[Peace-discuss] Lying leaders

[John W.]

At 12:49 PM 3/23/2006, you wrote:

>Karen wrote "What I don't get is how human beings stop lying to
>themselves...[,to] get to that point of honest personal reflection?
>... how do we get our leaders to do this and stop their madness?"
>
>I'm not sure that it is possible to get a person who has been
>responsible for great evil to stop lying, because confronting
>the true nature of what they have done would likely leave them
>insane, and they would sense this and pull back out of self-
>preservation. It is probably a waste of breath to argue with or
>listen to them. That's the bad news.
>
>The good news is that what they think of themselves is irrelevant
>once they have been exposed. Like all pathological liars, they
>are dangerous only if given the benefit of the doubt.
>
>With a relatively normal life, it is different. After some shock,
>it is common for folks to resolve to live a better life and to make
>some restitution for their failings and foolishness. But if the
>foolishness cost thousands or millions of lives, I have trouble
>seeing how it would be psychologically possible to confront what
>one had done. Robert McNamara, defended his evildoing to his last
>breath, as far as I know. I suspect that Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush
>will do the same. But eventually nobody will listen to their nonsense,
>with a little luck and a lot of work.
>
>Bob


Well said as usual, Bob.  You're a wise man.

Who was the bigwig from the Viet Nam era who wrote a book more or less 
expressing his regret for the war and his role in it?  Was it General 
Westmoreland?  Whoever it was, he'd be an exception to the general (pun not 
intended) rule.

John Wason