Schieffer: Can We Handle the Truth?

Why Does The Government Hide The Facts About The Iraq War From Us?

(CBS)  Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.

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During the court martial scene in the movie "A Few Good Men," young Navy prosecutor Tom Cruise put Marine Colonel Jack Nicholson on the stand and demanded the truth.

Nicholson replied, "The truth? You can't handle the truth!"

A memorable line, but we are left to as: Has the government concluded Nicholson's character was right, that Americans can't handle the truth?

As the war has grown worse, we have heard government spokesmen from the top on down tell us "Stuff happens," "Mission accomplished," "Enormous progress," "The good news is not reported."

We can't even get a straight story on how our troops die.

Last week, the Pentagon first reported that four Americans were killed in Iraq while repelling an enemy attack. Then on Friday we were told they had actually been kidnapped during a shootout and executed, two of them handcuffed and shot in the head.

In the hours after the killings, reporters who had pieced together the real story were told their version was inaccurate. The new Secretary of Defense claimed he was unaware of the new information an hour before it was announced.

The government argues that public criticism hurts the war effort, but it is being damaged much more by its own loss of credibility brought on by such incidents.

Truth is the foundation of democracy and Americans can handle the truth — they demand it. History shows that when they fail to get it, they no longer follow their leaders, no matter the cause. They are more likely to just change leaders.

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E-mail Face the Nation.

[clemenhagen1]

This whole war has been waged as a public relations operation. Pat Tillman? Killed by enemy fire, but the cause of death was initially lied about and then whitewashed. His patriotic commitment to give a million-dollar NFL contract lauded, but then used as a propaganda prop upon death. Jessica Lynch? Her "daring rescue" turned out to be a staged event. There were no guards with guns holding her, just Iraqi doctors who provided her decent care. Massacres in Haditha? The rape of an Iraqi girl and the subsequent burning and murder of her family. Not hardly mentioned in our press. What they learned from Vietnam is that they must control the images in an effort to shape perception. We see only a staged war on our so-called "news" programs.

[bluestardad]

Media
Quit covering these animals in the Middle East and let them butcher themselves off camera. We have spent 50 years of time blood and money trying to civilize them to western standards and it does not work. Do they own your Job or what? Quit Covering them!

[dargay]

bluestardad, the US spent last 50 years supporting regimes that killed muslims, now you do it yourselves. But you got a point, if americans leave and forget about this region, peace will come back.

[geoshark]

First of all most of the infromation came from sources after the fact Tillman story was not the official story from the government- the official story was that he was killed by friendly fire. Lynch story- the Iraqi doctors saved jessica Lynch's life and hid her from Iraqi troops- then she was brought back to the American forces. Those are the official government releases. ideologues used the details of the story to manipulste it to their own ways- Im including Haditha when the final story came out about that will not be fully understood becaused at how much it was demagogued about. It is not that we cannot handle the truth it is that the drive-by media massacres the news as it is reported. They don't believe the official statement so they manipulate to their own ideological ends. Believe what you want the official release is one thing- the drive-by media releases something else and the truth is lost on you and me. Because this is what happens when there is no respect for either one to at least try to release the facts in their proper light. Bob it is not that we can't handle the truth. I went to Serve over there from first hand accounts heard one thing- When I heard the same story back home I got the worst case sernario of it. That is when I stopped beliving in the drive-by media.

[waatspa]

That's what your here for Bob, I hang on your every word. What was it you said?

blah blah blah

This administration makes its own reality. It is part of the neocon mentality.

[clemenhagen1]

"Tillman story was not the official story from the government- the official story was that he was killed by friendly fire. Lynch story- the Iraqi doctors saved jessica Lynch's life and hid her from Iraqi troops- then she was brought back to the American forces. Those are the official government releases." Posted by Geoshark

Wrong. Read the article written by Pat Tillman's brother, posted on Truthdig.org. The family has been spurned by the government for years to get the whole truth. Tillman's death was not originally reported as friendly fire by the government. It was misrepresented from the start, then buried in a white-wash. Lynch's story was filmed by an imbedded crew and sold to the public as a daring rescue. These and other stories were merely used as a propaganda piece by an administration that chose to package and sell war as evidence that we would not be safe unless Bush were reelected. Troops used as props...war used as political capital. War used to privatize the military and rake in profits for corporate cronies. Are troops are pawns in this whole charade.

