BY Scott Horton
PUBLISHED December 5, 2007
<...>
(
Video)
In the seven years of the Bush presidency, I have catalogued three different varieties of Bush prevarications. First, there is the statesman-like lie, told by Bush when he is uttering a lie which he firmly believes must be uttered in the interests of the Greater Good. (The Greater Good means the national security interest of the United States. Or the electoral interests of the Republican Party. In the Bush view, there is no difference between the two.) The oft-heard lie “We do not torture” falls into the category of the Bush statesman-like lie.
Second, there is the fanatical true-believer lie. This is the lie which involves a suspension of reason and facts in order to embrace a Greater Truth, which, of course, is not a truth at all. This is the “Iraq has weapons of mass destruction” lie. Now Bush had been briefed with information that made clear this was anything but a certainty, and shortly before the invasion, the intelligence community secured information making it plain that it was almost certainly
not true. Nevertheless, Bush approached the matter like a man with a classical case of Tolstoy’s syndrome. He had made up his mind as to the facts. He was uninterested in hearing any facts which contradicted the conclusions he had reached. Therefore he was able to lie much more convincingly because he truly convinced himself that the lies were the truth.
And third, there is the guilty lie. This is the sort of lie common to the domestic setting—when father, for instance, corners his 16-year-old son about having driven the Malibu without getting permission. Sonny protests his innocence. But his looks give his guilt away completely. Behind that look, Sonny is wondering: “Did I forget to throw away the beer cans
again?”
Bush’s lies about when he learned about the NIE clearly fall into category three. His face, nervousness and gestures point to acute discomfort. He knows he’s lying. And he recognizes that most people in the room and in the public beyond know he’s lying. But he’s going to go right ahead and keep on with that lie.
more