Big whoppers – excerpt from Michael Moore’s new book, Dude, Where’s My Country?
Sure, we’ve been lied to before. Lots of lies: big lies, little lies, lies that brought us down in the eyes of the world. “I am not a crook” was a lie, and it sent Richard Nixon packing. “Read my lips: No new taxes” wasn’t so much a lie as a broken promise, but it nonetheless cost the first Bush his presidency. “Ketchup is a vegetable” was technically not a lie, but it was a good example of the Reagan administration’s whacked view of the world.
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But nothing can hide this indisputable fact: There is no worse lie than one told to scare mothers and fathers enough to send their children off to fight a war that did not need to be fought because there never was any real threat at all. To falsely tell a nation’s citizens that their lives are in jeopardy just so you can settle your own personal score (“He tried to kill my daddy!”) or to make your rich friends even richer, well, in a more just world, there would be a special prison cell in Joliet reserved for that type of liar.