Just one example when the government lies to achieve some agenda. The (First) Gulf War Was Sold on Bullshit Testimony About Saddam Husseins Atrocities The Conspiracy Theory: In a perfect world, every citizen would be skeptical about war -- clearly the hawks arent above skewing the truth a bit to try to drum up support. But its not going to be a Wag the Dog situation where, say, they just hire somebody to go on camera and pretend to be a witness to atrocities that must be stopped dammit! After all, how could you hope to get away with something like that? Well ... The Reality: The last really popular war America fought was Desert Storm in the early 90s, when the Iraqi military, led by Saddam Husseins powerful mustache, invaded the sovereign nation of Kuwait. This was based on accusations that Kuwait was drinking Iraqs milkshake at the Rumaila oil field, so to speak, and certain U.S. officials decided it was damn well time to break out the bowling pin. Now, it was far from a foregone conclusion that America should intervene (most Americans had never even heard of Kuwait, instead always hearing that Iraqs bitter enemy Iran was the bad guy over there). Opinions varied widely on the matter right up until the testimony of a young Kuwaiti girl set off a domino effect of Saddam is the New Hitler sentiment. On October 10, 1990, a girl then-known only as Nayirah (her semi-anonymity was to protect her family) testified before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus regarding the ever-worsening situation in Kuwait. Her testimony was practically a paint-by-numbers picture of a nation committing horrible wartime atrocities: sure, there was the looting, the plundering, and the senseless violence, but easily the most harrowing part of her tale concerned soldiers storming into hospitals, goose-stepping into maternity wards lined with incubators, and tipping babies onto the ground to die crying and squirming. Representative John Porter exclaimed that he had never before heard of such inhumanity. President Bush would go on to recount the story as justification at least 10 times in his speeches leading up to the Gulf War. The only problem was that Nayirahs testimony was complete bullshit. Not long after the war ended and the American public had gone back to worrying less about wars and more about what Tim The Tool Man Taylor was grunting about this week, it came to light just who Nayirah really was. Far from some random Kuwaiti girl, she was in fact the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the U.S. Not only that, but her testimony was the result of a collaboration among a Kuwaiti government-sponsored group known as Citizens for a Free Kuwait, the public relations firm Hill & Knowlton, and California Representative Tom Lantos, who was conveniently also the co-chair of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus (not to mention the fact that he wasnt above accepting campaign donations from Hill & Knowlton). The lie was actually uncovered all the way back in 1991 -- just six months later -- but by then the invasion had been a roaring success and really, why would you go back and question the motives of a war that you won? Is it because you hate the troops? So the next time you think someones theory may be just a conspiracy just remember the worst thing you can think of your government doing they are doing something worse. https://youtube/watch?v=LmfVs3WaE9Y
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 04:52:11 +0000
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