Is a Dream a Lie If It Don’t Come True, Or Is It Something Worse?
by Christopher Cooper
This evening, Tuesday, the last day of the month of August, 2010, our president Barack Obama will lie to us. You can be sure of it. It is a fact that all presidents lie. This particular untruth will be a big one. It will hang with us and infect our lives for years after its moment of utterance. The radio and television will return those few Americans who bother to listen to or to watch the actor read his script to regularly scheduled programming after a few minutes perhaps of reassurance from a couple of opinionators that yes, indeed, he said what he said and we are all well served and secured. 
We are warned in advance that this lie will be some variation on the one former president George Bush told us many years ago: combat operations in Iraq by United States military forces have ended.
Smoother than G. W. Bush, slicker, and of course smarter, this lying president will not likely be goofed up in buckled and pocketed flight gear, and he will be accompanied by the mandatory American flag on a sturdy stand rather than a blatant Mission Accomplished banner. But the substance will be the same: we did it; don’t worry, don’t doubt, don’t question. The big lie will adhere to us with a greasy butter of calming reassurance.
Here is why this story is a lie. The singular event upon which it is hinged is that the number of men and women under arms in our name in that abused and beaten and corrupted nation has fallen below fifty thousand. Like the Dow-Jones Industrial average falling below or rising above ten thousand, there is some magic apparently attached to this number, a significance not inherent in one a thousand higher and a weight unknown to a number a hundred lower. But here’s what we know, though we may prefer to not confront our knowledge: the beat goes on.
Our fifty-thousand-scant soldiers will have guns and ammunition. They will be shot at and they will shoot. Some will die; others will be wounded, crippled, maimed, burned, ruined. They will be “trainers” and “advisers,” not “combatants,” and we thank you for the distinction, Mr. President.
We will continue to keep tens of thousands of mercenaries in country. We call them “contractors.”
We will maintain many large military bases, well-equipped with bullets and bombs, in Iraq, and are even as we hear the news tonight expanding and modernizing them.
We will run as many special operations, secret operations, undercover operations as the CIA and military intelligence types think proper. We will assassinate, we will kidnap, we will imprison and we or our agents will torture.
We will send billions of dollars a year to Iraq for many more years. Much of this will be wasted. A good deal of it will be used to kill. Among the dead will be women and children and non-combatant men. We will not hear much about these deaths from our president or Public Radio or Fox News or CNN.
And so it goes. And so it goes. And so it goes. And so it goes. As it has so often gone before.
We are not surprised that we are lied to. Republicans don’t like this president because he is a Democrat. But they do not seem much to mind interminable wars and the business they bring to defense contractors. The truly loopy members of the Republican sect don’t like him because he is a Muslim, an alien, a Fascist and a Socialist. And black, of course, too.
Democrats like him because he is a Democrat and raises money for the party and will sign bad bills Democrats like such as the insurance companies’ health care scam, and help out Wall Street even though Democrats are usually a little more discreet than Republicans about their affection for money.
Liberals don’t like being lied to, but after all it’s a tough old world out there and this most Hopeful of presidents sometimes has to “fake right” before he goes left on some unspecified future day, and he can only get so much done with such terrible Republican obstructionism, and he’s going in the right direction carefully and incrementally, and he’s smarter than George Bush, and he’s our first black president. And advising and training sounds better than combating, doesn’t it?
Possibly some readers missed the Nick Lowe reference I slipped in to my little essay a few paragraphs previous. Here’s another, more direct: All men, all men, all men are liars, and that’s the truth. But there are of course degrees. And there are times and places where lying does great harm. And there are those lies nobody much questions because they are crafted less to obfuscate than to cover, to contain, to patch together. Among these are the lies we tell to ourselves
Richard Nixon lied to us early and often and without shame or regret. We do not yet know if Barack Obama is troubled by his lies. He is famous for being cool. No Drama Obama. It’s a subjective line between cool and cold. Cold and unfeeling. Cold and calculating. We’ll know him better in a few years when we’re through with him or he with us. We’ll have seen the man and the damage done.
There is no military draft. We maintain forces of economic conscripts (the All-Volunteer Army) and “contractors” and spooks. There is no noticeable hurt put on our entertainments or diversions; we are not invaded, the stores are full of merchandise, Hollywood makes movies, China makes cell phones and GPS devices and an astonishing selection of television sets. We can borrow our way through any number of wars and still have fun on the homefront. All we need to do is to swallow the lie.
Don’t ask, don’t tell. Eat it up. Make excuses. Find diversions.
Obama owns George Bush’s wars now. And tonight each of us will own a piece of Obama’s lies.
” This evening, Tuesday, the last day of the month of August, 2010, our president Barack Obama will lie to us. You can be sure of it. It is a fact that all presidents lie.” ( the article)
Just because we know Obama will lie to us doesn’t make it morally right, does it?
You say ALL Presidents lie, but I find it hard to believe that George Washington lied. John Adams told the truth too and both he and Washington warned Americans the danger of allowing the two political parties becoming more important than the nation, which we all know to be a fact in the 21st century. Obama lies, and frankly, I don’t feel he has any regrets about LYING. He is where he wants to be, and he sold his soul to get there so no, I don’t think he looses any sleep at night for all the LIES he has told and continues to tell. I for one will not support a President who LIES.
