BushCo Has Poisoned the Well

I know that propaganda has always been used as a tool for political masterminds to get their agenda passed with support, but it seems like since the 2000 debacle of an election, the Bush White House has taken its usage to new lows.

It's criminal the way they have pushed their blatant lies through the media talking heads to justify so many atrocities. Perhaps it's my imagination, but the smirks and chuckles that usually accompany those lies are the 'tells' that whomever the hyrda-head happens to be at a given point is fully aware that they're playing the part of the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood's tale.

Unapologetic lies lead to a smoke screen that, after grating hard on the reality-inclined's nerves, starts to wear down the ability to tell the difference between fact and farce.

People tend to become "independent of reality" in these circumstances, says opinion analyst Steven Kull.

The reality in this case is that after a 16-month, $900-million-plus investigation, the U.S. weapons hunters known as the Iraq Survey Group declared that Iraq had dismantled its chemical, biological and nuclear arms programs in 1991 under U.N. oversight. That finding in 2004 reaffirmed the work of U.N. inspectors who in 2002-03 found no trace of banned arsenals in Iraq.

Despite this, a Harris Poll released July 21 found that a full 50 percent of U.S. respondents — up from 36 percent last year — said they believe Iraq did have the forbidden arms when U.S. troops invaded in March 2003, an attack whose stated purpose was elimination of supposed WMD. Other polls also have found an enduring American faith in the WMD story.

"I'm flabbergasted," said Michael Massing, a media critic whose writings dissected the largely unquestioning U.S. news reporting on the Bush administration's shaky WMD claims in 2002-03.

"This finding just has to cause despair among those of us who hope for an informed public able to draw reasonable conclusions based on evidence," Massing said.

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I'm not as surprised as Mr. Massing. If the U.S. truly had an electorate that was "informed...based on evidence", the Creationism-loving, stem-cell research-hating, war without end-supporting minions would've been laughed off into oblivion. Instead, I can turn my tv on to any given number of channels and watch the deluded chatterboxes spread their bile to the masses.

With regards to the war in Iraq, this proves my assumption that Bush's low poll numbers are not based on the premise that the American people have finally figured out that they were hoodwinked and bamboozled into a debacle by lies, but rather that they're holding George responsible for us "losing". The difference between me and the fair-weather fans of this war is that I consider us to have lost the moment the first volley of Shock and Awe bombs were delivered to the doorsteps of the Iraqi people.