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The Lie’s the
Limit? WHERE DOES
IT END?
Posted January 25, 2004 thepeoplesvoice.org
By: Ted Lang
Those Americans not dumbed-down by media propaganda are already more than up
to speed regarding the extracurricular activities of the Bush administration
and the lies told by President George W. Bush to engineer an unnecessary war
against a defenseless Third World dictatorship. If human rights are an
issue, where was America relative to the cause for world justice as regards
Rwanda?
The denizens of talk radio and FAUXNews justify the unjust war by the
interventionist question: Aren’t the Iraqi people better off without
Saddam? Frankly, I cannot answer that question – I simply don’t
have enough information on the matter. Neither does anyone else in
Amerika. To be certain, the media hasn’t shed enough light on the
matter. In fact, the media is still in arrears as regards information
on TWA 800, JFK, RFK, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 9-11, Halliburton,
Bechtel, Enron, and on and on. So how could anyone in this nation of
propagandized news know what’s going on anywhere at anytime?
Take Halliburton for instance. Any employee of the United States
government that is in any way connected to acquisition operations relative
to government purchases and procurement contracts is acutely aware of that
which is most basic in avoiding violations of the Federal Acquisition
Regulations, or FAR. The basic admonition warns federal employees to
“avoid even the appearance” of collusion and wrongdoing. Even the
“appearance!” Yet, massive billion dollar contracts were awarded
by the Bush administration in the aftermath of the Iraqi invasion without
the required open bidding process. I dare not imagine the legal
implications if such FAR violations were uncovered involving a government
GS-15 middle manager.
Even now, after the liberal interpretation of the strict FAR bidding process
by the Bush administration favoring Halliburton was glossed over by the
media, allegations of price gouging by Halliburton on gasoline sold to the
US Army in Iraq are being amplified. And of course, we all know that
fuel purchases, as well as any procurement activity relating to the United
States military, is paid for by the American taxpayer. Now additional
malfeasance on the part of Halliburton executives has been uncovered, which
of course, is most assuredly one of the reasons for the higher gasoline
prices paid for by the American taxpayer.
Why haven’t our representatives in Congress thoroughly questioned
President Bush and members of his administration, not only concerning the
price gouging by Halliburton, but also as concerns the now-reported
corruption exposed on the part of its executives? When will an
explanation also be demanded for the originating malfeasance regarding the
unlawful sole sourcing of Halliburton and Bechtel? Failure to
vigorously prosecute wrongdoing guarantees its progression.
And an inattentive media, either via intellectual lethargy or engineered
disinterest, turns its back and sanctions this? Need we remind the
reader of Vice-President Dick Cheney’s connection to Halliburton?
Could this account for media and congressional disinterest?
Considering the grounds for the impeachment of President George Bush,
corruption wasn’t previously high up on the list of this
administration’s betrayal of the public trust. It is now!
Are the people of Iraq better off now that Bush has gotten his most
sought-after “regime change?” Here’s a better question: Are we
the American people better off? Are we better off now that Bush,
Ashcroft and Ridge have abolished the Bill of Rights? Are we better
off for all the paper fiat money Bush and his Fed are pumping out to pay for
this stupid war? Are we okay with our increased debt that financed the
war and the transfer of untold wealth to Bechtel and Halliburton? It
appears the only ones better off are the big corporations and the
subcontractors receiving the downward cascading wealth generated by Bush via
the Iraqi war. And that wealth is not coming out of the ground in
Iraq, but out of our family budgets via the tax gouging of the Bush
administration.
What? We have a tax cut? How secure is that considering Bush’s
huge deficit spending and a skyrocketing national debt? The only ones
who have benefited are Bush and Cheney’s oil cronies, and the state of
Israel. And if that’s not enough, consider the billions of American
tax dollars that are being diverted to Israel in foreign aid. When
will the Bush administration prove an Iraqi connection to 9-11? How
about never? That is not to say that some CIA spookology techniques
won’t be employed to somehow justify the invasion.
