Why Do Our Governments Keep Lying To Us About Iraq?

An explosive new article in the Los Angeles Times reveals that, of the 19,000 "insurgents" held by the US military in Iraq, only 135 are foreigners. And half of those are from Saudi Arabia!

Think about that next time you hear voices from Washington and Canberra loudly insisting that the main problems in Iraq are Al Quaeda, Iran and Syria. The truth is (as the Iraqi PM himself says) that we can withdraw all our forces from Iraq tomorrow and that country will not be over-run by terrorists.

So why are our governments, which lied to us about the reasons for going to war in Iraq, still lying to us about the situation today? Are they:

(a) just desperately bluffing their way, to avoid political embarrassment, accountability, and accusations of War Crimes?

(b) still motivated by the original objective: control of Iraq's oil reserves?

I think the answer is (c) both of the above.

The politicians who spun the lies, after all, will not be the ones who make a personal profit from Iraq's oil. It is their powerful supporters in Big Business who still have their eyes on that prize. But the politicians need to keep both Joe Public and Big Business on their side. Either they come clean, throw up their hands and admit that the whole bloody thing was one big lie, or else they keep spinning their intricate web of increasingly bizarre lies. There is no political exit strategy except victory at the polls.