It’s pretty clear that Bush lied (or someone lied to Bush) about Saddam buying uranium in order to build a nuclear bomb. Lying to the public before going to war is nothing new: Truman did it, Kennedy did it, Lyndon Johnson did it. But does that make it right?

After 911, it’s becoming clear we may need to have a presence in the Middle East, as distasteful as that is to some of us. We can’t risk having our economy held hostage by a bunch of Muslim terrorists who’d like nothing better than to plunge the world back to Medieval times. Our old buddies the Saudis seem to be getting rapidly out of control of their country, so we need to gain a foothold elsewhere, even if we need to bend the truth in order to justify our actions.

But a lot of us would feel better about going to war for oil if we saw more attempts at conserving oil right here at home. It’s embarrassing to see our soldiers taking control of foreign oil fields when we’re driving larger, more gas-guzzling vehicles than ever before. If we were making an honest attempt to wean ourselves from oil, I wouldn’t squirm nearly as much when Bush is caught fibbing.

And these weapons of mass destruction that have never turned up, were they all another lie? We do know those were real, since we sold them to Saddam when he was fighting Iran (and he used them on our troops during the 1991 Gulf War). That lie doesn’t disturb me nearly as much, because if we knew our soldiers would be invading Iraq, we’d certainly want to make sure Saddam destroyed those WMDs (if he had any left) before we sent our boys in there. We had him between a rock and a hard place, but anything that gets rid of biological weapons can’t be bad, so maybe that counts as a white lie.

I think voters expect to be lied to. We’ve gotten used to it, but that doesn’t make it right. However, it may be inevitable, if our government doesn’t think we can understand their true motives.

I can’t believe Bush would start a war just to avenge his dad’s reputation, so there must be a bigger reason for us being in Iraq. I can make some educated guesses, but why should I have to? Why can’t I be told the truth?

I was told white lies when I was a kid, like my dog would go to heaven and Santa Claus was real. But I’m all grown up now and I want to hear the truth.

NOTE: This Diary entry, previously published on our old site, will have any links removed.