The past several weeks have provided the American people with a stunning look at the nature of our leadership and the source of our collective unease. The rhetoric emanating from the president, vice president, secretary of state, and secretary of defense answer the question that has vexed many: How did we get so divided?
From the president’s Iraq speech to the vice president’s interview last Wednesday with CNN, these officials consistently deny the truth that most Americans are coming to understand—our effort in Iraq is failing and we need a new strategy.
This denial of truth, the cited “facts” about Iraq, and the continued, deliberate association of Iraq with al Qaeda amount to a quintessential demonstration of the divide and conquer strategy. Division is created by the constant assertion of false facts, and by the association of real facts that have nothing to do with one another. These two tactics are the methods to implement the strategy.
The dialogue of the people becomes divisive because we cannot even agree on the facts. Vice President Cheney, in his interview on January 24, continued to assert an association between al Qaeda with Iraq, that weapons of mass destruction were imminently available to Saddam Hussein, and that the actions of the administration in Iraq have made us safer. The first two assertions are demonstrably false, and the last is an assessment that is highly speculative. When our leaders can speak such falsehoods, is it any wonder that a people predisposed to trusting their leaders becomes divided?
The legacy of this division is something we are likely to live with for a very long time.
Anthony Signorelli is the author of Call to Liberty: Bridging the Divide Between Liberals and Conservatives (www.calltoliberty.org).
