Is honesty enough?

Today President Bush sat down with a table of former senior white house officials and heard their views, both in support and dissent, on the situation in Iraq. This marks another in a string of attempts by the administration to be more open and candid about the war.

It's no secret that every word that comes out of our white house is carefully scripted and measured against likely reactions before it reaches our ears. Is this latest push an attempt to appease Americans by making them feel that their government is being more honest? Is it a ploy? Is it for real? Is it enough that they are now honest with Americans about things they've been lying about consistently and on record for 5 years? Is it enough to voice honesty and open-mindedness while simultaneously staying a course that has never been sure or effective in the first place? Are we just hearing different words from our government? Is it too late for this regime to become 'honest?'

If they become honest about the war does that buy them forgiveness for their list of other crimes? If the republicans are honest with you about a situation that they had to lie to you about to get into in the first place, does that excuse the wanton fraud and money laundering engineered by Republican Congressman and House Majority leader, Tom Delay? If the republicans are more honest with you about how many decades we will maintain a 'security presence' in Iraq does that excuse the fact that our Vice President openly endorses Delay's political campaign while he is under indictment from the Texas Grand Jury for criminal acts? If the republicans admit that things aren't as good as they've been saying, does that excuse the fact that the Vice President aggressively lobbied to convince the senate to legalize torture? (By the way, the senate finally voted against torture, after much deliberation, 90-9. That's right, nine senators of the United States voted against banning torture. Lovely.)

I'm troubled by what's happening in my country today, that's news to no one. I hope all of you take a little extra time to start paying attention now to what's going on. Whether you feel like you can affect things or not, it's important to pay attention because we're nearing an election year. When the time comes, you will know more about the people involved, because I guarantee that some of the people in the news today will be presidential hopefuls.