Plausible Deniability

By BlackJack

With all the talk recently about 'exit strategies' and 'timelines', I've been thinking about what I see as the real problem at the root of the Iraq mess. Pundits continue to argue that it would be a disaster to pull out the U.S. troops at this point and I'd probably have to agree. We got Iraq into this situation and we have to help them get out of it. I'm afraid it's only going to end up as a quagmire however.

What bothers me most about Iraq isn't that the pre-war intelligence was a Madison Avenue sales kit or that almost every military expert was ignored by a group of men with almost no knowledge of how to run a war - it's that, after these facts became public knowledge, the administration will still not admit to any mistakes or wrongdoings.

The Bush Administration and the neo-con component of the GOP have developed an interesting and effective tactic for spreading false information. Instead of developing an intricate web of false documents or referencing classified sources that can never be checked, they simply make a false statement (also know as a lie) and then get everybody in the Administration and their various mouthpieces to continually repeat the lie in every speech or interview until it becomes an accepted fact. It's really quite brilliant in its execution.

What saddens me is that most of the people repeating the lie aren't being paid by the administration ﾖ Armstrong Williams and the Iraq press hopefully being the exceptions. It would be easier for me to accept it if they were all being paid. I don't believe there's some secret GOP hot-line 'Batphone' network where Karl Rove makes a conference call every morning to update the punditry and foot soldiers on the latest administration talking points. Unfortunately most of these people are just repeating the lies as they fall from the administration's giant yap.

I'm intrigued by the type of person who gets involved in this chain of lies. They are people who have somehow tied their own success to that of the party. Rush Limbaugh, Mike Savage, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Rielly and their local look-a-likes and wanna-bes must believe that in the long run they will personally benefit from jumping on that band wagon. I don't think they are honestly bad people, but they definitely have a selfish-streak. Why else would you get involved in spreading disinformation and lies that convince a group of people to make choices that will harm them?

I wouldn't be comfortable going home every night in my Escalade or Porsche knowing I'd convinced farmers to vote to foreclose on their own farms or for blue collar workers to vote to eliminate their own jobs. It must take a pretty resilient character to eat a full meal at the end of that day.

And the lies just continue to tumble off the production line.