[rharrin1]

Maybe Schieffer should ask tougher questions instead of being so dammm polite.

[getcentered]

Schieffer: Can We Handle the Truth?
Why Does The Government Hide The Facts About The Iraq War From Us?

The reason is that our Executive Branch is made up of self-righteous fools who prefer the public believe in fairytales then actually understand the depth of their incompetence and/or the level at which "CURSORY" describes their leadership.

[eyedrive1]

It is not the American people that can't handle the truth, It is the the American government. Don't get me wrong, I was originally committed to the Iraq war and voted for Bush the FIRST time, not the second.

The corrupt government on both sides of the aisle will say anything to get elected. these are not the people that drafted the constitution. The poorest among us, the weak, the sick, the disabled get no attention because it will cost the politicians votes from the richest and strongest of us.

This is why we do not have universal health care, and why the minimum wage is the lowest in real dollars for 50 years. Simply politically too dangerous, so let the poor be damned.

I was not always poor, In fact up until I was hit by a drunk driver in 2003 I was upper middle class. I am now severely disabled and unable to work because my own government abandoned me and my family.

My own niece (who is a highly respected lawyer) told me years ago, there is no such thing as equal justice under the law, that it is a farce, that we have two sets of justice in this country, one for the rich, one for the poor.

Shame on us--compassionate conservatives my rear end.

[migrainegram]

The Genius of Impeachment:
The Founder's Cure for Royalism
by John Nichols

ISBN-10: 1595581405
ISBN-13: 978-1595581402

[freedomchil1]

When a gov. attempts to stop freedom of speech it is expressing its desire to instill fear and the next step is to control the people. When that happens we lose our feedoms completely. Thank you Bob Schieffer for stepping up to the plate and being a person of courage, integrity and responsibility. It did my heart good to finally hear someone in the media tell it like it is. The questions is, not if the people can handle the truth, but if they want to know the truth, even if it is something they do not want to hear and makes them look bad. I remember Joe McCarthy. Keep the truth comming Bob, Thank you! I also remember Ed Murrow. Good first step Bob Keep it up.

[feelfree1]

Re: "Why Does The Government Hide The Facts About The Iraq War From Us?"

Because they want to keep it going, Mr. Schieffer. If the U.S. corporate media would have done their job ahead of the illegal invasion of Iraq, we would not be in this position, now would we?

CBS and other Western mainstream media sources, are deeply complicit in stampeding the American public into this illegal and disgraceful war, and in propagating its continuance.

Mr. Schieffer, as a supposed investigative journalist, it seems to me that it is your responsibility to set the record straight.

[i-tack]

feelfree1 and bluestardad,

Combine your two posts, namely stop covering the middle east (bsd) and the purported eagerness to continue the warfare.

The energy resources present in the region provide wealth and resources to those in the middle east so that they can no longer be avoided (no matter how much I might like that). So the solution is to sincerely adopt any and all other sources of energy.

Admittedly, this solution only provides for ourselves and doesn't help Europe at all, but take the first step and then see how to proceed.

[i-tack]

As for Bob's article, the American people don't like to hear that we CAN'T do something. Why does much of the world dislike Americans? Because they view us as demanding and impatient.

Sad to say, the Euro's are right. I don't even try to debate the issue anymore.

But don't think it is exclusive to Iraq; we don't face the truth about ALL of the major issues that our country faces. We elect people who give us good news. We get carried away with phrases "Compassionate Conservatism", "Social Security Lockbox" "Peace Dividend" etc.

We no longer elect people based on strong principles of improving the state of our country.

[jn122736]

Mr Schieffer.

Your well-worded article accurately presents facts everyone should be well aware of by now.

The failure to accurately and honestly present all the facts is a pattern deeply engrained in this administration.
It is this type of manipulation-misrepresentation of the truth that has cost President Bush all respect and trust of any fair-minded person.

Geoshark

%u201COfficial%u201D reports are too often altered after initial presentation and presented long after the subject incident.

