Whilst George W seeks to disassemble about the NIE report on Iran and his previous statements about the dangers that country poses, Scott Horton writing in Harper's Magazine puts forward what he says are the 3 types of lies George W engages in:
"In the seven years of the Bush presidency, I have catalogued three different varieties of Bush prevarications. First, there is the statesman-like lie, told by Bush when he is uttering a lie which he firmly believes must be uttered in the interests of the Greater Good. (The Greater Good means the national security interest of the United States. Or the electoral interests of the Republican Party. In the Bush view, there is no difference between the two.) The oft-heard lie “We do not torture” falls into the category of the Bush statesman-like lie.
Second, there is the fanatical true-believer lie. This is the lie which involves a suspension of reason and facts in order to embrace a Greater Truth, which, of course, is not a truth at all. This is the “Iraq has weapons of mass destruction” lie. Now Bush had been briefed with information that made clear this was anything but a certainty, and shortly before the invasion, the intelligence community secured information making it plain that it was almost certainly not true. Nevertheless, Bush approached the matter like a man with a classical case of Tolstoy’s syndrome. He had made up his mind as to the facts. He was uninterested in hearing any facts which contradicted the conclusions he had reached. Therefore he was able to lie much more convincingly because he truly convinced himself that the lies were the truth.
And third, there is the guilty lie. This is the sort of lie common to the domestic setting—when father, for instance, corners his 16-year-old son about having driven the Malibu without getting permission. Sonny protests his innocence. But his looks give his guilt away completely. Behind that look, Sonny is wondering: “Did I forget to throw away the beer cans again?”
Horton then determines which lie Bush is now employing in relation to the NIE Report and then, very effectively, puts it into the context of previous Bush statements and others from the Administration. You can determine which lie it is by reading the full Horton piece here.
"In the seven years of the Bush presidency, I have catalogued three different varieties of Bush prevarications. First, there is the statesman-like lie, told by Bush when he is uttering a lie which he firmly believes must be uttered in the interests of the Greater Good. (The Greater Good means the national security interest of the United States. Or the electoral interests of the Republican Party. In the Bush view, there is no difference between the two.) The oft-heard lie “We do not torture” falls into the category of the Bush statesman-like lie.
Second, there is the fanatical true-believer lie. This is the lie which involves a suspension of reason and facts in order to embrace a Greater Truth, which, of course, is not a truth at all. This is the “Iraq has weapons of mass destruction” lie. Now Bush had been briefed with information that made clear this was anything but a certainty, and shortly before the invasion, the intelligence community secured information making it plain that it was almost certainly not true. Nevertheless, Bush approached the matter like a man with a classical case of Tolstoy’s syndrome. He had made up his mind as to the facts. He was uninterested in hearing any facts which contradicted the conclusions he had reached. Therefore he was able to lie much more convincingly because he truly convinced himself that the lies were the truth.
And third, there is the guilty lie. This is the sort of lie common to the domestic setting—when father, for instance, corners his 16-year-old son about having driven the Malibu without getting permission. Sonny protests his innocence. But his looks give his guilt away completely. Behind that look, Sonny is wondering: “Did I forget to throw away the beer cans again?”
Horton then determines which lie Bush is now employing in relation to the NIE Report and then, very effectively, puts it into the context of previous Bush statements and others from the Administration. You can determine which lie it is by reading the full Horton piece here.
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