There was a time in this country when killing without justification was treated severely, oftentimes resulting in the death of the perpetrator, but that practice hasn't been applied to our elected officials who authorize killing with reckless abandon under the cloak of 'waging war'. And it certainly hasn't been applied to President Bush and his Administration for lying to the American people and duping the Nation into believing there was a moral justification for going to war in Iraq.
The well-respected Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C. recently released the results of an in-depth study it undertook of public statements issued by President Bush and members of his Administration in the lead-up to the Iraq War. The study documented that President Bush and his Administration issued 935 false statements regarding the justification for invading Iraq in the two years before the war began.
Those lies convinced a majority of the American people (albeit a slim majority) that invading Iraq was morally justified when it was not. They duped this Nation into sacrificing the lives of thousands of soldiers and hundreds of billions of dollars that future generations will be required to repay. They triggered the senseless deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis. They destroyed America's moral credibility in the eyes of the world, but more importantly, in the eyes of God.
Even today, many of our conservative politicians refuse to acknowledge the lies, refuse to repudiate the lies and refuse to accept responsibility for perpetrating the lies. As a result, those lies go unpunished...and the killing continue! When will it end? When will someone be held responsible?
