Beautifully crafted, surprisingly consistent, technically perfect post-modern LIES

Ted Rall looks at Bush's linguistic leaps of logic.

"Any news junkie with some experience reading legal documents can extract the elusive truth from a Bush quote. On June 17, for example, Bush said that Saddam had 'provided safe haven for a terrorist like [Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab] Zarqawi, who is still killing innocents inside of Iraq.' Actually, Zarqawi never lived in Saddam's Iraq; he arrived after the U.S. invasion. But a guy Bush says is like Zarqawi, Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal, did live in Baghdad under Saddam. To the extent that any Abu is like another, Zarqawi is like Nidal. (In this phrasing, 'like' typically means 'for example.' In order to obfuscate, however, Bush will claim to have meant 'similar to.') Yes, Nidal's Fatah organization was only a threat to Israel, never the United States. And Zarqawi's Islamist Al Qaeda never cooperated with Yassir Arafat's Fatah. [NB: Nidal has also renounced active terrorism and was an old man when he entered Baghdad... Gandhi]

This statement elevates the craft of creating intentionally confusing syntax to dazzlingly cynical new heights. Polls confirm that such convoluted verbiage has convinced a plurality of Americans, 49 to 36 percent, that 'clear evidence that Iraq was supporting Al Qaeda has been found.'

It's all so beautifully postmodern: all of the Bushies' lies are true. Technically."