[hmpierson]

Speaking of "handling the truth"...

I heard "Face the Nation" this morning. When you asked Mitch McConnell whether he was planning a filibuster, he said no, but that he would have 41 votes to prevent a non-binding motion from passing.

You got into a discussion about the "arcane methods of the Senate," and you allowed McConnell to say, and then acknowledged, that passing with 60 votes or more was the required norm in the Senate.

You know better than that. What proportion of measures were passed by 60 votes or more in the last Senate?

The only relevance of having 41 votes is to be able to threaten a filibuster. You helped McConnell with his obfuscation.

Can you handle the truth?

[hmpierson]

Speaking of "handling the truth"...

I heard "Face the Nation" this morning. When you asked Mitch McConnell whether he was planning a filibuster, he said no, but that he would have 41 votes to prevent a non-binding motion from passing.

You got into a discussion about the "arcane methods of the Senate," and you allowed McConnell to say, and then acknowledged, that passing with 60 votes or more was the required norm in the Senate.

You know better than that. What proportion of measures were passed by 60 votes or more in the last Senate?

The only relevance of having 41 votes is to be able to threaten a filibuster. You helped McConnell with his obfuscation.

Can you handle the truth?

[feelfree1]

I-tack,

I don't think that you represented my position very well.

I am not advocating to stop reporting on the Middle East. I am instead advocating in favor of accurate, fact-based reporting from this region.

I am also not advocating that we blame the Iraqi and Afghan people, for the disaster and misery that we have delivered to them. We owe them an apology and a tremendous debt, in my opinion.

As far as "adopt(ing) any and all other sources of energy", I don't think that it has to be all or nothing. We can go a very long way towards enrgy independence by concentrating on conservation alone, and alternative sources of power are on the rise.

The Bush regime wants to solve our energy problems by subsidizing the nuclear industry. Not only is this method very dangerous, with no reliable method for handling the deadly waste, but it also presents a major security threat, and it is one of the most expensive methods of generating electricity.

[desertrat200]

Nice comment Mr. Schieffer.
How about all the reporting of the good news that YOU are NOT reporting?
Why is it important exactly how the the soldiers died? Is it to push the ugly mess of war in our face so we turn against it and abandon the mission? You guys suck.

[tibu987]

Too many have died, and for what?
Americans and innocent Iraqi's.
Iraq in such destruction.
The U.S. should exit with a few exceptions.
Leave, say, 10,000 troops in the green zone to protect the U.S. Embassy, and another 10,000 to defend the airport and to train Iraqi police and soldiers.
I believe that history will record this situation the most preventable and horrendous atrocity perpetrated on Iraq. Rumsfeld bailed out, I expect that Cheny and Rice will depart before the last disastrous two years of this administration is over.

[brandonsmail]

This and future administrations must respect the repeated requests of the people they serve in this country.

I don't remember anyone ever saying, "Please tell us a bunch of lies about all your doings, because we're just a bunch of ignorant tax payers who get off on being lied to."

If the men and women of this country want to know the truth they deserve nothing but. And for their own government to sugar coat and minipulate the reports to us, is worth an action by the people that I don't think this administration is ready for. They've got the guns, but we've got the numbers! They owe us, one more time, THEY OWE US!!!

[j-whitman]

Desertrat,,, Good News ?? Like all the "Purple Fingers" that left Iraq or is burried under the rubble ??

[nativewoman]

It might have been nice if journalists asked this question years ago and actually did some investigation instead of just accepting the *** spoon fed to them by this government.

The mainstream media has been a seemingly willing accomplice in helping this government to continually lie to us.

Comment to: Posted by desertrat200 at 03:47 PM : Jan 28, 2007
Are you saying you would rather not know the ugly truth of the war? Why would you not want to know the truth? So you can continue to pretend, all evidence to the contrary, that we are the good guys? The rest of the world knows the truth of what we have done. Perhaps, as alluded to in the title of this piece, you cannot handle the truth of war.

