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Here’s VoV again, opining on the veracity, and the lack of, our elected officials.<\/p>\n
The CinC is arguably the most important role in government, they wield the power and weight of the greatest fighting force of the entire world in their hands. Our military goes where the CinC tells them to go, they do what they are ordered to do when they get there, everything our president does has a direct or indirect effect on the military and their families.<\/p>\n
Why then are so many of them liars? A quick check on statements made by Obama yield over 4 pages of lies as rated by Politifact, which is not exactly a conservativel organization. Trump fares no better at Politifact, nor does Ms. Clinton or her husband. What do so many lies by the people we elect to hold the highest position in the land mean to the American people? In real terms not much actually as the Clintons and Obama have millions of adoring fans as does President Trump. Historically these are simply the most recent examples, there are many examples of previous administrations and the multitude of lies that have been told, far too many to discuss in a short blog post.<\/p>\n
So what are we to make of this? How is it that our politicians routinely lie about almost everything and anything and those lies don\u2019t make a bit of difference to their base of supporters? <\/p>\n
Is it indicative of a systemic rot to the core of our Republic or is it merely a symptom of another issue? These issues surrounding truth and lies are always fascinating to me as an often outside observer to much of human activity. I\u2019m always curious how the lies start and at what level of government, and I\u2019m also always interested in the hypocrisy of supporters who ignore the lies from their officials while vehemently protesting the lies of the other side. <\/p>\n
As a classic example of that hypocrisy I\u2019m going to choose the left this time, not because the right isn\u2019t also rabidly hypocritical at times but because I think this example speaks to core morality along with hypocrisy. During the Bush 43 presidency and the start of the GWOT there was a fairly loud anti-war crowd that reached a peak I believe in 2003 with somewhere near a half million people covering almost 40 blocks of New York\u2019s First Avenue\u2026less than 6 years later with the election of Obama they couldn\u2019t get 1000 people to the same protests.<\/p>\n
So what did that mean? Why were those people suddenly no longer opposed to the war?<\/p>\n
Their Nobel Peace Prize President didn\u2019t end the war in fact he stated, after promising to end it, that he felt we would be indefinitely occupied in the Middle East. Obama added three nations to our bombing campaign, he found his love of drones and increased the program by a factor of ten. Where were the anti-war protesters? What happened to them? Clearly these big lies don\u2019t matter to politicians or their supporters, as long as they get to occupy the seats of power. <\/p>\n
The outrage against the horrors of war that they claimed were driving their protests turned out to be a lie, what they were actually opposed to was Bush and the Republicans. They were no more anti-war than I am anti-steak and potatoes. So they were lying from the start of their protests right up to the moment they decided the horrors of war were in reality totally acceptable once the Cool Black Guy was running the show. It was clear that dead Middle Easterners no longer concerned them as long as Obama was directing the killing of those Middle Easterners.<\/p>\n
The nature of these lies and the hypocritical support by constituents allow the military to be used as a playing piece in a game less about national security and more about the politics of perception and power. That is why these lies should matter to us, these lies place good men and women in harm\u2019s way around the world and without any actual concern by the public in spite of the rhetoric to the contrary. <\/p>\n
And that my friends is why politics belong on a site about Stolen Valor and military issues, especially a site where many have been placed in harm’s way by our political representatives. There are always going to be those moments where military force is required and military force will be necessary to resolve a diplomatically unsolvable issue.<\/p>\n
Where we fit into this debate is using our voices to support those moments that unfortunately require the use of violence to resolve and to voice our dissent when that force is not needed or is no longer achieving the stated goal. That\u2019s how we safeguard the future of this Republic and safeguard the lives of our younger brothers and sisters in arms.<\/p>\n
Of course that\u2019s just my curmudgeonly old white guy opinion, your mileage will most certainly vary as well it should.
\nVeritas Omnia Vincit<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThanks, VoV. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"