The weakness and shortcomings of a person are no better covered up, masked and camouflaged than behind the pompous hot air blown from the face of someone with a tyrannical personality. Insecurity is no excuse for trying to force one’s way to a goal whether getting candy on a playground or getting the spotlight on oneself as a politician. However, for some it is a familiar crutch they just can’t help but lean on when the opportunity arises. This is especially true for people who pride themselves on being good at it. For them it seems they even enjoy themselves while doing it.

During the 2004 elections the Bush campaign had a moment, an opportunity to level with the country, be heroic and admit the war and invasion of Iraq was a mistake. Being as the intelligence used to justify the invasion was wrong what else could the war have been but a blunder? But, as it turned out there was a bigger and unfortunately more tantalizing opportunity and that was to just keep lying. To keep the war going was the best way to hide the White House’s oversight and apparently this was too appealing a prospect to ignore.

So it started. We began hearing that although conflicting reports about WMD and Al Qaeda links during the lead up to the war had begun to surface we could not mistake that with the threat of a loosely defined enemy in Iraq. We were told Americans could not afford to pull out because that would mean losing the war on “evil doers.” We were convinced our votes would determine whether we won in Iraq and that if we didn’t Al Qaeda would steal away our freedom. We were sold on the idea in 2004 that in Iraq we were in the midst of the most perilous fight of our times which the free world itself could not afford to lose.

Although there were Al Qaeda forces in various parts of the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia not to mention other parts of Asia it mattered not. Although the man in charge of Al Qaeda and his number two were thought to still be in Afghanistan it mattered not. Although parts of Pakistan held some of the most dangerous Al Qaeda members as well as other terrorist organizations it mattered not.

We made a mistake the current administration could not admit to and many others still can’t. At that time we were told we needed to go in and the mantra was bomb, bomb, bomb… bomb, bomb Iraq or we would lose the war. We were given a vague constantly shifting definition of what success would be. The Bush campaign needed to whip up support by referring to some generalized evil and to never allow anyone with a clear, intelligent, differing opinion to be heard from. We unwittingly voted for covering up the administration’s mishandling of faulty intelligence and washing billions of dollars right down the drain (an opportunity we still have).

It was masterful. They knew in 2004 there was no real way to win a war which had no justification or well defined initial group of aggressors; hence it wasn’t so much a war as it was a disaster. By employing sales pitches lined with patriotism and religion the Bush campaign was able to convince us we were in the fight of our lives. Our real job of course was to contain the mess. Admitting to this however, could have been detrimental to the chances of their party being elected that season and could have had reverberated in elections to come. The race was too close to let that happen so the drum beat rolled on and as a nation we marched right along with the lie.

So now we pour billions of dollars per month into stabilizing Iraq enough so certain people can save face, say “we won,” get the heck out of dodge and perhaps get their party elected. We force the National Guard’s men and women to remain overseas, but only until certain elements in our government can effectively spin the “we won” line. We impose a stop loss program on people who would die for our nation so certain elected officials can someday stand on the bow of a ship with a red, white and blue Kinko’s banner behind them and cod piece in front and not make a fool out of themselves this time.

Of course while we were in Iraq pretending we had a war on our hands, Al Qaeda cells will have been sprouting up and growing all over the globe. The billions of dollars we spent per month could have gone towards rooting out those cells (not to mention helping our economy here at home). Instead it goes to save face for certain elements of our government.

When the Iraqi leadership is finally going it alone will we have won and if so what? Was that why we went to war? What about WMD and terrorists? How can we say we have won when our enemies in Iraq have grown not decreased and nothing short of dropping a nuclear bomb will change that? Even such an action won’t stem the growth of Al Qaeda or other such groups around the globe. It would take a strategy actually focused on terrorists to do that.

There is no war just a mess, and we would do best to hand over the reigns to a government which wishes us to leave. Saddam Hussein is gone. Let Iraqis have their country. Let our men and women in the military have the respite they need to recover and prepare for any real enemy we may face in the future.

Bush talked about staying in Iraq and he did. He said no matter what we would never leave as long as he was in office. That turned out to be true. We learned during the 2004 election and since that people who threaten to keep America in or take America war no matter how thin the evidence will do so if it means expanding their power and time in office.

We can trust that when someone talks about throwing the country into war over and over they may very well do it. We can trust that there are times when a person running for office will do what they have to so the voters’ eyes are on the one ball that candidate knows how best to play. They may do so even if it brings the country to war or keeps us in an unjustifiable one. We know by now that is talk we can rely on.

To read about my inspiration for this article go to www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com.