Facts and fictions in USA politics

I never thought it could get to the silliness going on in D.C. and the media reporting thereof. I had always thought facts, and objective reporting, would trump all, including slippery politicians. Now it is most obvious that fictions can become “facts” in D.C., and many, including fellow Americans and many in the rest of the world just shake their head in disbelief. How can so many people allow themselves to be duped, or even more minimally, want to be duped? In fairness, many may resent the tag of being duped, and prefer the cover of accepting, and often reinforcing the fictions as a way to advance their politics. Given the many serious problems our Nation does have, this is a heck of a way to try run a country. One might even say people like this are playing with fire. Even if the present Republican President is a poor manager, etc, (which he is not), there is no excuse for using fictions over facts. Even if many Americans have a visceral dislike of Bush (much like I had of Clinton), there is no excuse for using fictions over facts.

I always enjoyed my version of joking about facts and fiction when making fun of my group, the military, though it could apply to any group. It was: Never ever let the truth interfere with a good story. (And the corollary was: Nothing screws up a good story like an eyewitness). Now my version of joking seems to have a basis in fact, at least in D.C. and the media. Said another way, many were introduced to the idea of propaganda by studying Nazi techniques, and later Stalin’s techniques. The basic idea was: if you say white is black often enough and in enough ways, eventually it will be accepted as fact.

Most of the world accepts that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) sometime before our attack in 2003. Depending on the WMD, they had buried (at land and sea) or evacuated to Syria, some of them during our lead up to our attack. The locations then in Syria are known. And during earlier times they had used WMDs against citizens, so we know they had them earlier. And as part of the attack into Kuwait in 1991, we expected (in my unit) 30% casualties from chemical weapons. And we knew the Iraqi’s were not 10 feet tall, so said another way, the threat and probability was not over exaggerated. Yet now the accepted facts in D.C. is not only that WMDs never existed, but Bush led some kind of charade to fool his fellow public servants in their votes. All this after the CIA Director announced a “slam dunk” on the subject; and then after all, Bush had kept Tenet as the CIA Director even if Clinton had nominated him based on his professional qualification as a Democratic Intelligence Committee staffer.

The other propaganda type silliness is the whole affair over Plame and Libby, etc. Now fiction has been extended to politics in supporting the most outlandish claims by this most disreputable politically oriented couple; and even now she can testify as to the facts without objective media challenge, even if her words have changed 180 degrees. This is so outlandish, it is silly. While it succeeds in D.C. and the media, I don’t think the rest of the world is buying it. Somebody has to say “the king has no clothes”.

Most adults are willing to let the chips fall where they may. And most will not tolerate fictions over facts. Most demand elected public servants address our many National problems. If this is not a message from outside of D.C., then stand by for heavy rolls.