Study on Bush’s Iraq Deception and Lies: Full of Deception and Lies
What makes this study significant isn’t the bias and attempt to frame an argument a particular way. What makes this study is the timing and I don’t mean the proximity to an election:
Consider if a study has been released say during the first President Bush’s term or President Reagan term. This would be a week long story easy, with commentators going after it and pressing the White House for comment and clarifications. The Papers would be driving the story and the administration would be on defense for a very long time.
If say President Bush has been elected as early as 1996 and the Iraq war started in 1998 it would be pretty much the same thing. An unstoppable juggernaut with the power to at the very least damage the war effort or at “best” bring down an administration.
However with the power of the internet all of that changes. It took under a day for internet bloggers to trace the study to its roots and show it for what it is, and these bloggers doing that such as Mr. Owens have credibility particularly since they were able to do the same with “Rathergate” and Scott Beauchamp so they have a record.
This assures that although the study will be used as a propaganda tool among those who already believe its conclusions, or in unfree countries where contrary information is restricted it will have little or no effect on the administration or the conduct of the war.
That is the power of the internet, it is the ability of the common man to see behind the curtain, combined with the cultural norm of freedom that allow inquiry. We can see things for what they are and make an informed choice to disagree or agree with such conclusions.
We may not realize how lucky we are to have that combination of technology and freedom and the western culture of inquiry passed down from Ancient Greece to use it. We only have to choose to use it and accept the responsibility that knowledge brings.
