“Saddam Hussein is an eminent threat to the United States,” President George W. Bush said with such conviction that even I began to believe him.
Suggesting sealing ourselves up with duct tape and plastic bags was one way the Bush administration tried to brood enough fear so the war in Iraq would be justified with the majority of the American public.
Key officials in the Bush clan were connecting Hussein and Sept. 11, saying he had nuclear capacities and chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. Most of us believed him.
PBS’s “Frontline” went to Iraq to follow around the Iraq Survey Group, a U.S. military group in search of these elusive weapons of mass destruction. What they found was disturbing.
Yes, they found some equipment that could be used to cultivate Uranium, the beginnings of what could eventually turn into a nuclear weapon. But they never found any evidence that the equipment was used for that purpose. No traces of Uranium were found.
Yes, they found a few vials of a chemical that could be used to make chemical and biological weapons, but not in the forms that were found.
Yes, they found blueprints for a 500 kilometer missile that was strikingly similar to the missiles being developed in Iran, a country with historically bad tensions.
But no missiles were ever created, according to one of Hussein’s former engineers.
A possible explanation for that is easy: Iran and Iraq were participating in a mini Cold War arms race, something the United States could relate to.
Yes, Saddam Hussein had an interest in chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, but after all of the years of evading U.N. inspections and after repeated requests to destroy its weapons of mass destruction from the United States, there was nothing left even resembling an active nuclear program when the United States invaded Iraq.
But, that’s not the issue now. In an interview with Diane Sawyer, Bush was asked about the lack of weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq. Bush’s response: a regurgitated media message that has been pounded into the brains of the American people over and over again that even Bush is starting to believe it.
He said, “Saddam Hussein was an eminent threat to the United States.” Sawyer asked again and he said, “Diane, no matter how many times you ask me, Saddam Hussein was an eminent threat to the United States,” this time with a hint of anger and the air of extreme frustration in his voice.
Bush’s irritation represents a new wave of administrative protection and manufacturing of information.
Bill Moyers, Lyndon Baines Johnson’s press secretary, lifelong journalist and current host of the PBS show, “NOW,” exemplified in a recent show the depth and the magnitude of the Bush administration’s media campaign.
Moyers can attest to the fact that this administration is kept under lock and key, only allowing information on a certain media agenda to see the light of day.
Most administrations keep secrets, but this administration has hit a new level of deception so well trained that most average Americans will blindly accept what comes out of the mouths of members in the White House.
The fact isn’t that the United States had no solid evidence to invade Iraq. The issue isn’t that Saddam Hussein was a bad man that needed to be taken out of power. The issue is that our government, the body that is supposed to govern and protect us from harm has misled the American public to an unbearable extent that has really made us look like babbling idiots.
The way to avoid four more years of lies: on Oct. 4, don’t vote for the Bush “administration” — a.k.a. Bush plus the brains surrounding him.