A Lie of Historic Proportions
Wednesday, August 17, 2005 12:33 PM
No wonder the Bush boosters, from professional distorter Christopher Hitchens to ex-Senator Zell Miller of Georgia, from the Left to the Right, are having a communal panic attack over Cindy Sheehan. They are scared silly, in fact terrified, and for good reason. They do not relish being exposed as frauds or fools. Events in Iraq have proven them to be dead wrong. Sheehan is telling it like it is and has been asking a lot of inconvenient questions.
She has been doing it long before she decided to pitch a tent down the road from G.W.’s "ranch" in Texas. Take a look at a sample of what Cindy Sheehan has been writing from earlier in the summer, on June 6th. Her views are sound and on target.
And where does her article--“A Lie of Historic Proportions”--appear, pray tell? Not on some "ultra-liberal" or left-wing website, as one could be expected to think, after listening to the bilge erupting from the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and other Republican Party hacks masquerading as commentators. No, it is on Lew Rockwell's libertarian website. At last check, the libertarian perspective is considered to be on the right side of the political spectrum. Libertarians stand for freedom, freedom to the nth degree, in opposition to the unchecked, arbitrary power of the State. Count me in.
Appearances aside, Limbaugh and O'Reilly and their confederates are not complete ignoramuses, although they may indeed believe their own propaganda. In any event, they are egomaniacs. As a consequence, they do not want to be perceived by their fans as having been mistaken. Like Bush, their inflated egos can't take that. Hence, the frantic fusillades directed at Cindy Sheehan.
The central issue she raises is important, and should not be lost sight of in the hubbub. Leaving Bush's motives out of it completely, does the President of the United States have the right to lie and deliberately misinform his fellow citizens for the express purpose of railroading the country into an unnecessary war? That is precisely what was done. Sheehan knows it. And so do Messrs. Hitchens, Miller, Limbaugh and O'Reilly, even if they will not admit it to themselves.