General Westmorland

Yesterday, I received a comment about my death count in Iraq from someone who pointed out that the number of American serviceperson deaths were artificially low as they only count battlefield deaths. Therefore, once someone is airlifted to Germany who dies of his wounds days or weeks later, that is not counted as one of the dead. I stand corrected.

I was reminded of General Westmorland, who, back in the Vietnam era was the guy who cited the numbers there. According to him, we lost very few soldiers, and killed each and every North Vietnamese person 5 times over.

Lies.

And yesterday was an appropriate days for lies, since General Patraeus and Ambassador Crocker were on the Hill. Again. I didn't have the opportunity to watch the hearings, but they're still repeating on C-Span, and so I've caught some bits, plus listened to a bit of the wrap up on TV.

The more I hear the pundits, the less I trust them. Mostly they seemed concerned with two things: first, how the candidates "did" in asking their questions, and second, pointing out that McShame didn't grasp the difference between Sunnis and Shiites, AGAIN (or STILL).

I was more interested in some of the questions I heard from the Senators, and the non-answers which came from the testifiers. First was Ben Cardin's question about whether there was someone in Iraq who could act as a negotiator to bring people together. Crocker tried to frame an answer, and
Cardin interrupted with "Is there a person, can you give me a name?" -- Crocker hemmed and hawed until finally getting to the point that there was no such person. The politics of lies from the neocons, the commitment to shading reality, are SO VERY STRONG, that when asked "what did you have for breakfast this morning?" I'm sure the answer would be "You have to understand that there are many options, and the consideration into the decision......."

But, of course, I cannot let the McShame gaffe go. Certainly, this is the 5th time he got it wrong publicly in the last several months. Which indicates that he cannot grasp the difference between Sunni and Shiite, nor does he know that Al Quada in Iraq is a small group, not a large sect. But the larger question is WHY can't he grasp it? The easy answer is that he's old and doddering, but I don't think that's it. I think he is so committed to being occupying Iraq, fighting in Afghanistan, and finding an excuse to invade Iran, that, in his mind, there doesn't need to be a reason -- McShame thinks they're ALL bad, and we need to bomb them all into submission. He seems to have lost the ability to reason anything out -- he just wants to "win".

And on that point, Obama really got it right -- when he pointed out that the standard for "winning" as put forth by Baby Bush and the neocons is not something that can ever be attained. The Iraqis could be the kind of people, have the kind of government, and be the country the Bushies want them to be as easily as the precious priceless princess, Munchkin Olivia, the wonder dog could suddenly speak English and grow thumbs. Difference is, I'm pretty sure Olivia WOULD like to grow thumbs.....

But back to the "lies" theme. This had slipped by me, but someone else made a comment, so I repeat it here. What is with Hillary Clinton and her inability to tell the truth? The difference between telling a lie and being a pathological liar has to do with whether you're lying for a reason, or lying just to lie. IN the latter case, you normally get found out and there was no reason to lie.

EVERYBODY lies --> "You look great, have you lost weight?" "Honest, I don't know how the vase broke" "I promise I'll respect you in the morning" "Don't worry, I'll call" "Hi, I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."

BUT

Hillary Clinton was in college when Martin Luther King was assassinated, and I'm sure she IS telling the truth when she says his murder was upsetting to her. But she claims she got back to her dorm room and flung her bookbag against the wall. No one HAD a book bag in 1968. Minor? ABSOLUTELY. But the point is, the truth itself was powerful enough without needing to be embellished. It's the little, minor, creeping lies which lead to the big ones.