Connecting the dots of Woodward's "State of Denial"

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you”. Nietzsche

Before the Foley scandal took center stage with the Amerikan media Bob Woodward’s book “State of Denial” was receiving the kind of attention that made incumbent Republicans extremely nervous about the strong possibility that this administration of pathological liars from the president on down will no longer be able to spin the uncomfortable truth about the situation in Iraq on their fair and balanced network.

The party that marched lock step in support of a president who deceived the public about Iraq only to become an incompetent commander-in-chief who continues to deceive the public about Iraq is in danger of losing their power to define reality and perpetuate the lie that the invasion of Iraq is justified because Iraq was a threat to our national security. That lie was exposed by the recent NIE assessment that the war in Iraq has actually increased the threat of terrorism.

While Woodward’s book which among other things portrays the Republican White House in utter disarray and completely disconnected from reality “Hubris” by David Corn and Michael Isikoff offers much more complete documentation of the deceit and deception used by those motivated by the twin evils of greed and profit to sell the war in Iraq to a public which has reflected an enormous and alarming capacity for not being able to handle truth.

Indeed Woodward’s book didn’t offer anything new to those of us who have opposed this illegal, unjust, and immoral war based on sound reasoning e.g. Hans Blix found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson exposed the lie about Iraq’s nuclear ambitions, and the 911 Commission confirmed there was no Iraq/Al Qaeda connection which was reported before the war. Even common sense dictated that Iraq was no threat to our national security. They had no navy, little or no air force, a devastated army and a destroyed infrastructure since Gulf War I hardly the characteristics of a nation threatening the national security of the world’s only super power.

Yet when I read that Henry Kissinger, our very own Machiavellian Prince had been advising the Bush Administration on a monthly basis I came face to face with my own “state of denial”. It was my perception that things changed when the future of democracy was threatened on December 12, 2000 when Bush v Gore was adjudicated and ever since 9/11/01 I’ve been compelled to connect dots only to find that “things changed” long before those who were screaming “stop the vote” in Florida.

When I recalled reading Woodward and Bernstein’s “Final Days” in which Kissinger is quoted as saying “Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy” it wasn’t a pretty picture but all the pieces fit. It worked before when men and women were sent to die believing it was in the name of freedom, democracy, etc. In fact some still believe it. For as we now know it was a lie then in Vietnam as it is for a lie now in Iraq. Indeed our society is in a “state of denial” as long as we believe the lies and pay tribute to the liars who spin a web of deceit to conceal the reality from the pawns.

Woodward’s revelation caused me to accept the reality that a man who fled the Holocaust conducted before the 3rd Reich blitzkrieg began only to become a war criminal as defined by international law owing to his level of involvement in policy making that produced a Holocaust in Southeast Asia and was now offering real politick advise to the 4th Reich after its own preemptive strike based on a series of fabrications and lies while the abyss was looking back.

"Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship." Hermann Goering

Goering in response to the statement "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars." Said “voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

Is this what Nietzsche means when the abyss looks back into those looking long into the abyss? Are we becoming the monsters we fought? The monsters that told their people they were likely to be attacked, the monsters that denounce dissent claiming it to be unpatriotic and accuse the opposition of siding with the enemy.