On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 16:00:15 +0000, Gould 0738 wrote:

Demanding straight talk from public servants, including the POTUS, doesn't
put those who demand straight answers into the camp of America's political
or strategic enemies. To say that it does is to support the proposition
that the public is well served by duplicitous, scheming, politicians as
long as the end results are
somewhat acceptable.


Before we invaded Iraq, I had a conversation with someone who said that if
we didn't find WMDs, we would plant them. I made the point that we didn't
have to plant WMDs, we just had to muddy the waters. Drop an article that
they were moved to Syria or Iran, people will believe what they want to
believe. Here we are, nine months later, debating whether Bush lied about
WMDs. To me, this is somewhat irrelevant. What is relevant, in a
democracy, is that we *don't* know.

Maybe he lied. Maybe it was an intelligence failure. Maybe the neo-cons,
that have wanted Saddam's head since 1991, have co-opted this government.
Maybe Syria does have them. We just don't know. What we do know is our
elected officials in Washington seem to be more interested in next
November, than in the blood *we* are shedding today.