Betalogue

At times, you cannot help but wonder how low the current US administration will stoop to defend its indefensible position regarding the Iraq situation. from Wolfowitz trying to rationalize the lying for “bureaucratic” reasons (and the Pentagon later trying to change the line) to Condoleezza Rice repeating how the US is still “disappointed” with Canada, to Bush saying that he’s “not mad” at France and other countries for opposing the war in Iraq, you’d think they were all playing some kind of silly game, or acting out one of those dreadful late afternoon soap operas.

The sad truth is that this is a game that has had and still has a very real human cost. The more time passes, the clearer it becomes that Bush and his gang have taken political cynicism to a whole new level — and that they are getting away with it because nobody has the strength or power or will to hold them accountable for their statements and actions.

For example, nobody ever questioned the fact that Bush never bothered to visit any of the national leaders opposed to the war before the war begun to try and convince them that a war was the right thing to do. It is quite clear now that he didn’t visit them because he would never have been able to convince them in a straightforward, face-to-face dialogue. He didn’t have any evidence to share with them.

And now that the war is over, and that weapons of mass destruction are nowhere to be found, everybody is talking about trying to “mend fences” and “repair relations” — as if the first step to repairing strained relations was not to deal openly and frankly with unresolved issues.

Of course, it would probably be far too embarrassing for the US administration to admit that it lied and tried to mislead the world. So the whole game is going to continue, with the US administration acting and talking like schoolyard bullies and everyone else shutting up for fear of “reprisals”. Will any of the major world leaders have the guts to stand up and act like a real, adult human being? I guess it’s just too much to ask…

I don’t think the level of credibility or respect for politicians has been so low in a very long time.

This entry was posted by Pierre Igot on Monday, June 2nd, 2003 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.