[tomar0317]

Bob, by far you have the best program on what's happening with our congress. I think though, despite your effort to this point to bring us your viewers up to date, please force these political morons to speak the truth. If they don't, tell them to stop the reteric and give us a yes or no. That's whatthey demand, why shouldn't we, the people who put them there. We are a very mature, and smart people we Americans. If our representives continue to think we don't have a clue then they have already forgotten last November's election. Trust me though, we won't forget come the 2008 elections!

[mlsbas]

Can We Handle The Truth - an interesting question. As long as the Bush/Cheney Regime exists, the question is moot.

George Bush and *** Cheney have destroyed our republic - where we expect our elected officials to serve the people who elected them. Their arrogance and elitism have created a self-empowerment the likes of which I have not seen in my 57 year on the Earth.

Messrs. Bush and Cheney have established a legacy of corruption and egregious criminal behavior. This is why we do not hear the truth.

[mluce2]

Mr. Schieffer, How could you allow Senator McConnell to claim that we have prevented attacks on the United States since 9/11 by attacking Iraq? Your comment was that America can handle the truth, but you permitted a spokesman for the Republican Party and President Bush to assert a complete fiction. Once again the administration is able to link Al Queda and Saddam Hussien on national TV. By merely sitting by as this Machiavellian machanation was foisted again on the public, you failed as a journaist to keep truth at the center of the debate.

[goldesprit]

Here's why Bob is right.

Sun Tzu (Chinese: %u5B6B%u5B50; pinyin: S%u016Bn Z%u01D0; c. 544 %u2013 496 BC) was a Chinese author of The Art of War (Chinese: %u5175%u6CD5), an immensely influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy.
I dare say that most of our Generals are more than passingly familliar with the above.

Sun Tzu said that all war is based on deceit, and he really wasn't talking about only decieving the ememy.

Unfortunately, he wasn't talking about Democracy, either. Neither was he concerned with accidentally killing every last person on earth. As Mr. Dylan said, The Times They are A Changin'.

Absent the broad Truth from our own government about war(s) and how "we" are proceeding (in the current era)as a country--we will ourselves be absent from reality--and there will be no established "we" doing the proceedings. No actual solidarity.

But we will still be responsible, even if we all become quite literally...absent.

If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around to hear--did it make a sound?

If everyone is dead, did we have too many unnecessary wars? No more History--no more History assignments to fail?

In simple words that even this President should be capable of reading:
Lets not do that.

[Jim1900]

I think this is a little bit of an overreaction. In a war zone, there is probably a lot of confusion. It is not a 24 hour news bureau, as much as the cable networks would like it to be. They actually have a war to fight. The fact that the more accurate details came out a few days later is not surprising. Absent any evidence of a cover-up, so what?

[goldesprit]

"That's a wonderfully utopic view- but it is ironic that this kind of "logic" in absent from reality. There is no truth- only perception."
Posted by gbp4sb34

I wouldn't say that a letter that ends with every last person dead is "wonderfully utopic"
although if you take it out of context you ca distort anything.

Additionlly, you can't navigate walking down the street without feedback.

You'll notice I spoke of broader truth--not nit picking.

By the way, in the fable you may be quoting...Gecko falls from grace.





Wanting the broader truth from OUR govt. is inherent in ten documents used to found this country.
WE hold these truths to be self evident.

[feelfree1]

Jim1348,

Re: "Absent any evidence of a cover-up, so what?"

No cover up. Just complicity. The Western media has trumpeted made for TeeVee photo-ops like the staged "Saddam statue toppling" complete with dancing Iraqis, and the Jessica Lynch "rescue" fiction. To his credit, Koppel did do a story on the "staue" hoax, on ABC Nightline, in a somewhat timely fashion, but apparently, very few people saw it.

Without an objective view of these events, we lack accurate context from which to judge the decisions of our leaders.

Besides that, huge sums of U.S. tax dollars are being funneled to companies whose primary service is deception, and it is aimed at the U.S. public, and we can be certain that this is not in our interest.

Check out firms like the Rendon Group, and the Lincoln Group, and I think you will get a pretty good idea of what I mean.

[feelfree1]

It never hurts to proof-read.

