Lies About National Security Aren’t ‘Trivial’

To the Editor:

A few weeks ago a writer in this space described the lies used by the Bush administration to mislead us into Iraq as a “trivial” matter.

Given the writer’s distinguished military background, I was surprised to read that he views such lies as inconsequential. The lies involved a blatant abuse of our intelligence agencies, and were used to deliberately mislead our troops, the public, the Congress, and the entire world — leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of people including an untold number of innocent civilians and nearly 2,000 American soldiers so far.

Does the writer believe it is simply okay for the executive branch to brazenly lie about national security and military threats? Should there be no consequence for such behavior? Is it not clear to him that these lies were deliberate and calculated? Does he believe such an appalling violation of law and public trust on the part of civilian leadership is helpful to our military? 

James Allen

Main Street, Newtown                                                October 10, 2005