Obama isn’t the only President who has lied to the American people and I don’t feel we should give Obama a free pass just because he isn’t the only President who lied. LYING should be a bigger deal then it is in this nation. Yet, if our moral standards of living have gone down as a nation then of course we will turn the other way when Obama lies because after all honesty is no longer an important virture that Americans live by. That is the only reason why Democrats could support such a man. If you lie, then of course it is not going to bother you that your President lies. If you are a person of high moral values than it will bother you and you will not condone or support the lies.
Look at the shows that represent America today. We have Jersey Shore where young women act as sluts and have sex with men they have just met. That is a really good message to send our daughters isn’t it? Those girls who want to wait until marriage are not asked out on dates because they don’t have sex. There are a lot of nice girls in this nation who are having this trash pushed down their throats as the proper way for young women to behave and talk.
If one does have a strong Catholic/Christian faith, they are mocked, make out to be evil racists who hate others (becauase we stand up and fight against such practices as lying), girls acting like sluts and young boys who have no respect for girls or women. If one has strong traditional values they are mocked because they believe that one of our problems is that we as a nation have lost our moral compass. We are living in a post and in many cases an anti Christian society where it is ok to attack and mock Catholics/Christians but heaven forbid one stands up and tells the truth. Those who have a strong faith are made out to be evil racists who hate. Tell me who are the real haters? I think the real haters are those who lie, distort the truth to make it seem like those who hold and live by traditonal Catholic/Christian values are evil racists who are the enemy to this nation.
The language that young people including women speak is gutter talk. In my day a girl was taught that a real women didn’t swear and that men didn’t swear in front of women and children. Yet, today their are girls who talk worst than many men with every word staring with the F word.
It doesn’t surprise me one bit that Obama lies, and continues to LIE.
So we have Democrats excusing the behavior of a Democrat President and refusing to do the right thing and stand up to him and say we will not support you because of your LYING. We have Republicans who excused the behavior of Republican Presidents who lied because after all the Party is more important than the moral honor of this nation. Both political parties in this country make me sick and I will not support either of them.
More and more I want to move to Scotland as I feel that the UK is a more moral nation then the United States.
4400 US soldiers have died!
I watched some of the speech on SKY news, I noticed the words like victory, bravery, winning and we have succeeded were missing.
Ok, he inherited the war and I guess did the best he could. Never the less the loss of life was wasted on these arabs. Perhaps the oil may be woth those lives?
Gar.
I found this comment on CommonDreams. I am posting it here as I don’t want to post the whole article but did want to post my response here on my blog.
” I see the performance of the Obama administration to be quite professional, they have done a good job. And it appears many of the comments in the media are meant to undermine the president, because they lack hard facts.” (braulioherrera)
I am sorry, but I disagree with you. I think the Obama Administration goes down as one of the worst in this nation’s history. You say that those of us who see through his lies lack facts. Yet, time and time again the truth comes out that Obama lies again. He will go down as one of the worst Presidents and he deserves that title along with George W. Bush.
Tell me what is the big difference between Bush and Obama? Very little from where I sit.
To me you sound like another Democrat parrot who like the Republican parrots refuse to see the truth of your man in the office. You have blinders on like the Republican parrots who told us not bashing George W. Yet, those Democrats who bashed Bush are silent when Obama does the same thing as Bush and even takes things further. Why the double standard of it is a crime when Bush does it, but it is legal when Obama does the same thing.
Here is a fact for you. Independents and Third Party like me see through Obama and the double standard of you Democrats who lack the moral backbone to stand up against the corruption within your own party. You are the ones in power now so the corrutpion that is happening now is happening on your watch. I wanted to throw up when Republicans refused to do the morally right thing and I want to throw up when Democrats refuse to do the morally right thing and stand up and fight for truth, justice, and honor. All of those which Obama has spit in the face of. Obama the man you Democrats say is a man of truth, lies all the time. Justice, that is another principle that Obama continues to ignore because if he did believe in justice he wouldn’t be taking spying on American citizens further then Bush did, would he? Now the government can use gps to spy on us without having an warrant. Honor, is another principle that Obama knows nothing about, because if he did he would not be the President who tells the most lies to the American people, would fight for the Consitution instead of stripping our rights away by his spying on his without warrents.
If we have any hope to save this country from the destructive, self destructive, and sucidal path we are on; it will take us Americans to be honest with ourselves and maybe even have to make the hard choice of leaving both the corrupted parties of Democrat and Republican.
I am not attacking you or trying to bully you, so please do not accuse me of that, just because I state my opinion. I just get tired of the misconception put out by Democrats that anyone who dares to think Obama is not a good President is racist and hates him because he is half Black. That is a lie. I wanted Obama to succeed. He comes from Hawaii. Everyone who has connections to Hawaii wanted him to succeed. Yet, time and time again he shows that he has very little regard for truth, justice or honor. I oppose him because I think he is a man with very little moral character. Lying may not mean anything to the Democrats who continue to support him, because they justify it by saying everyone lies; yet to this Catholic woman if you have a President who you do not know if he is telling the truth when speaking that he can’t be a good President. Lying is a major problem and I will oppose anyone in public office who LIES. Whites lie, Blacks lie, Mexicans lie too. My oppositon isn’t because he is half Black because I have met some of the finest people in this world who are Black and have a strong moral backbone. My oppostion is because Obama LIES and shows me he has no regard for truth.
Again I am sorry if I upset you with my remarks. We must as a nation start to value honesty again. If we continue to allow people who LIE, disregard JUSTICE, and have no real HONOR then we will continue to see our nation sprial to its destruction.
Indeed!!