Are Governments Credible Witnesses?

Appeared in Benicia Hearald 10/19/10:

So why is that we have so little trust in the credibility of government? Should we be shocked to find out that governments have much the same character failings as individuals, but only to a much greater extent? Sometimes truths about our patriarchal institutions are uncomfortable to digest emotionally, and do not satisfy that child like need to feel “Warm and Fuzzy”. No matter how painful, I always opt for the truth over safe short term deception or myth. Most deceptions ultimately reveal their ugly faces, but the truths live on through eternity.
Typically the type of people who enter the higher levels of government are motivated by power, a need to be recognized, sometimes wanting to perform good for society, and to ride on the financial perks that politics offers, both openly and clandestinely. So when we voice our dissatisfaction about government, we are really expressing our thoughts and feelings about the people who structure themselves into the organization we call government. Many times it is not even the government leaders who are the architects of misdeeds, but their financial backers behind the curtains. Our human nature as Americans is that we want to believe that we are always the “Good Guys” and never have greedy or imperialistic motives for what our government does in own country or other countries.
Many times people in government rationalize their lies by saying, “It is in the security interest of our country that we keep the truth from you”. For example, “The American people do not need to see pictures of dead soldiers coming back in body bags and coffins”. What the military really fears is that their support for an unjustified war will be withheld.
The following is according to TruthAboutDeception.com.: So why do people lie? People lie every day. They learn how to lie early in life, and continue lying their entire lives. A person may lie to protect or enrich himself, and in an attempt to control life, or to avoid accountability. Evidence suggests that most people learn to lie at a very early age. Starting at about three, children will lie to avoid getting into trouble. By age five, when it comes to dodging punishment, most kids are expert liars. Parents teach children how to tell these white lies early in life. For example, “Tell Aunt Betty she looks great in those jeans.” It is natural for people to lie to protect themselves and cover for their mistakes. But covering for someone else is a little more of a stretch and requires a little more practice. But by the time most people are adults, lying is second nature.
Wiki leaks are a useful blog for revealing the perjurious behavior of militaries and governments. Governments try to shut down “Wiki” by saying that “Wiki” endangers soldiers. That is a fallacious defense by our government, because if government was so concerned about the well being of our people in uniform they would question the motives of sending them into warfare in the first place.
We were told that the reason we invaded Iraq was to “Free and Liberate” the people from Saddam Hussein and destroy weapons of mass destruction. Now how would it play out in the hearts and souls of the masses if they were honestly told that the US invaded Iraq to denationalize the oil production, and put it back in the hands of private corporations, owned primarily by US and UK mega corporations? In addition, Hussein wanted to start trading oil in Euro’s which would do a lot to destabilize our US dollar even further. We as Americans would then look like “Big greedy bad guy bullies” if the truth be told. In reality people in other nations sometimes despise us and our allies for how we behave around the world, not for our internal lifestyles.
The human emotional mind many times rules over the logical intellectual mind as a means to protect us from uncomfortable realities of life. We want to believe that our government leaders are honest, moral, transparent, and keep their promises. History has proven that many times our government leaders deceive us by manipulating the truth, withholding important information, or using mass media PR and spin to manifest their deception. Unfortunately, many times the consequences of powerful people lying in government are injury, death, destruction, and financial ruin.
For those who are still stuck in their safe cocoon of denial about our government being the “Good Daddy” that we need and fantasize about, I will cite some of the following examples of our government being a perjuring and deceitful witness:
• Gulf Of Tonkin: Fictitious report of a North Vietnamese attack to justify a mass escalation of the Vietnam War.
• Pearl Harbor: Suppression of multiple warnings and information sources about an impending possible attack by the Japanese in order to induce America into WWII.
• Illegal Bombing of Cambodia: Directed by Kissinger, McNamara, and Nixon that killed 2 million innocent civilians that was uncovered by Daniel Ellsberg in the Pentagon Papers.
• 9/11: The true conspirators are the US government, not 19 Muslim terrorists. The “9/11 Commission Report” was a major cover up orchestrated by Philip Zelikow, a Bush loyalist and Executive Director of the “9/11 Commission” who controlled the investigation and report writing and purposely left out major evidence and information that would lead to the true cause and effect of 9/11.
There are those who refuse to accept the realities of the above lies, but if one is truly interested in finding out the uncomfortable truth, it is readily out there for your investigation. If one uncovers facts about our government that are detrimental to society does that make one unpatriotic? Nazi propaganda specialist J. Goebbels said, "Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for a lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger"
Some of my fellow American’s accuse me of being unpatriotic, because I question the integrity and moral choices of our government leaders. If a citizen witnesses a bank robbery and brings the criminals to the attention of the law enforcement authorities that person would be seen as community hero. On the other hand if an individual or group calls out breaches of government integrity, military mass killing of civilians, or questions the leadership status quo they are sometimes demonized as being unpatriotic citizens or “America Haters”.
The archetype of the Patriarchal “Good and Kind” father myth causes some people to go into denial about family members, clergy, spouses, and government leaders. People in general always want to feel that they are a member of the best nation, and will obscure their reality to make the myth so. I believe that any person who truly studies our American history from a dispassionate point of view will clearly find that both Democrat and Republican high level leaders in our government have lied to us on many occasions. No country is immune from corruption, barbarianism, and deceit. We can show our continued patriotism by being vigilant activist watchdogs of our high level civilian and military leaders, and hopefully move government to be a credible witness in the court of its citizenry.
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