But what is most curious considering all the corruption, lies, falsehoods
and fraud employed by the Bush administration to trick US into an unjust
war, a war marked by death and destruction in Iraq, a conflict that has
every indication of igniting a major civil war and revolution against
America’s colonial forces, is that we have ourselves imposed and accepted
limitations on the Bush administration’s lies. When will Senator
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s question on the Senate floor be honestly answered
by someone in the Bush administration? “What did President Bush know
before 9-11, and when did he know it?” Sounds like a good place to
start!
Why do we, the American people, accept the lies told to US by a president
that has devised a fraudulent strategy costing tens of thousands of lives,
including a mounting death and injury toll on the part of our military?
Why haven’t the media reported on the shoddy and horrible treatment of our
wounded and maimed service personnel, dumped in shoddy decrepit stateside
“hospitals” and holding stations, sometimes awaiting adequate medical
attention for months? Why haven’t the media reported on the small
arms ammunition shortages faced by our fighting men and women? Why
haven’t the media emphasized the pay debacle that precluded some of our
fighting personnel from even receiving their pay? Why have soldiers’
families had to buy bulletproof vests for their loved ones instead of these
combat items being supplied by our military? Why haven’t the media
spent more time reporting on the continuing arrival of caskets bearing our
military dead? By the way, where the hell is the media?
Considering the absence of the media on these issues involving the
smoldering and volatile situation in Iraq, is it too much to ask one to
believe, that in all likelihood, they were AWOL as well on the specifics
regarding the relevant issues surrounding 9-11? And if that’s the
case, why should we the people allow ourselves to be limited in our
curiosity as regards all the possible ramifications of 9-11? Is it
because we are just too good to imagine the possible worst? Is that
because the media would never allow US to go there? Is it because to
think the worst would be unpatriotic? And if unpatriotic, what
precisely constitutes patriotism? Would it be considered unpatriotic
towards our president who lied US into an unjust war? Would it be
unpatriotic to a nation of, by and for the people? Why are we limiting
ourselves in imagining precisely how far a proven liar would go to justify
an unjust war?
Where am I going with all this? If Bush lied about Iraqi involvement,
now confirmed as having been planned long before 9-11, Senator Hillary’s
question begins to take on new meaning. Ha’aretz, the Hebrew
newspaper, published an article indicating that Bush’s PNAC cabal, when
counseling former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding
possible methods to involve the United States to serve Israel’s interests,
flirted with treason relative to America’s interests. Can these PNAC
actions be regarded as patriotic? Recall how agents of the Israeli
government were detected in New Jersey viewing the Twin Towers on 9-11
through telescopes and celebrating their destruction. What did they
know, and when did they know it?
Is it so hard to imagine, therefore, considering all these isolated facts,
including the National Security/CIA briefing delivered to Bush one full
month before 9-11 concerning a potential al-Qaeda threat, that perhaps, just
perhaps, Senator Clinton was right? Why did that story break in the
New York Post, a newspaper usually defined as “conservative” and
normally in Bush’s corner? Why did they release it thereby giving
ammunition to his political foes?
We have placed a politically correct, inquisitorial limitation upon what is
safe to assume, appropriate to imagine, and what is not. Those that
make a reasonable effort to inform themselves, in spite of the intellectual
stonewalling and political bias on both sides of the media, realize now that
liberal versus conservative, or Democrat versus Republican, will never ever
serve to get US to the truth. What will?
I have made the case that the unconstitutional transgressions of the Bush
administration, now to include corruption in addition to betrayal of the
public trust, abuse of power, and so on, justify impeachment. Why
isn’t the Congress, the representative of the people, pursuing this?
Why isn’t the media, especially a media that has always been characterized
by talk radio and FAUXNews as leaning left? Is it because George W.
Bush is now leaning further left, or is it merely because the administration
is considered to be squeaky-clean constitutionally because they are
Republican and have a vast majority in Congress? We report, you
decide!
-###- © Copyright
THEODORE E. LANG 1/24/04 All rights reserved. Ted Lang is a political
analyst and a freelance writer.
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