Every single day, people lie… Some lies have consequences, others don’t. People lie about things like “no dear, of course size doesn’t matter”, or “give me your number, I’ll call you some time (leaving someone’s house after a night of passion)”, or “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”, or my favourite “we have discovered weapons of mass-destruction in Iraq”…
And this is where consequence comes in.. As a rule-of-thumb, honesty is always good, because even though a white lie sounds like an easy way out of an uncomfortable situation, lies have a tendency to come and bite you in the ass one day when you least expect it.
So, when Bill Clinton lied about having extramarital sex with Monica Lewinsky, it was only fair that he had to pay for his sins, and he wasn’t re-elected as president of the United States of America and his wife divorced him. But compare mr Clinton’s lie to that of George Bush and his administration: they went to war on Iraq based on a lie, killing thousands of innocent people, spending so much money that the amount could feed several African countries for years… And what does the American people do? They vote for the Bush administration again… Go figure…
In a smaller scale, I’m sure there are similar and more common examples of some lies having consequences, and others not. It’s just that I thought the big lies were the ones that would be hard to hide…
(I watched a comedian bring up the subject of “was Bill Clintons sigar-incident really so bad, compared to some of the escapades of his successor?”, which got me thinking about how really really weird it was that Bush got re-elected. I guess in the end it’s just a matter of good marketing. If you make people paranoid and scared enough about something, you can convince them that anything is ok to do to stop this “threat”).
Not to be a dick, but wasn\’t Clinton in his second term when that stuff was going on? He wouldn\’t be able to be reelected anyway.
Ah, I didn\’t know that… Still, I feel there\’s a great difference between how the two different situations were handled. They even made this guy Starr investigate into the situation with Clinton and it was all over the news. I guess there\’s a good reason why Bush hasn\’t been \”punished\”, and there are most likely lots of stuff that we don\’t know. For all I know, it\’s in the best interest of the US to have Bush as president.. It just seems extremely strange from the little I know about the guy from the media, and from the press coverage of the reasoning behind going to was – how they managed to morph Bin Laden into Saddam and all that.\r\n\r\nNot that I\’m against the war on terrorism, not at all. I think all terrorists should be placed in a room and brainwashed back into understanding that strapping 10 pounds of dynamite on your body, walking into a shopping mall, blowing yourself and lots of innocent people to pieces doesn\’t make you a martyr and a hero in the after-life.\r\n\r\nIt\’s just that I think it\’s a general crime to do what the Bush administration seem to have done; go to war on a nation based on lies and propaganda.
Americans are brainwashed by the media (or non existants of proper media). I don\’t think most of them realize like us that there were no weapons of mass destruction.\r\n\r\nIt is also much easier to attack something that everybody understands. Adultery is something every person knows but most people don\’t understand fully all the horrors of war and what is really happening down in Iraq. \r\n\r\nIt was much easier to attack Clinton but as I have always said. The only one that had any business in kicking his ass was Hillary.\r\n\r\nBut you get to the heart of the problem at the end. People are being scared into thinking there is a major threat and that Bush is just looking out for them.
Yes, actually I think this is a strategy that much resembles that of the terrorist leaders, only the terrorists lies are based on temptations of eternal life if you do what you\’re told, rather than lies about what will happen if \”we don\’t act soon\”.