oped bush and wmd

8/2/2019 Oped Bush and Wmd

1/3


2/3

dislike his policies and his plans, they have been looking for some way to discredit him and his

administration. They see this as an opportunity to strike back, which it is, and are taking all the

partisan advantage they can get out of it.

What both sides are missing as the debate continues is that Clinton and Bush appear to be

heading the nation down the same path that Johnson and Nixon blazed during Vietnam when they

systematically lied to and misled the American population. Secrecy served Nixon well, it let him

achieve great foreign policy successes like reaching out to the People's Republic of China. And in

each case, the administration argued that because its goals were just, because there were people in

Congress and in the nation who would block their efforts no matter what, and because the nation

would surely agree with their policies later on, that it was OK to keep things quiet or even mislead.

Secrecy is a valid tool of government. Overused secrecy, secrecy for its own sake, and the

habit of lying to the nation for expediency, are corrupting habits. They encourage the

administration to wall themselves away from the people, to make decisions in the palace, and to say

whatever is expedient at the time in order to get their way. This works well, for a while. But in the

process it erodes national trust and national confidence. Johnson opened a credibility gap with his

policies and rhetoric in Vietnam, Nixon widened it. Clinton opened a credibility gap with his

rhetoric and actions on domestic policy, the Bush 43 administration has systematically widened it

almost as if this they had made a conscious policy decision to erode the people's trust in their

governmental institutions. The old saying goes "fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice,

shame on me." They appear to be fooling the American people, not just with the disconnection

between the rhetoric of "uniter not a divider" and partisan political policies, not just with the

complete change in the justifications and purpose of tax cuts and the call for annual tax cuts, not just

with their willingness to say whatever they had to say about Iraq, WMD, ties to Al Qaeda, and the

middle east, but in the sum total of their actions. You can make a very good argument that the real


3/3

purpose of the Iraq invasion was to change the political climate of the Middle East, encourage

democracy, and show other regimes around the world that there are serious consequences to

backing terrorism. That is a valid use of governmental secrecy and misdirection. But, because of the

Bush administration's record on domestic policy, tax policy, civil rights, mis-labeled bills, and

administrative efficiency, people are doubting it. The Bushies used their quota of permissible lies

too early, and now they are running dry. More, they appear to be continuing along this path,

stonewalling, denying wrongdoing, asking for more powers without justifying what they have done

already, embracing divisive political allies while making vague promises about unity. In the process

they appear to be on the road to doing irreperable damage to our trust, to the world's trust, in

government and governmental policies. The controversy over Weapons of Mass Destruction

matters not because the Bush administration appears to have cherry-picked analyses and written

their speeches with more concern for effect than accuracy, but because it indicates an administration

that simply assumes that the correct way to operate is to say whatever you think will help your cause

right now and then completely ignore the future consequences of present actions. It is short

sighted, it shows a reckless disregard for the future. And that is why we should indeed be making a

very big stink about any further incidents of overblown rhetoric or purely expedient arguments.

Democracy works on trust, they are destroying it. Right now the Bush administration itself poses a

real and future danger to the nation and to core processes of democratic society. These are strong

words, but they need to be said now before more damage is done.

oped bush and wmd

Documents