[odisdog1]

Truth is the cornerstone of Democracy. Thank you for taking the time to show your belief in me, that I CAN HANDLE THE TRUTH!
We have been lied to for six years by the Bush Administration on everything from 9-11 to Hurricane Katrina to Iraq and Iran. I voted for Mr. Bush when he was governor and voted for him in 2000, but never again, will anyone associated with Bush, Cheney, Rove, Wolfowitz, Rice, Rumsfeld, Gates, Perle, Feith, Ledeen, PNAC authors or Alberto "Abu Ghraib-you're not entitled to Habeous Corpus" Gonzales EVER get my vote again. I have voted for every Democrat, Libertarian, Independent (with the exception of traitor Joe Lieberman), dog, cat and horse since 2004.
You know why? Because the Bush Administration does not tell the truth and I am personally insulted that they think that I, the average American, am stupid, that I won't connect the dots (example: Last time I checked OBL was responsible for 9-11, NOT IRAQ). The President and his entire team should all be impeached and removed from office. How much longer until he declares martial law??? That is what's going to happen. Bush just keeps on doing what he wants and is ignoring everyone in between and then we will have no choice, we won't be able to elect a new leader.
As far as I can tell, our Constitution, specifically the Separation of Powers is in jeopardy sir. Please, people like me are depending on people like you (and Keith Olbermann) to stop this. Congress can't do this by themselves.

[bluestardad]

Media
Quit covering these animals in the Middle East and let them butcher themselves off camera. We have spent 50 years of time blood and money trying to civilize them to western standards and it does not work. Do they own your Job or what? Quit Covering them!

OK here is your chance, don%u2019t just set in front of your computer and complain spouting meaningless rants of sludge, do something about it! This is the contact address for your Senator! Send them a message of your opinion. All Class Two Senators are up for Reelection in 2008. Be respectful even if they do not deserve it because their office does! http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_in
formation/senators_cfm.cfm

[middleman8]

The whole world knows the United States people are the most lied to propaganda feed people in the world.Its about time some are starting to wake up.

[middleman8]

If the United States is a Democracy,

Give me a dictatorship.

[cbsblogger]

Truth....if we can't handle it, it's because we're never told it.

Our consolidated corporate owned media has its own agenda. The two party government has its agenda. Neither one includes truth to average Americans. Disinformation and manipulation rules the day and the truth is not part of the rule.

I suggest two solutions...a third political party to keep the other two parties honest, and a dose of reality for Bush / Cheney...called impeachment

[Syndicate]

The truth is what ever lets you go one living your life. If you want the real truth you can try to piece it together from all the little bits and pieces you can get, but that just leaves you with gapping holes for your imagination to play in. No one article can tell you everything. No one web site can cover everything. Several may give you a picture but none are acurate. Every now and then a piece of information is so important that it causes you to reinterperupt previous information. You must of course throw out the BS info. And what is BS? That is for you to decide. As one mans BS is another mans diamond in the rough. The real truth won't be known for a long time. If ever. The government will never admit it, but they don't know the truth either. Everything should be taken with a grain of salt. To ask for the truth is to ask to be lied to.

[hillaryin08]

Bob Schieffer, you are full fledged, flaming, card carrying liberal. Because you are against the war, and your a Bush hater, you distort the facts and manipulate the news all the time. Dont start acusing everyone else about the issues until you and the other members of the drive by media can get your own story straight.

[gray_owl_55]

Bob is right, the American public does deserve the truth. This administration has a serious credibility problem. We now know beyond a doubt that they have been less than truthful in a number of areas. Unfortunately there are still some of us who can%u2019t handle the truth. In order to discern truth from deception we must honestly ask ourselves some tough questions. Do observed actions or results match what I%u2019m being told? Have I overlooked information that was proven beyond a doubt to be false out of fear, hatred or loyalty? In response to opposing points of view, can I form an independent opinion, or do I repeat slogans and resort to name-calling.

[Michael Arnold]

You know, this is rediculous. Just rediculous. Bob, you and your mega-media mommie and daddies have all the resources in the world to get and tell us the "truth". The money. The contacts. The cameras. All of the broadcast spectrum... Everything but the nerve, guts and balls. Because you're too afraid to do your stinking jobs, thousands and thousands have died or been made cripples. Towns, cities, cultures -- destroyed... because you and your pals didn't do your frickin' jobs. If this is the best you can do, why not just quit and join Brokaw in Montana and just go the hell fishing. You make me sick. (and take that s--t eating grin off your face. It just doesn't sell anymore.) Go away...at this point, you're just useless.

