The High School Debate Defense
Some treat the debate on Bush’s intentional use of forged documents to sell his Iraq war as if it were a high school debate. For example, some resort to a style of debate that I consider to be, in itself, misleading, and unsophisticated. Here’s what I mean: some Bush apologists use literalism (i.e., dictionary definition of the word “lie”), instead of contextual logic (critical thinking about the evidence — evidence, that, unfortunately, does not get any airtime on mainstream media (MSM) in our country). History is never accurately recorded, much less when events are still developing; however, any reasonable person looking at the evidence that we now have on hand (in context), would have to conclude that there’s more than enough suspicion that Bush & Co. (including Prime Minister Blair), intentionally used questionable and misleading and known forged evidence to sell their Iraq war to an unfortunately scared and terrorism weary public. It was under the post-9/11 conditions that nationalism was revved up amongst many in our country by Bush & Co.; which, regrettably, after 9/11 proceeded to politicize support for his administration as “patriotic” (”You are either with us or against us,” set the tone for the Iraq war to come).
After 9/11 too many of us in America were ready for action: any action — note that the removal of the Taliban in Afghanistan was widely supported at home and abroad. However, the same was not true during the lead up to Bush’s Iraq war; because it was evident, even amongst those without access to classified information (i.e., note the millions that protested world wide), that Bush’s WMD evidence was extremely flimsy. All one has to do is flip through newspaper clippings of the period to see that enough doubts were being raised as to the “imminent” threat that Iraq posed to America. Again, people around the world saw through the lies; however, here at home, it was “unpatriotic” to even raise any doubts about the evidence that Bush & Co. presented. It was under these national political conditions that the then spineless Democrats in Congress failed to do their [b]truly patriotic and constitutional duty[/b to]: probingly deliberate on the evidence that would lead congress to “declare war.” Unfortunately for us, the American public, congress was backed into a political corner, remember: You are either with us or against us. And, of course, there’s the worthless and equally spineless mainstream media (MSM): the so-called fourth pillar of our representative democracy. (Anyhow, a discussion on the spineless and worthless MSM — or so-called liberal media — deserves a thread of its own; suffice it to say that the MSM is failing us all, and disregarding its constitutionally protected duties to inform the public.)
At any rate, the gravest power that a government… congress and presidents alike… has is the ability to use its full military arsenal… to deploy its young to foreign soil and ask them to sacrifice their lives for a cause. This is a responsibility that should not be taken lightly. Unfortunately for us, 9/11 occurred under the watch of a wantonly irresponsible administration, which saw and used 9/11 as an opportunity to further an agenda that many in the administration had advocated for years (please refer to previous posts in this thread on the “Project for a New American Century”).
Like many across our country, on 9/11 I was, at first, shocked and then ready to do something… what that something was I didn’t know right away. So, over the couple of days that followed the attack, as my brother and I — both of us former Marines — discussed the events, we talked our selves into re-enlisting… this time, instead of going in as an enlisted man, I would be an officer. Additionally, my girlfriend at the time had lived in New York City for a number of years, and still kept in touch with many old friends in the city; so, in the days after 9/11 I watched as my girlfriend made many frantic calls to friends in NYC, and rejoiced as one by one her friends stared to report in. However, one friend did not call back. My now ex-girlfriend’s friend worked in the World Trade Center… I now forget which tower… and she never called back.
In November of 2001 my girlfriend at the time and I flew to NYC, to pay our respects to all that died that day, and to rejoice in the company of the many friends that were unharmed during the attack. As to my re-enlisting, I placed a call to a recruiter, and in those days shortly after 9/11, I guess their offices were overwhelmed, because I never heard back. Now, to be honest, I’m glad I didn’t hear back from that recruiter; because there’s no way, given all that’s come out on the intentional misleading on the existence of Iraqi WMD by this administration, that I could support Bush’s war of choice in Iraq.
Again, given the contextual information that we now have about what Bush & Co. knew, and when they knew it, as to the serious doubts on the existence of WMD, I find it remarkable that any reasonable person would mount a defense of Bush & Co. that essentially resorts to a narrow and literal definition of what constitutes a “lie” vs. a “misdirection” — or whatever other term one wants to use instead of the commonly understood definition of what is a “lie.”
