Sometimes
you have to say enough is enough
By Brian Beckner,
Special to the Summer Forty-Niner
A hardworking friend of mine with a good
job and a team player record was given a
new assignment by his boss one day. The
job was 50 miles farther from his home and
would require him to work graveyard hours.
I asked my friend how he could stomach this
imposition of hell. Being a company man
he answered, "They don’t ask
you go to the night shift. They tell you
to go to the night shift."
CIA Director, George Tenet, must have felt
this same type of loyalty when was told
to take the fall for President Bush’s
assertion during his State of the Union
address that Saddam Hussein had tried to
purchase enriched uranium on the African
continent.
Never mind the fact, that the International
Atomic Energy Agency saw the same fabricated
documents that the CIA did and yawned "forgery"
without a second glance.
Imagine that narrow eyed look that "Bush:
The Sequel" put on the hapless Mr.
Tenet. Who knew the CIA director was just
like a little bunny poised to take the talon?
I’m sure it went something like this:
Bush Jr.: George we’ve got a little
problem here. Remember that little speech
I made a couple of months back when I said
Saddam was looking to buy nuclear materials
from Africa?
Tenet: (Quizzically) Sure Mr. President,
how could I forget?
Bush Jr.: (Snickering) Well, turns out that
wasn’t the case.
Tenet: (Rhetorically) Yeah.
Bush Jr.: Well, the media knows about it,
and you have to tell them you did it.
Tenet: What?
Bush Jr.: Hey it’s no biggie. Go ahead
and apologize and I’ll forgive you
tomorrow.
Tenet: (Entirely conscious of his current
status as Clinton appointee and upcoming
role in the White House summer housecleaning)
But, we all knew…(suddenly envisioning
a career without another invitation to the
White House Sunday croquet tournament, Tenet
finds his sense.) I’ll let them know
it was my fault Mr. President.
Bush Jr.: Good Job Georgie. Don’t
worry I’ll have Ari tell the press
that you have my full vote of confidence.
In a couple days nobody will even remember.
To think that the White House didn’t
know what everyone else seemed to know is
one of two things: Either it’s a scary
omission that shows that the very people
that are supposed to be dedicated to protecting
us are hopelessly inept. Or the leaders
we have entrusted with our highest office
are bold-faced liars with an agenda that
supercedes the will of the American people.
The question America has to ask itself is:
Which is worse?
The White House is in full damage-control
mode here. They are so worried that they
have been caught in a lie that they are
willing to admit that they were completely
clueless with regard to Iraqi intelligence.
The bottom line is: The president and his
cronies would not try to convince us they
were stupid unless they were lying.
Nobody is fooled here. Tenet played the
good soldier and held the company line.
Somebody had to lie down, and for his service
Tenet keeps his job. The pretenses for this
war are becoming more transparent by the
day. The search for weapons of mass destruction
is a snipe hunt. The new party line is the
liberation of Iraq. Day after day more American
soldiers are liberated from their earthly
duties in a war for what? Based on what?
And ending when?
"They don’t ask you go to the
night shift. They tell you to go to the
night shift."
Sometimes you have to do things you would
rather not. Sometimes you just say: enough
is enough!
Brian Beckner is senior journalism student
at Cal State Long Beach
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