Deliberately blind or deliberately deceptive?

In the world of extreme politics we sometimes encounter the blindest: those who will not see. We generally tend to steer clear of such people. We also encounter those who know the truth but choose to pervert it because they cannot bring themselves to admit they have been wrong, or because it will diminish their sense of power.

In his letter entitled “None are so blind as those who won’t see” (0/7/06), Glen Holzhausen listed the number of American troops killed in action in the Bush war as 300, a figure off by a factor of over nine to one. Holzhausen has written a number of letters seeking to justify or whitewash the Bush war, but it is puzzling why he chose this figure that is over three years old.

To bring the readers up to date, the number of Americans killed in the Bush war is now over 2,780, a figure which will soon exceed the number of people killed in the 9/11 attack. The Bush war, which was touted by Mr. Dick Cheney as a war which would be over by the end of 2003, has already lasted longer than WWII and also caused over 20,000 serious injuries, most permanent disabilities.

I do not know why Holzhausen listed the number killed in this war as only three hundred. The number of fatalities at the end of September 2003 was already 320.

I saw Dick Cheney shredded into mincemeat by Tim Russert on September 10, as Cheney was confronted by one video clip after the other of his past deliberate prevarications made over the years touting the rosy progress of the war. After each sound bite, Cheney kept his unflappable face as he explained away his past deceptions, his failed predictions and his current prognostication that an Iraq governed by a radical Shiite government should be celebrated as a victory for the United States. More deplorable than choosing to be blind is choosing to deceive others.

Joseph Crews