What is truth?” Pontius Pilate’s question seems particularly apt in light of recent political events. In an age where an increasingly disillusioned electorate tends to see politicians as liars and cheaters, the search for truth seems to have fallen by the wayside.
An obvious example is the lead-up to the Iraq war. The Bush istration’s claims regarding Hussein’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) program were, we now know, not truthful. Whether they were actual lies, or simple misconceptions, is much harder to determine. What seems clear is that truthfulness was not at the forefront of the istration’s campaign of justification for regime change.
Those who were most outraged by Bush’s misleading statements were revitalized in their criticism when the Times London published the now notorious “Downing Street Memo” on May 1. The memo was written on July 23, 2002, some eight months before the Iraqi conflict began.
It suggests that Bush had already decided on military action, and that the facts and intelligence available were being “fixed” to fit the policy. It states quite clearly that the case against Hussein “was thin,” and that his WMD capabilities were less significant than those of Libya, North Korea or Iran.
It even its that two of the three legal bases for regime change were not possible.
This past November President Bush was re-elected, even after it became clear that the famous stockpiles of WMD did not exist. His campaign was not significantly harmed by this rather obvious untruthfulness.
A mere three days after the publication of the potentially devastating Downing Street Memo, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was also re-elected.
On June 7, the two leaders addressed the media together at the White House. Much to my delight, when questioned about the allegation that the US altered intelligence around policy, Mr. Bush replied, “There’s nothing farther from the truth.”
All of this leads me to wonder to what extent Western electorates demand truth anymore. Does truth matter to us in politics, or have we come to expect to be deceived?
Canadian politics has seen its fair share of untruthfulness in recent months. The sponsorship scandal has left a cloud of corruption over the besieged Liberal government. However, after suffering a brief decline in , the Liberals have re-established their lead.
The verdict is not in yet in Canada, though. With non-confidence votes continuing and Mr. Martin promising an election within 30 days of the conclusion of the Gomery inquiry, the Canadian electorate has an opportunity ahead of them to demand that the truth take a prominent place in Canadian politics. We have, thankfully, only squandered dollars, not lives.
It is time that we set an example. It is time that we demand better of our elected leaders. I am not suggesting defeating the Liberals outright in the next election, but neither should we ively let them off the hook. Though truth can be murky and hard to define, untruthfulness can be strangely transparent. We must stop turning the other cheek.
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