The Big Lie

It was close; but for the lack of a few pieces of military hardware we would be under the thumbs of a neoconservative controlled government fully vested with the power to carry out mad hegemonic schemes of world domination. The other day, I heard one of el Rushbo’s callers explain how the Saddam government, recognizing its imminent defeat, had quickly gathered up all of its weapons of mass destruction, placed them on trucks and trundled them off to Syria. Aside from the difficulty of the trick, the desire to protect the weapons rather than use them on the invaders strained my credulity. Hey, but I’m just one listener. Rush’s millions of ditto heads probably ate it up.

It is amazing that after all is said and done on WMD and the connection between al Qaeda and the Iraqi government, about half the American people still believe that that Saddam had chemical and biological weapons at the ready and that one of his key aids was working hand in glove with one of the 9/11 plotters. Such is the power of lies.

While the president has been repeatedly forced to back down from claims of an Iraqi prewar arsenal of WMD and a conspiracy between agents of Saddam and Osama, none of this has stopped other members of the administration and, more importantly, its friends in the neocon community from continuing to pump that great lie.

The administration has been quick to complain when their actions have been equated with fascism, and I have more than once leaped to its defense in this regard. Yet they have recently taken to pointing out how those who find their actions to be in error are themselves quite like those who appeased the Nazis when they agreed to permit Germany to swallow its neighbors. Yet the opponents of Bush’s Iraq War are in no way looking to back away from confrontations with the terrorists from al Qaeda who attacked us and who are now in Iraq - because of us.

Bush and his supporters have also taken to likening the actions of the terrorists to those of fascists. While I have written that this comparison is not without merit, it should be noted that with certain major exceptions – such as Iran – these comments are directed at non-governmental entities such as al Qaeda. Clearly this charge is warranted but it as easily obtains to individuals and groups in many places, including the United States. The actions of home grown terrorists such as Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph and many of the militia groups that have waned in popularity since Oklahoma City and 9/11 could as correctly be charged with being fascists.

But one thing is abundantly clear about this administration, it has adopted one of the most important elements of Joseph Geobbels propaganda machine, that of the big lie. Tell the whopper over and over shamelessly. Even if the president can no longer tell it, the underlings – including the vice president - can continue to say that the last word is not in on WMD, and of course Saddam was trying to reconstitute his nuclear program, the proof being the aluminum tubes deemed by agencies of the United States government to be unsuitable for use as centrifuges to enrich weapons strength uranium. The administration knew that but it chose to push the whopper. It’s a lie; but it whispered daily as part of the big lie.

The lie even if suppressed at one point pops up elsewhere. Saddam was a menace and the only course to protect the American people was to attack Iraq and depose the government. Even if Saddam had no WMD, he was a menace to civilization. Just what the hell does that mean? Iraq had no WMD and unless name calling and idle threats were as powerful as nuclear weapons, he posed no threat beyond his borders. Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me. Saddam could do little but shout into the wind that he was going to kick Israel’s ass.

Yet, I believed my government and had little doubt that Iraq had at least some semblance of a WMD arsenal – but not nuclear. Our government pounded that line unendingly, and I doubted not for a minute that when the dust settled on Baghdad proof positive would be available for all to see. Yet I never thought that Saddam’s supposed arsenal would be a true threat against our troops. Chemical and biological weapons are extremely limited in usefulness (the Kaiser found that gas blows back on the shooter and others have seen that germs have a way of working against the using nation) against a real modern military force, and Saddam would soon be facing the world’s best.

My complaints were and remain twofold. While I had no doubt that our troops would easily destroy and overthrow the regime, the attack would be against a sovereign nation that despite having WMD really posed no threat to the U.S. or its allies and, second, the prospect of occupying a nation divided by tribalism, ethnicity, and religion as is Iraq would be far more daunting – it would be better described as almost impossible - to subdue despite assurance from Iraqi expatriates and Dick Cheney that our troops would be welcomed with open arms as liberators.

The war opened with `shock and awe’ and ended in just weeks when the president announced victory aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. The mission had been accomplished and the threat to America and its allies removed. The only thing remaining was to gather the WMD and put them on display for the world to see. A dozen canisters of gas and a couple of mobile labs for biological experiments would do even for me.

But something happened on the way toward pacification of the Iraqi nation. Nobody could find those canisters. Iraq wasn’t really a threat after all.

Not to worry; the big lie would cover their butts. Saddam was menace and even without WMD it was a good thing to remove him. Why? He had the capacity to talk big and scare George Bush. So each day the noses of the president, Dick Cheney, Joe Lieberman, and the host of neocon policy makers and claquers grow longer. And still almost half of all Americans believe the whopper.

“For want of nail, the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for the want of a horse, the rider was lost.” Poor Richard’s Almanac

“A horse! A horse! my kingdom for a horse! Wm. Shakespeare

For want of a canister; the excuse was lost; for want of an excuse; the truth was lost; for want of the truth; the presidency was lost.

My presidency for a can of gas! Wild Bill


George Orwell and Joseph Geobbels would have little trouble understanding the techniques being used by this government.

Blog on!

Wild Bill