The Nightmare Continues

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By Cody Lyon

 (OPINION)

President Bush did his best to salvage his legacy during his
last State of the Union Speech Monday night, a legacy that will be defined
primarily by two events, his response the events of September 11th 2001 and the
invasion, and subsequent occupation of Iraq.

 The President spent a
large chunk of time pleading with the American people that the surge of American troops is working, that things are getting better and that history will
show we’d done the right thing by invading the country and ridding it of Saddam
Hussein. 

“We must do the difficult work today, so that that years
from now people will look back and say that this generation rose to the moment,
prevailed in a tough fight, and left behind a more hopeful region and a safer
America,” said President Bush during the State of the Union while speaking
about Iraq.

But, some might say, the President was speaking to nation
that has turned a deaf ear to men who cry wolf. Unfortunately, they might also see
a nation that’s turned a deaf ear to news from Iraq. 

That’s due in great part to the media frenzy surrounding
campaign primaries, certainly more fun news than stories from Baghdad, instead
we hear about who crossed the line in a political attack, what groups will
support who, who’s got the most money, and who struck a low blow on the trail
today?  All of that and so much more make
for great tabloid headlines that are filled with all kinds of juicy human
drama.

Then again, perhaps we are suffering from collective Iraq news fatigue which
could be related to a frustrating lack of faith in our current, apparently
along for the ride do nothing Congress, a body that seems to lack the courage
to further challenge and air the current administration’s past sins.  Those are the sins that continue to lead thousands
of our sons, husbands, wives and daughters into a hideous mistake, a mistake
that was based in large part, on lies.

Just a few days before the State of the Union,
The Center for Public Integrity released a report that documented President
Bush and seven top officials of his administration, made at least 935 false
statements in the two years following September
11, 2001, about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. 

The Public Integrity report further noted “532 separate
occasions, in speeches, briefings, interviews, testimony and the like” where
“President Bush and three key officials along with Secretary of State Colin
Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House Secretary Ari
Fleischer and Scott McClellan, stated unequivocally that Iraq had weapons of
mass destruction, or intended to produce them, links to Al Queda or both.”

This is part of an upsetting tale of falsehoods that has led
to years of sad, frustrating and heartbreaking reality.

The same Monday as the day of the State of the Union,
news reports that five American soldiers were killed in an ambush near the
northern Iraqi city Mosul showed up
in newspapers and on a few television broadcasts. 

As of Wednesday,
January 23, 2008, at least 3,932 members of the U.S. Military have died
since the beginning of the Iraq
war in March 2003 according to an Associated Press Count. 

And of course, there’s the number of dead in Iraqis which is
simply staggering

According to estimates from the World Health Organization,
around 151,000 Iraqi’s died from violence in the first three years after the
invasion began.

There are plenty of political junkies out there who are biting
their nails and perhaps enjoying the dramatic and slip and slap antics of the
campaign trail and the future it might lead to.

But, we are in Iraq
now, and no one has offered a clear plan on how we’ll get out and no one is
calling for some sort of national truth airing moment when we all admit, accept
and conclusively know what went wrong when and where and why?

One thing is certain, there is no doubt, that this President
does leave behind a legacy of deception and what seem to be misleading abuses
of power that were clearly directed by individuals who saw the world through an
arrogant, narrow and obviously naïve lens.  

There was an almost sad undertone in President Bush’s last
State of the Union Speech.  In spite of
an administration that has clearly bordered on inept and corrupt, the President
himself, appears to be such an affable individual, someone that would be pleasant
and personally charming.   But, then the
wall of damage his administration is responsible for rolls over your soul like
a tidal wave of truth, and that truth is revealed through the horrors of Iraq.

No matter how its spun, Iraq
has been a nightmare of death and carnage. 
Perhaps, that is why Americans had rather watch the Billary, Obama, John
and John, Mitt and Mike and Rudy show. 

 But, while we sleep,
the nightmare continues.

 Hopefully one of the
cast of characters on the trail will someday wake us up.