This is true of all governments throughout time. They lie because they believe that the people would not support their actions if their citizens knew the truth. The bigger the lie, the more likely the people will believe it. Let me read a quote:

The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, because the vast masses of a nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them more easy victims of a big lie than a small one, because they themselves often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell big ones. Such a form of lying would never enter their heads. They would never credit others with the possibility of such great impudence as the complete reversal of facts. Even explanations would long leave them in doubt and hesitation, and any trifling reason would dispose them to accept a thing as true. Something therefore always remains and sticks from the most imprudent of lies, a fact which all bodies and individuals concerned in the art of lying in this world know only too well, and therefore they stop at nothing to achieve this end.
~ Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf

One of the more recent lies has to do with the reason that we invaded Afghanistan. The dominant paradigm is that the US is seeking out the terrorists that attacked the World Trade Center. The truth is that the US had planned the attack since July 2001. The intransigence of the Taliban in allowing UNOCAL and other investors the rights to building a pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan put this plan on the drawing board. The tragedy of September 11 just gave the excuse to go ahead with the plan to ouster our former clients that were set up to extricate the Soviet Union from Afghanistan.

Another lie in a related issue is that of calling the prisoners in Cuba, unlawful combatants. It is claimed that they had no insignias on their uniforms and thus do not deserve prisoner of war status. The Geneva Convention relative to treatment of prisoners of war states that this is only one of six conditions where belonging to any one of the six categories is sufficient. The other categories leave no doubt as to their status. This move by the US government shows a deep lack of respect for international laws and a lack of a desire to co-operate with other nations. Of course this lack of co-operation has already been shown in this countries unwillingness to support the International Criminal Court, the Durban Conference on Racism, the Kyoto Accord on global warming, the international efforts to stop the proliferation of land mines, the efforts to stop germ warfare and our refusal to accept the rulings of the World Court.

The government lies to the people.

Governments lie often when they plan war. If the people knew the truth they would not support the government's aggression. Examples from our history are demonizations of previous CIA clients like Noriega, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. The CIA created a story about Iraqi soldiers throwing babies into the streets just at the time that the Senate was debating whether to support Bush's attack on Baghdad. The attack on the Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin was fabricated to get a near unanimous vote on entering the Viet Nam War. The accidental sinking of the U.S.S. Maine was blamed on Spain to spur emotions before entering the Spanish American War.

The government lies to the people.

The definition of Terrorism often helps in cloaking one's own actions from scrutiny.

• To support world dictatorships that terrorize their people is terrorism.
• To inflict poverty and suffering on third world nations because of your economic policies is terrorism.
• To assassinate world leaders because they do not fit your idea of a stable partner is terrorism.
• To bomb civilians of poor countries that cannot defend themselves is terrorism.

I was asked not long ago this question.

What kind of people would we be if we didn't condemn that action in the strongest terms, and we didn't totally support our government's war against terrorists? What kind of people would we be?

[Answer] A people that didn't have knee jerk reactions to state propaganda.

A people that prized understanding above revenge.
A people strong enough to stand up to slurs of unpatriotism in order to engender lasting peace.

spider 2001