Credibility Problem

Donald Rumsfeld's decision to release photos of the blodies corpses of Uday and Qusay Saddam (Rumsfeld is happy to take responsibility for this decision) highlights the problem of credibility which coud come to plague the Iraqi invaders. Having lied about WMDs and a host of other issues, their word is no longer accepted at face value.

Of course, this is just part of the long history of US lies - most Arabs did not believe fellow Arabs were responsible for 9/11, remember? Most Latin Americans are deeply distrustful of their northern neighbour. Remember who put Pinochet in power, attempted a coup in Venezuela, etc etc...?

So who says the lies about WMDs do not matter? Two thirds of Australians believe their government misled them into war (i.e. lied), yet PM John Howard maintains a strong lead in the opinion polls, as does Bush. They may feel that this proves people do not care about their lies. But it does matter, because it means people simply cannot ever believe what their government tells them.

Sure, people expect to take politicians' words with a pinch of salt. But these guys have used their lies to trash valued international conventions like Geneva, Kyoto, and the International Criminal Court. They used lies to launch a new policy of pre-emptive invasions, an incredibly dangerous precedent. If they get away with it, they will continue lying. It matters.

Consider this, for example. Did BBC informant Dr David Kelly really commit suicide, or was he murdered? According to the UK Independent newspaper, "Dr Kelly had close links to the espionage services" including assisting with Iraq-related interrogation of M16 prisoners.

US Vice President Cheney, perhaps trying to deflect attention from new reports of pre-9/11 intelligence failures, says failure to invade Iraq would have been "irresponsible" because "the safety of the American people was at stake." He backs up this claim with quotes from intelligence sources, conveniently ignoring passages in the same reports which say, for example, that it would have taken Saddam a decade to build a nuclear weapon. And - lest anyone forget - there were already UN Weapons Inspectors in Iraq for months before the US invaded. In other words, the situation was under control. Cheney also repeated claims that Saddam was trying to cultivate ties with terrorist groups, yet this has also not been proved. So... it's just another lie.