Friday, January 25, 2008

How Many Lies Make a War?

Answer: 935.

That's right, Sooner fans, we have an actual count of Bush Administration lies in the two years following Sept. 11, 2001. The count, made by researchers at The Center for Public Integrity, included false statements made by President Bush and seven of his top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and then National Security Advisor Condolezza Rice.

The researchers concluded that the false statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false promises."

Check out these "winners" from the Bush Administration's record:

• "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." --Vice President Dick Cheney, Aug. 26, 2002.

• "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories." --President George W. Bush, May 29, 2003.

• "This regime is seeking a nuclear bomb, and with fissile material could build one within a year." --George Bush, September 2002.

There are more lies—many, many more—but you get the idea. (We didn't even bother to quote Colin Powell's 2003 speech to the UN or Bush's "yellow cake" statement in the State of the Union speech of January 2003.)

The Center for Public Integrity determined its number of lies by organizing the administration's statements into a massive, fully searchable database that includes public statements, speeches, briefings, interviews, testimony, and similar sources.

Find out more by checking the Center's website, which can be found here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Let's give Bush and Cheney's party a big thank you in the coming election for all their enabling.