[hillaryin08]

This is how it should read


Schieffer: Can We Handle the Truth?
Why Does CBS News Hide The Facts About The Iraq War From Us?

[mgpm-2009]

American media does not report the truth because the American people do not want to hear it. They give us what sells. I believe Ronald Reagan got elected and GWB too (the 2nd time, he stole it the first time) on the basis of selling the American people a picture of how they want things to be. Gladhanding strong figureheads telling people that America's strong, lovely, good, right, our problems are minor...yadda yadda... C'mon...we don't want the truth...we want the National Enquirer, People Magazine, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh! That's what we want! Sensationalism, people to tell us like it is, incredible as it all seems. When we were heiniously attacked, we had to have a bad guy to go and get, and when we couldn't find him, we went and got another bad guy and bombed his country, and got him! Mission accomplished! We are strong! We don't take a hit without hitting back! Think about it. It's all put up for our consumption, packaged. But this war is rotten and it is going on too long, stinking to high heaven. And we can all smell it. The truth is coming out about this one, and NO, WE CAN'T HANDLE IT.

[steelr9]

Bless you, Bob Schieffer.

[grumpas]

hillaryin08 you are a rabid foaming at the mouth card carrying fascist Republican conservative! There wasn't a thing in his peice that was liberal in content! You sucked it out of your thumb like vicious people always do! Anyone says something you don't agree with...out comes the liberal label regardless! Maybe if people like you would get over your hatred of liberal's it might be a decent country again! If you started caring more about this country instead of your conservative politic's we wouldn't be in the mess we are! As far as middle of the road people are concerned, liberal's are starting to look a lot more appetizing than nasty people like you!

[changeit4]

"Because you're too afraid to do your stinking jobs, thousands and thousands have died or been made cripples. Towns, cities, cultures -- destroyed... because you and your pals didn't do your frickin' jobs."

tvtoy1000

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished readers, the height of conservative logic, finger-pointing, and hypocrisy has officially emerged: this entire mess is the fault of the media. The Constitution has been altered and the news media now actually occupy the White House.

They can't screw it up worse than GOP conservatives. How about a FOX Noise/Rush ticket in '08? Anyone? Hello?

[changeit4]

Oh yeah, hillaryin08, what are the facts about the war in Iraq?

Why aren't YOU enlightening us either?

[random_radar]

"In war, truth is the first casualty."

Aeschylus the Greek tragic dramatist (525 BC - 456 BC)

[i-tack]

feelfree1,

Regarding your comment, "I don't think that you represented my position very well. I am not advocating to stop reporting on the Middle East. I am instead advocating in favor of accurate, fact-based reporting from this region."

Not exactly sure where your comment stems from, but my apologies if I misrepresented you.

As for my position on energy, the Middle East is the mess it is in because of oil. As long as the money from oil goes into that region we will be dealing with it.

Conservation is a tool towards energy indepedence, but it is only one tool. Nuclear power is a tool (with issues), coal, wind, solar, geothermal, etc. are tools. The combination of tools will allow us to grow as an economy and survive as a nation.

Full independence will drive other countries to seek out the same and the resulting loss of revenue will impact the Middle East dramatically. Let's face it, this will bring down some regimes who are favorable to the US. About the only country in the region that wouldn't be hurt financially is Israel.

Hope you are not a closet Israel hater like others on this site.

Have a good day.

[covair63]

I can't believe how stupid people are.If they really believe they if we had just stayed home that those fanatics would have done the same.
They would be here now and we would be fighting them in our streets.If you would only listen that is their whole purpose for living is to kill the great satan which they claim is America.
The muslims can say what they want but their Koran says an infidel is to be made a slave or to be killed.And what has our great nation done but to let one get elected to congress.
and these people who want to say there is nothing wrong with being homosexual is stupid too,There is no way God or no God that it is natural for men to be with men and women to be with men.