Fool Me Once...Can't Get Fooled Again

The big problem with lying repeatedly over the years, is that when you actually have something to say that could well be based on real facts, hardly anyone believes you. Enter President Gerorge W. Bush.

Here is a man who claimed to be a uniter. Who claimed to be a compassionate conservative. Who claimed to have had no idea that terrorists wanted to attack the US and might use jumbo jets as a weapon. Who claimed that every wire tap done in the US had a proper warrant from the court. Who asserted time and again that the US did not torture prisoners. Who insisted that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Who said Iraq had mobile bio-terror vans. Who said that Iraq was trying to buy uranium in Africa and aluminum tubes for centrifuges to enrich uranium. Who said that no one ever thought the levies around New Orleans would break. Who insists that Iraq in not in civil war. Who insists that he's doing everything he can to keep America safe.

And these are just the big things he's said that have been refuted by actions and evidence. Too bad Barbara never read him The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf as a child. Maybe if she had he'd understand the reasons so few are listening to him regarding Iranian involvement in Iraq.

Listen...Iran likely is providing assistance to some of the sectarian groups battling each other in Iraq. We know they supported Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations over the years. They probably still are. But short of indisputable photographic evidence of some official Iranian agent transferring weapons or intelligence into the hands of a disputed terrorist or sectarian leader, no one (excluding the die hard neo-con hawks and rapture literalists) is going to believe American intelligence, delivered by the Bush Administration, that Iranian activities vis-a-vis Iraq are worth another war. No One. Period.

That is a real shame.

Don't get me wrong. I do not want to see America and Iran at war. But the fact of the matter is that America's reputation abroad just isn't what it used to be, thanks to the disasterous presidency of George W. Bush. The rest of the world has clearly decided to 'not get fooled again' to paraphrase the bumbler in chief. Regardless of the situation in Iran, it will take a long time before anyone trusts American intelligence without a whole lot of proof.

We may be right about Iranian nuclear intentions. We may be right about Iranian involvement in Iraq. (I think we are wrong on the first and close to right on the second for the record.) But it doesn't make any difference so far as the world is concerned. And America can no longer act unilaterally in her war making without serious repercussions from the world community- there may not be a military threat we can't handle, but there are plenty of economic threats that could bring us to our knees, and our quasi-allies know this all too well. Further, many of these 'friends' are none too worried about their own populations that they wouldn't absorb some pain to bring us down a few notches.

Fool me once...can't get fooled again.

When first uttered, we just assumed that Bush was making another tragic attempt to be hip.

Turns out he was speaking for the rest of the world regarding his own blundering administration.

(picture gratuitously lifted from the internet- no infringement intended)

(cross psoted at Bring It On!)