How most Americans handle a big lie

"We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the September 11th attacks."

George W. Bush -- September 17, 2003

On Tuesday night, speaking at Fort Bragg to an audience of 750 members of the 82nd Airborne Division and the Army's Special Operations unit, George Bush abandoned any last shred of integrity, objectivity or honor by repeatedly linking Iraq to 9/11, even though there is no credible evidence to support the allegation.

What is remarkable, is not that Bush would personally undertake to sell the big lie, but that so few were buying. From his captive audience, Bush received only one round of polite applause, and that prompted by his own staff. More ominously for the manipulators in the White House, the national television broadcast marked a career low for Bush. An average of barely 19 million watched, which means that more than 260 million did not.

How splendid. Ninety-three percent of all Americans did not listen to Bush's manic justification of the unjustifiable. How ingenious. With total spontaneity, Americans have adopted a brilliantly effective response to this fraudulent regime. Ignore it. Without lies, it cannot function. And without an audience, its lies are inoperative.