Violence... The story so far

Nov 2003; Revised Jan 2004

Excerpts from Daily Mislead

"...Before the war, the president said there was "no doubt the Iraqi regime continues to possess the most lethal weapons ever devised," while Vice President Cheney said, "There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction...to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us."

Assertive, strong and definite.

"This week, however, in the absence of any evidence of weapons of mass destruction, Bush said the war was justified not because Iraq had WMD, but because Iraq had "weapons of mass destruction-related program activities." When asked last month about the shift from asserting Iraq "possessed" WMD, to Iraq merely exploring "WMD-related-program-activities," Bush replied, "What's the difference?".

What a difference a year makes! This man graduated from Yale and sees no difference between "possession" and "activities." Both of these words came out of his mouth.

It is not the mistakes we make, it is how we handle them.

"On chemical weapons, Bush said before the war, 'the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas.'..."

Today, some nine months after Hussein fell Bush has been unable to show even a small production.

"On biological weapons, Bush said before the war that "Iraq has at least seven mobile factories for the production of biological agents - equipment mounted on trucks and rails to evade discovery." However, Mr. Kay reported, 'We have not yet been able to corroborate the existence of a mobile biological weapons production effort.'..."

Assertive, strong and definite. Mr. Kay is competent and a realist.

"On nuclear weapons, Bush said before the war that 'Iraq could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year. 'More famously, in last year's State of the Union, the president said Iraq 'sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa,' and told Americans to fear ' a mushroom cloud.'..."

What kind of leader governs and leads by fear? The manipulator, the Authoritarian, Caesar and Hitler used this same means to rouse the masses. Why? Fear is perhaps the most fundamental of motivators. It can be observed virtually everywhere in the animal kingdom.