Sep 12, 2006 By Guest Commentaryby Ron Dennis 5 min read

One can only hope that the American people have finally awaken from their rather long slumber as witnessed by the recent polls regarding the Iraqi fiasco, because they are about to be anesthetized once again by the deceitful Bush Administration. President Bush’s chief political hack Karl Rove announced recently that the “war on terror” would be the center piece of their mid-term election strategy. Mr. Rove is a fellow who uses little catch phrases like ” flip flopper,” ” if we don’t fight them over there, we will have to fight them over here,” “cut and run,” and “Islamo-Fascism” to create a perception, true or false, that he wants the American people to view political candidates as well as political issues through.

He has been successful because he is well aware of the American mindset, which tends to be apolitical and moreover illiterate with respect to reading about issues that affect them in their daily lives. He understands that the American people would rather spout off catch phrases than to investigate issues, thus reaching an intelligent conclusion on their own.

Isn’t it quiet ironic that Sen. Rick Santorum, who is trailing Bob Casey Jr. in the polls, just recently unveiled his outline of the Iranian threat. How stupid do they think we are? Intelligent Americans do not need anyone, especially politicians, telling them who their enemies are. Moreover they know that we will fight to the last drop of blood against enemies foreign and domestic who would attempt to usurp our freedoms.

It has been said that, “If you tell a lie and you repeat it often enough, not only will you believe it, but also your audience.” This is precisely what has been done by the Bush handlers over the last six or more years and it still persists. During the Bush versus Gore campaign, the Bush people took a Gore statement completely out of context by accusing him of saying that he invented the internet, and they repeated it incessantly with the help of the mainstream media to make Gore look quit asinine, to say the least.

This collusion with the media continued throughout the campaign and caused the public to think Gore was a buffoon and Mr. Bush an intellect, when in fact the reverse was true.

After the 9-11 tragedy the American people were blinded by their grief and suffering, and were manipulate by the Bush handlers into believing that Iraq had something to do with this despicable act against humanity.

In a recent press conference, Mr. Bush was asked, “What did Iraq have to do with 9-11?” And his response was, “Absolutely nothing.” How could Mr. Bush and his sycophants be so brazen as to infer that Iraq was involved in the 9-11 horror prior to the loss of over 2,600 of our children, and then respond in this manner? And how could the American people not be so enraged as to not call for Mr. Bush’s impeachment?

Coupled with this accusation they began to accuse Iraq of having WMD’s, despite the fact that the United Nations had found none and wanted more time to continue their search. Next they said that Saddam was an evil tyrant, which we all knew, and had to be removed from power by any means necessary in spite of international law.

The aforementioned reasons given to the American people by the Bush White House for going to war in Iraq were never questioned by the mainstream media and I consider this dereliction of duty to be an abomination, especially in view of the fact that nearly 3,000 of our children have lost their precious lives and over 10,000 have been permanently maimed for nothing.

How could the media been so caught up in ruse of the Bush Administration that they could not have known what many of us knew then, and what many have come to know since, about this fiasco.

During the Clinton years in office the mainstream media reduced itself to tabloidal journalism for the first time in our history. They placed into the public domain every lie, rumor and insinuation known to mankind, at the behest of the far right, regarding matters that had absolutely nothing to do with Mr. Clinton’s ability as the leader of the greatest nation on Earth; yet they refused to hold the Bush people’s feet to the fire regarding the Iraq debacle.

How can the Bush Administration, or any politician for that matter, say that spreading democracy throughout the Middle East is in our interest, when we hard-working Americans need at this very moment affordable health care, drugs, housing, education, fuel and employment that offers a living wage?

I sincerely hope that America has awaken and will hold all those responsible for this travesty in Iraq accountable, both Democrat and Republican. They can do so as true patriots by rejecting Karl Rove’s devious attempt to conflate the war on terror with the fiasco in Iraq.

Ron Dennis is a resident of Uniontown.