Editorial by Michael Rivero

by C/O Diogenes Monday, Jun. 02, 2003 at 12:59 PM

Michael Rivero, Web Master at WhatReallyhappened.com posted this editorial on his Web Site today. I thought it compelling enough to want others to read it as well.

The Government lied to you.
by Michael Rivero

It cannot be denied any more, the government lied to you to start a war of conquest. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Bush, Powell, et. al. knew going in there were no weapons of mass destruction. Powell knew he was lying to the United Nations. Blair has been outed for ordering re-writes of the Dossier to help Bush with the lie. All those who questioned the lie were right to do so. Chrétien was right. Schroeder was right. Chirac was right. Blix was right. Michael Douglas was right. Michael Moore was right. Tim Robbins was right. Susan Sarandon was right. Sean Penn was right. Bob Graham was right. Cynthia McKinney was right. Jeff Rense was right, Daniel Hopsicker was right, Justin Raimondo was right, I was right, and the millions of activists that marched in the streets around the world were right. There was valid reason to doubt.

Those who believed the lie and promoted it, they were all wrong to the point of complicity. Blair was wrong. Rush Limbaugh was wrong. Jim Robinson was wrong. O'Reilly (who recently stated that anyone who did not agree with him was an idiot) was wrong (and an idiot). Clear Channel was wrong. ABC was wrong. NBC was wrong. CBS was wrong. Fox News was wrong. CNN was wrong. The dozen pro-war activists who made certain they stood between the press cameras and the anti-war activists were wrong. The local presstitute who marched right past an anti-war demonstration to report on one of Clear Channel's staged pro-war events was wrong. And all of those who reviled, smeared, and attacked those who have in hindsight been prove to be right, were wrong.

If you believed the lie about the weapons of mass destruction, then congratulations, you have been made a total fool before the eyes of the rest of the world. Forget "Polock" jokes, the new fashion rage will be "dumb American" jokes. Like the dumb Americans who actually DID tape up their houses with sheet plastic and duct tape and nearly suffocated to death. Or the dumb Americans who actually believed Iraq still had a credible military after a decade of crippling sanctions.

Those who were wrong will never admit it, of course. They will scream that those who saw through the lie are just being un-American or unpatriotic. But it is not an act of patriotism to believe the government when it lies to you, it is the act of a fool and a coward, because the government does not have a legal or moral right to lie to the people. Check out the Constitution. Nowhere in there is the government explicitly granted the authority to lie to the people who pay the costs for all that the government does, good or bad. When a government lies to the people, it acts unconstitutionally and illegally and is no longer the lawful government. It therefore cannot be an act of patriotism to believe the government when it lies. It is the act of a traitor to support the lies of an unlawful government.

The lie about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction changes the rules. The government has lost the benefit of the doubt (for most of us with functioning brains, this actually happened a long time ago). The government can no longer present claims and then act as if it is assumed true., The government cannot place the burden of proof on those who claim that the government lies, because the government now is the proven liar. From this point on, it is the duty of real Americans to place the burden of proof back on the government. PROVE that Iraq (or Iran or Syria or whoever else is on Israel's target list) has weapons of mass destruction before spending our money and our children's lives on a war.

The lie about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction should change how we view history. The official story of anything can no longer assumed to be true, given that the government is a proven liar. Did Vince Foster really commit suicide? PROVE IT. Were Arab Muslims behind the attacks of 9-11? PROVE IT. Was the 16th amendment properly ratified? PROVE IT. Are our elections fair? PROVE IT. All those questions and more must be re-examined, because the word of the US government is now totally worthless, falling in value faster than the dollar.

Because only a real idiot would assume that this one lie was the only time the government has lied to the people. With this lie exposed, the safe assumption is that the government has been lying all along, about everything.

The real question now is what to do about the lie. I am sure that any parent will tell you that if you catch your child lying and do not punish them, they will simply lie and lie again. The same holds true for the government. The government lies because they know they can get away with it. And this will not change until the people of this nation make the cost of a lie outweigh its advantages. And that means that real Americans, by which I mean thinking citizens and not those useful idiots standing on street corners waving flags paid for by Clear Channel, need to decide to adopt a zero tolerance policy toward lies in government. And that means kicking out any and all government people caught in a lie. No excuses, no appeal, no bargaining, just throw them out of our government buildings and into the streets in the most humiliating manner possible. One strike and you're out. Period. Look at the taxes you pay and remember that the government is your employee, and that YOU have the right to fire that employee at any time. Lying should be a firing offence. The very first step in getting our nation back is to make government terrified of telling a lie. Now is your chance. The government has been caught lying to you to start a war. People you know died for that lie. Do you have the courage to do something about it?


Michael Rivero is a former NASA Engineer, and currently a Special Effects Specialist with his own Production Company. He proudly boasts of having been banned from Free Republic.