The building that houses the president of the United States is well known for its magnificent architectural design and beauty. It is meant to demand respect from visitors, foreign dignitaries, and hoards of journalists and tourists alike. I never visited the White House, yet I came to know it in a different perspective.
The first American president I can recall paying attention to was George Bush Sr., back when he was leading a mostly Arab coalition in a war to liberate Kuwait. This was after the late Iraqi president, Sadam Hussein, launched a lighting-strike offensive and annexed the poorly-protected, oil-rich American ally. Even then, I could not recall much of Bush’s political statements.
He was followed by one of the most colorful Southern presidents, and with a drawl to match. From then on, I came to know the White House as a pulpit of lies. Anyone who paid attention to a television screen during the Clinton administration would recall the sexual affair scandal the White House was mired in when the president uttered his most famous lie. Clinton ended a televised speech in late January 1998, with the statement, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.” Later on, the world would know that the commander in chief treated the white house as a brothel and at least one intern as a pimp would do.
Next followed George W. Bush Jr., who came in with an agenda to launch a war in Iraq to fulfill his daddy’s dreams. It was during his time that the US received the biggest blow to its isolated secured status, when Al Qaeda managed to attack New York City and destroy the World Trade Center. Before the dust settled and anyone knew who the attackers were, the Bush administration worked tirelessly to advance its global control agenda using the September 11th attacks as grounds for the “you’re either with us, or against us” attitude. The White House propaganda machine kept lying about ties between Sadam Hussein and Al Qaeda. The lies the White House fabricated were designed to use American post-9/11 fervor and misguided patriotism in trying to tie the American invasion of Iraq with the attacks of September 2001. But the most glaring lie used during this time was the alleged existence of “weapons of mass destruction”. There isn’t a single American politician or intelligence analyst or military personnel from that time that I know of that did not repeat this lie as a prayer of gospel, day in and day out. This one lie eventually became the butt-end of all bad CIA jokes.
George W. Bush Jr.’s most memorable highlight was during a December 14, 2008, press conference at the prime minister’s palace in Baghdad, Iraq, when journalist al-Zaidi threw both of his shoes at the president. “This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog,” yelled Al-Zaidi in Arabic as he threw his first shoe towards Bush. “This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq,” he shouted as he threw his second shoe. Bush’s lies had led to the invasion and almost total destruction of the nation of Iraq as well as years of subsequent illegal occupation and internal fighting.
Barack Obama came with the promise of change and the “yes we can” attitude that swept the nation and Americans (not including republicans) thought they were correcting the mistakes of the past. He had inherited two unjust and illegal wars from his predecessor, and instead of doing the right thing of admitting fault and withdrawal from these conflicts—something he and then-Vice President Biden would later have to concede—he did not just double down, but quadrupled down as unmanned aircraft strikes increased at an alarming rate, overwhelmingly killing civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq. Obama was also dubbed “Deporter-in-Chief” by immigration and human-rights lawyers due to his inhumane border and immigration policies. Where Clinton and Bush lied in short sentences, Obama lied by the policy. He often said one thing and did the opposite.
After that, any minute sense of truth went out of the window with the arrival of the Trump administration. I will leave Trump alone as there are books written by now about his statements and whether they were true or lies. This administration started with Sean Spicer’s claims insisting that the Trump inauguration crowd was “the largest audience to ever witness the inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.” This was later followed by alternative facts; a phrase used by US counselor to the president, Kellyanne Conway, during a Meet the Press interview to justify the White House lies about the inauguration crowd size. She also made up the Bowling Green Massacre: A supposed attack on American soil by what she called Islamic terrorists. Conway obviously wrote the book on alternative facts. During the Trump presidency, it was clear that no White House Official, from the president to the lowest level, was able to utter a truth.
When Joe Biden became president after these characters, I was under no illusion that this White House would be any different. The latest claims of Biden, his secretary of state, Blinken, and chief of staff, Austin, on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories are par for the course for the White House establishment. This recent slew of Conway and Spicer-like characters, who continue to make statements that defy the reality, is the norm in D.C.
It is not surprising to hear the statements coming out of the Biden administration that are disconnected from the facts on the ground. Ever since the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas against the Israeli occupation, and the latest round of genocide by Israel against the civilian Palestinians in the occupied territories, the White House has become the de-facto propaganda outlet for the Israeli occupation. From Joe Biden falsely claiming that “Hamas beheaded babies,” to Anthony Blinken’s slew of hateful, misleading statements about Hamas and its actions, all are in an effort to cover one of the worst genocides that humanity is witnessing live.
It is no wonder that capitals around the world have stopped accepting US lies and moved away from the American camp. As an activist for human rights and justice, it is encouraging to see nations like South Africa, supported by most countries in the world, break away from the American Zionist viewpoint and choose to stand for humanity and the rule of law. The White House lies culminated by Biden’s attempts to disparage the rule of international law and try to discredit South Africa’s case for genocide against Israel in the International Court of Justice. Blatant lies are still forthcoming from the White House as of writing this article. Despite the overwhelming evidence of Israel’s guilt and US and UK complicity, it is promising to see that a team of South African lawyers taking these two nations to court for their involvement, which include the lies mentioned above, in the latest genocide committed by Israel.
The White House list of lies over the decades speaks of a deeply entrenched American tradition that is at the core of all American actions and values. Somehow in America, lying is a virtue of some sort.
©The Imprisoned Blogger
The Imprisoned Blogger 