[Last update: 28 July 2003]

Bush Administration Lies to the American people

by Dan Kowal

Employing a chorus of voices from across the Executive Branch and its many departments, agencies, and bureaucracies (not to mention Bush allies in Congress), Bush's people have been creating the illusion of a single, united American voice in favor of his policies and views, regardless of truthfulness.

Day after day, they relentlessly take their message to the various media outlets, trying to convince us of the rightness, legitimacy, and unanimity of their vision. Using our tax dollars, they promote their agenda, hoping that we buy into it.

Here are some false messages (half truths, strategic omission, false impressions, misleading information, outright lies) given by Bush or his lieutenants throughout the Executive Branch, including the military/Pentagon, CIA, State Department, FBI, Homeland Security, and all departments under his direct command:

DOMESTIC

  • I was legitimately elected
  • My brother, the Governor of Florida, had nothing to do with election fraud in my favor in that state
  • The Supreme Court appropriately resolved the issue
  • I honorably served my country
  • I did not inhale (cocaine)
  • Global warming is a myth
  • Giving tax dollars to churches isn't unconstitutional
  • Tax cuts for the rich are good for all Americans
  • Drilling in a wildlife refuge won't disturb the wildlife
  • Even though we don't have enough oil, we don't need to conserve
  • Campaign contributors don't affect public policy
  • Enron did not influence my national energy plan
  • The corruption at Enron was no big deal
  • Kenny Boy who?
  • The new rules will ensure honesty
  • This is not a recession
  • All the economy needs are more tax cuts for the rich
  • Hydrogen-fueled cars don't pollute
  • The California energy crisis was not caused by deregulation or corporate greed
  • FCC deregulation creates more diversity in the media
  • Huge long-term deficits are manageable

    • 911

  • Some Americans don't deserve Constitutional rights
  • The Patriot Act safeguards our freedoms
  • Universally tapping phones, reading emails, and tracking financial interactions will keep America free and safe
  • Secret trials, military trials, and mass detentions are good for democracy
  • You're either with me or you're with the terrorists
  • The War on Terror isn't about religion (but we should spy on mosques just in case)
  • Saudi officials didn't financially support al-Qaida
  • Duct tape, plastic sheets, and basic colors can save you

    • TARGET: AFGHANISTAN

  • This is about helping Afghan women
  • This isn't about revenge, it's about justice
  • We did not allow Taliban fighters to fly out of Kunduz and escape to Pakistan
  • We have not supported opium-growing, human-rights abusing warlords in Afghanistan
  • Our Northern Alliance allies did not execute hundreds of prisoners
  • We will finish the job
  • We won the war in Afghanistan
  • We have rebuilt Afghanistan
  • The fighters we captured are not prisoners of war
  • It's OK to imprison people without lawyers, trials, or even charges
  • Pakistani General Musharraf and his ISI death squad is a good dictatorship
  • Bin Laden isn't that important, anyway

    • BUILD UP TO WAR ON IRAQ

  • UN inspectors aren't accomplishing anything in Iraq
  • The UN resolutions authorized war
  • We don't bribe or threaten potential allies
  • We don't need the UN (or anybody else)
  • Blowing off the UN won't hurt cooperation against al-Qaida
  • I used diplomacy to try to prevent a war with Iraq
  • There won't be a war if Saddam cooperates
  • A pre-emptive war is legal as it's self defense
  • We have enough money to fix America, cut taxes for the rich, and destroy and rebuild Iraq
  • There weren't that many peace demonstrators
  • We will consider your views, John Paul
  • Saddam and Bin Laden work together
  • Saddam was behind the Anthrax attacks in the US
  • Saddam and his WMDs are an imminent threat to the US
  • Saddam is trying to buy uranium from Africa
  • Saddam will use his WMDs against us if we don't invade immediately
  • We want to rid the Middle East of WMD's (no mention of Israel's nukes)
  • North Korean nukes are no big deal compared to Saddam
  • It's not about oil
  • We will free the Iraqis by dropping bombs on them
  • Collateral damage is acceptable
  • What Gulf War Syndrome?
  • Our troops won't have to remain in Iraq in large numbers for years to come
  • This is not colonialism, it's about democracy
  • France and Russia are in it for the oil, unlike us
  • The Iraqi people will love having their land occupied by foreign troops

    • IRAQ WAR

  • We didn't jump-start the war just because it was revealed that we bugged our UN allies' offices
  • We have a broad, fully committed international coalition supporting our war
  • Depleted uranium ammunition doesn't cause long-term health problems
  • We don't use cluster bombs in civilian areas
  • Jessica Lynch fought heroically to the last bullet, was shot, stabbed and abused by Iraqis
  • Jessica Lynch's release was not staged by the US military

    • "POST WAR" IRAQ

  • Dick Cheney's Halliburton won the multibillion dollar non-competitive bid fair and square
  • We have plenty of troops in Iraq (at least enough to guard the oil facilities)
  • The museums and the UN-shuttered uranium warehouse aren't important enough to guard
  • They didn't steal that much from the museums, anyway
  • It's still not about oil
  • Looting is healthy in a situation like this
  • Everything is under control
  • It's not our problem
  • The reconstruction of Iraq is going smoothly
  • Most Iraqis are doing better now than under Saddam
  • Saddam isn't that important, anyway
  • We are not a foreign occupation army, we are a liberation force
  • The war was about human rights
  • There is no guerrilla war in Iraq
  • I didn't stretch the facts or exaggerate Saddam's threat
  • I have never pressured my intelligence agencies to produce certain conclusions
  • I didn't say I said it, I said the British said it, but my people said I could say it even though they told me not to say it earlier

    • And in February, 2002 when speaking on the proposed Pentagon "Strategic Information" office that could be used to spread false information, here's an actual Bush quote: "We'll tell the American public the truth."

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