group picture with flowers received from the Kurdish Students Union, near the town of Dibagan . . . in northern Iraq. The students' union presented them with flowers in gratitude for their war efforts."

"Samantha Sheppard, 28, from Plymouth in Britain, a soldier with the 2nd Light Tank Regiment, smiles as she receives a flower from an Iraqi man during a patrol on the streets of east Basra, southern Iraq." [Persistent pockets of liberal media resistance Michelle Malkin April 11, 2003 ]

"Coming into Basra as part of a massive military convoy, I encountered a stream of young men, dressed in what appeared to be Iraqi army uniforms, applauding the US marines as they swept past in tanks."[Applause as Marines enter Basra By David Willis Saturday, 22 March, 2003, 14:13 GMT BBC correspondent in southern Iraq ]

"It was a surreal way to invade a country. As a huge British convoy crossed into Iraq yesterday hundreds of children came to greet them. In the end British soldiers were greeted, not with gunfire, but with laughter and smiles. As the troops moved past small boys ran up to the windows, smiling and grinning. 'Hello, hello,' one shouted. A small group of teenagers sang and danced and clapped their hands." [Children run cheering as troops roll in The Observer (U.K.) | 03/23/03 | Paul Harris]

"Around 150 children spilled out of the jail after the gates were opened as a US military Humvee vehicle approached, Lieutenant Colonel Fred Padilla told an AFP correspondent travelling with the Marines 5th Regiment. "Hundreds of kids were swarming us and kissing us," Padilla said. "There were parents running up, so happy to have their kids back." [Jailed Iraqi children run free as marines roll into Baghdad suburbs BAGHDAD (AFP) Apr 08, 2003]

JUBILANT Iraqis celebrate their new-found freedom yesterday — by tearing down a statue of hated tyrant Saddam Hussein.

Hundreds begged US troops to help tie a rope around the 17ft high bronze figure and take a blowtorch to its ankles. An elderly man added in broken English: "Good, good, good — Mr W. Bush, no Saddam."

As US troops proudly wore flowers given to them by townsfolk, a 25-year-old said he could not understand opposition to the war.

He asked: "Everyone who refuses this war — why?" Pointing to the statue, he went on: "Come here and live two days with this man, and then refuse this war." [Iraqis celebrate freedomBy MIKE DARVILL The Sun News UK April 7 2003]

Around the city, Iraqis ventured out into the streets, greeting U.S. troops with smiles, waves or a thumbs-up. Hundreds of Iraqis cheered U.S. troops in Saddam City, a poor neighborhood in northeast Baghdad. ``Thank you, thank you, Mr. Bush!'' one shouted. [Iraqis Cheer Arriving U.S. Troops Baghdad Associated Press| Wednesday, April 9, 2003 | By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and HAMZA HENDAWI]

"I'm 49, but I never lived a single day," said Yusuf Abed Kazim, a Baghdad imam who was pounding the statue's pedestal. "Only now will I start living. That Saddam Hussein is a murderer and a criminal. " Other Iraqis picked flowers from a nearby garden and handed them to Marines. [Iraqis — With American Help — Topple Statue of Saddam in BaghdadWednesday, April 09, 2003 FOX News]

Thousands of Kirkukis danced, sang and cried with joy in the city’s streets and public squares. They smashed statues and defaced portraits of the deposed Iraqi dictator. Serbaz Kareem, a Kurdish communist peshmerga from the enclave city of Sulaimaniyah, said "people threw flowers at us and gave us water and food and tea" as U.S. and Kurdish troops entered the city.

Some held up hand-scrawled, misspelled signs – "Thanks you U.S.A." or "We are free, thank you, Mr. Bosh." Sirwan Hassan, 32, had not returned to his hometown for a decade. As he drove into the city in late afternoon, a mob surged around his car, waving and chanting "George Bush! George Bush!"

