“Bush Says Iran Is Source of Deadly Bombs”
On February 12, ”Not Paying Attention” I (and a few million other people) expressed doubts about the “evidence” exhibited by anonymous American officials that Iran is supplying the Iraq resistance with weapons.
Must we now reconsider our reaction? The Highest Source has spoken on this very day. I am emphasizing his proofs with capital letters.
NYT
“WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 -- President Bush said today HE IS CERTAIN that elements of the Iranian government are supplying deadly roadside bombs that kill American troops in Iraq, even if the innermost circle of the government is not involved.
“Mr. Bush said IT HAD BEEN ESTABLISHED BEYOND A DOUBT that a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps known as the Quds Force is supplying Shiite groups inside Iraq
“WE KNOW THAT,” Mr. Bush said at a White House news conference.
“Mr. Bush rejected the idea that the intelligence about the Quds Forces might be no more reliable than that about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, which turned out not to exist. “I CAN SAY WITH CERTAINTY. . . blah, blah, blah.”
Yes, the Highest Source has spoken, but without an iota of evidence. Unfortunately, he is the Highest Source of Lies, not the highest source of truth. I wish some historian would tell me if Bush is not the most prolific and persistent liar in the history of the American presidency.
His administration is a fountain of lies, and yet his lies are so easily seen through and so easily shown to be false that most eight year olds can get away with their clumsy falsehoods better than Bush can . . . and yet he’s still doing it!
He is one of the great practitioners of the Big Lie, which I discussed on my other blog, FLIGHTS OF PEGASUS, January 12. (Sources are given there.)
The “Big Lie” technique consists in telling a lie so colossal that no one would believe anybody would have the nerve to try to pass off such a monstrous fabrication as the truth. The lie is so big that it must be true. The masses of people more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed and afraid to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even when the facts which prove a Big Lie to be a lie are brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. “For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world.”
Add to the Big Lie analysis what I wrote in “Not Paying Attention”: The main reason that Bush is able to float his lies on the sea of American public opinion is that most Americans don’t pay attention. They parrot the slogans they are told are respectable, and they believe in a few simple “facts” which are usually falsehoods.
So, while those of us who pay attention marvel that a man who has been repeatedly exposed as a liar can have the effrontery to stand up and lie again, and even to expect us to take him at his word as he has done in previous lies, there are plenty of Americans who even now are nodding their heads and parroting what he says.
