"Our President And The Truth"

I just read an article written by Eric Schmidt and published in the New York Times on August 7th. It said, among other things "? the assessment by Gen. John P. Abizaid, the head of the military's Central Command, tracks with a statement made last week by the top American general in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., that the Pentagon could make some fairly substantial reductions in troops by next spring and summer if the political process in Iraq remained on track and Iraqi forces assumed more responsibility for securing the country..."

Does General Casey believe that reasonable people will accept what he said on face value? It is a statement worthy of Professor Irwin Corey. After all, when modified by one use of "could," one use of "if" and one relating to Iraqi forces, it has enough uncertainty to render it meaningless. The same statement could have been made a year ago, or could be made a year from now.

Does anyone believe that the Generals made these statements without clearing them with Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Bush? I think not.

I am distrustful of anything that the Bush administration says about anything.

Is this just another in the long series of misleads, untruths, major errors or lies told to Americans in the last 41/2 years by the administration?

Was it just a moment ago that spokespeople for the administration expressed the notion that announcing a timetable to begin withdrawing troops would only embolden the insurgents?

Of course that was then, and this is now, and I love that they can segue from one position to another without hardly taking a deep breath, or uttering even a quiet "Whoops, things have changed."

I can only wonder -- in face of the upcoming mid term elections -- if the motives behind these statements made by the generals are only political?

Consider the words used by the generals, or the fact that they were put "out front" with an announcement of this purported gravity. This could have been a press conference with the president making the announcement with his generals at his side. After all, our men and women are at risk "in a noble cause." Isn't it worthy of that?

The American broadcast media should be out front with these stories, and they are in my view responsible to everyone to comment on them, and they don't.

Norman Horowitz
American

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