Hassan broke down in tears. "My dream has been realized," he explained. "I can’t express it in words." Such sentiments were heard throughout the day, as people hugged and shouted, "I’ve waited for this all my life!" ['It is like a dream': Kirkukis overjoyed By Betsy Hiel TRIBUNE-REVIEW Friday, April 11, 2003 ]

Hundreds of Iraqis shouting "Welcome to Iraq" greeted US Marines who entered the town of Shatra yesterday after storming it with planes, tanks and helicopter gunships. A foot patrol picked its way through the small southern town, 20 miles north of the city of Nasiriyah, after being beckoned in by a crowd of people. "There's no problem here. We are happy to see Americans," one young man shouted. [Crowds Greet US Marines Who Stormed Town In The Search For 'Chemical Ali' | 4-1-2003 | Donald Macintyre/Sean Maguire]

As a small harbinger of what may be to come, a man appeared at the side of the road and waved frantically at a passing military vehicle. The 34-year-old Iraqi planted a bristly kiss on the cheek of Flt Lt Ritchie Wylor-Owen of the RAF Regiment when he realised that his surrender had been accepted. [Kisses for the British and curses for Saddam in Basra| April 4, 2003 | Patrick Bishop]

Adal Hussein, a 44-year-old civil engineer, who said: "Please, I beg you to give our thanks to Mr Bush and Mr Blair and tell all the people in all the world how happy we feel. This operation is completed. All the people will feel great happiness."

"I didn't expect this. I didn't think they were going to like us like this. The kids are all smiling and happy." Cpl Mal Petfield added: "I think they're overjoyed that the regime has nearly fallen." [Handshakes and high fives as the Paras are swept along by the joy of liberation | April 8, 2003 | Martin Bentham]

Television screens, newspapers and magazines across the globe this week featured images of a joyously liberated Baghdad. Iraqis danced in the streets, kissed the cheeks of coalition soldiers, threw flowers in the path of tanks and cheered as U.S. Marines helped bring down a statue of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein. [April 13, 2003 Television, newspapers wrong on war in Iraq By James G. Lakely THE WASHINGTON TIMES]

The poles exemplified by the Tucker opinion piece at one end of the spectrum and the posts on FR at the other well illustrate the degree to which the American populace is divided. The repeatedly reported (+/-) 50% - 50% split the polls have shown for the last several weeks is doubtlessly accurate. The rationale' and arguments repeated by each are well known to anyone possessed of a 98.6 degree temperature and a pulse. The repetition, however fervently done, does nothing to advance the debate or place policy makers further along the path to solution. It does, however, serve the detrimental end of furthering the permanent schism between the extremes and causing each to become even more resolute and immoveable.

While it's probably spitting into the wind to suggest that a lowering of the harsh rhetoric may allow more calm and dispassionate policy makers and commentators to move us closer to a national policy acceptable to all, like chicken soup, it may not be a cure, but it's worth a try. (I hate long sentences)-- But, as anyone reading this is well aware, the likelihood of that rapproachment' is some where between zero and none.

Our successful polarization of the American public has caused us diminishment as the perceived leader of the Free World and a power that applies its power wisely and with restraint. Whether this is accurate or not, in this case, the perception is reality. We appear to move from ad hoc decision to the next ad hoc decision made in response to a crisis, not in pursuit of an intelligent plan having a coherent end at the conclusion of the means. Here again, it's the perception that counts.

To our own people as well as to those in the world whose opinion and following we hope to gain, we appear to be thrashing about in search of a clearly articulated end purpose without having an understanding of the means to achieve that end. And, our traditional allies see us as speaking of collective security and hoping for their cooperation while, at the same time, ignoring their counsel and their offers to cooperate if given a measure of authority to control the means applied commensurate with their responsibility to accomplish the mission. Thus, again, whether accurate or not, the appearance of omniscience and omnipotence we project seems to them as an ultimatum that - - either they are with us and operate under our direction or, they are against us.

Probably all can see the problem but the deeply rooted obduracy at the opposite ends of the spectrum prevent the implementation of policies that may lead us and them to an international resolution. Nothing so beneficial and salutary is anywhere to be seen on the horizon.

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