As we debate the level of response to the use of chemical weapons by Basher al-Assad, the dictator of Syria, it is interesting to note that it is being heavily influenced by the actions taken by former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney.
In his address today (Thursday August 29) to a special meeting of the British Parliament, for example, British Prime Minister David Cameron referenced the harm that the Bush Cheney claims of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) are having on the public's hesitation to believe accusations of war crimes.
Cameron said that the Iraqi war claims had "poisoned" the public causing them to hesitate in the face of clear, more obvious actions involving the use of weapons of mass destruction by Assad's regime in Syria.
Bush and Cheney threw the American people into a decade long war in Iraq that had absolutely nothing to do with the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists attack but they strengthened their arguments to go to war claiming Iraq's Saddam Hussein not only had weapons of mass destruction but were planning to use them. The WMDs included chemical weapons, that were no longer being stockpiled, and nuclear weapons, that did not exist.
The Bush-Cheney legacy of lying to the American people stands as one of the most outrageous examples of deceit in American history that even exceeds the depth of the lie at the Gulf of Tonkin that became the basis for increasing American military presence in Vietnam.
In the end, innocent lives were lost, many of them Americans, propelled into wars that need not have been fought. Capturing and hanging Saddam Hussein did nothing to make America safer. It did nothing to strengthen the American War against terrorism.
But the Bush-Cheney Legacy has done much to weaken the moral foundation of the West, especially America and the British who now openly mock the pathetic cheerleading for Bush and Cheney that their former Prime Minister Tony Blair (Stephanie Miller refers to him more appropriately as "Tony Blah.")
The consequences of deceit can be tragic. So many innocent people have lost their lives in Syria. And while the Bush-Cheney Legacy of lies is not the only factor undermining the world's response to the humanity crisis in Syria, it is among the most tragic in and of itself.
-- RAY HANANIA