Truth

PBS' Frontline airs the second of a two-part series tonight labelled "Bush's War."  Thankfully, you can watch it online as well as on television (click here).  If you've been looking for a matter of fact, coherent, informative and sound documentary on how we ended up where we are today, this is a great place to start.  

The website also has some incredibly rich resources to give the historical and political realities at play in the 80's and 90's that precluded our direction following September 11.

Of most interest to me is the way the series shows how certain personalities were able to bully-pulpit their agendas into the national conscience, effectively utilizing fear and uncertainty in the American people to eliminate due process and so many constitutional necessities and rights.  Not to mention international law.  

It seems to me that rather than asking "how are we going to get out of Iraq?" we need to first ask, "how did we get there?"  Why?  Who led us?  Asking the first question is easy; everyone is ready for an escape.  But, the second question demands accountability and truth-telling.  Those are the hard questions.  They are also the only questions that can produce renewal in relationships.  Before we can go forward as a nation, we have to face this wrong.  We have to admit that we screwed up.  If we do not, we continue the ugly trends of deceit and shady business.

Wes