She's doing it again. Condoleezza Rice, the first administration perp to hit the hustings in a widely heralded public relations campaign to bitch-slap war critics into submission, told the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations last week, "this president" acted just in time to keep Saddam Hussein from destroying every single one of us. Here. On our shores. With the world's most terrible weapons. Catastropic devastation arriving so suddenly by "untraceable" means that it could not be contained.

Clearly -- let there be no mistake -- Rice said, "September 11th, 2001 forever changed the lives of every American." Rice stopped short of revealing the PR game plan by not adding, "...although our pitiful attempt to blame it on Saddam was debunked, and there's really no reason to bring it up here, we must think of September 11 every day, in every way, forever and ever -- or until November 2, 2004 -- whichever comes first."

Rice has been remarkably inconsistent on what she knew, and when she knew or didn't know it. As the president's national security advisor with access to intelligence impacting national security, one would think she would at least be able to properly interpret that intelligence. However, despite hard evidence proving otherwise, Rice's insistence that there was a clear connection between Saddam and al-Qaida and, by extension, Osama bin Laden, has not wavered.

In Sept. 2002, when making the case for a preemptive strike against Iraq, Rice told PBS Frontline's Jim Lehrer, "There clearly are contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq that can be documented; there clearly is testimony that some of the contacts have been important contacts and that there's a relationship here." She maintained forcefully, "We clearly know that there were in the past and have been contacts between senior Iraqi officials and members of al-Qaida going back for actually quite a long time." Rice assured Lehrer that the administration had proof that "Iraq provided some training to al-Qaida in chemical weapons development..."

The only thing clear in Rice's PR speech was that she had nothing new to add, other than US weapons inspector David Kay would "soon be able to determine what happened to the weapons," and the laughable assertion that Bush's action "upheld the UN's credibility."

Rice -- like Bush and Cheney who would follow her in this astounding, orchestrated damage-control disinformation crusade -- spoke to invited, or tightly controlled, audiences, with no questions allowed. Unfortunately, Rice failed to address what the whole world knows -- that "this president" either unwittingly allowed himself to be used by the sinister forces surrounding him, or -- with malice and forethought -- swept the United States into needless war on a deadly pack of lies.

Either scenario is unacceptable performance for a president of the United States, and this became crystal clear during yet another tired repeat of a "get 'em on the run and bring 'em to justice" incantation such as the one Bush gave at Pease Air National Guard Base in New Hampshire, just a day after Rice's silly effort to throw fairy dust into our collective lying eyes...

Pease. Get it? I spent a career in Army public affairs, and that's dang sure where I'd have sent Bush to wave the Flag to wild applause while lying about why US troops are "making the ultimate sacrifice for God and country." Never mind that these guys will enthusiastically yell "Hoo-AH!" at anything that moves, and are conditioned to snap to attention any time there's brass in the house... Makes you wonder, however, how many "hoo-ah's" Bush would get if he took his message to the nation's labor unions, veteran's groups, or to the desperate millions of unemployed...

In his best "Remember the Alamo" voice, Bush admonished the troops to --"Remember September the 11th moved our country to grief..." He defended with imbecilic irony his decision to go on a preemptive rampage -- "I acted because I was not about to leave the security of the American people in the hands of a madman. Since September the 11th the terrorists have taken lives," he continued, savoring every syllable, "the terrorists continue to plot and plan against our country and our people. America," he emphasized, frowning and stubbing his finger on the podium, "must...not...forget the lessons of September 11th..."

We now see our enemy clearly," Bush said, then meandered off into an inane listing of terrorist definitions. "Terrorists plot in secret. They target the innocent. They defile a great religion. They hate everything this nation stands for. These committed killers will not be stopped by negotiations; they won't respond to reason. The terrorists who threaten America cannot be appeased -- they must be found, they must be fought, and they must be defeated."

If it's possible, Bush managed to muddle the waters of logic even more as he tangled the concept of evil, cold-blooded killers, Saddam, al-Qaida and 9/11 into one messy ball of pure "yarn." He was clearly grasping for anything that had worked for him in the past, and concluded by witlessly announcing that "the first victory in this war" was the brave actions of those on Flight 93 in serving their country even though they knew they would die...

I am dumbfounded that Bush and Rice have the arrogance to return to the scene of their crime with such shallow bravado, even under the guise of "public relations." Someone should tell them that the whole world knows they lied; knows there were no weapons of mass destruction; knows that Saddam was nothing more than a cruel tyrant ruling a pitifully weak and unthreatening nation, and knows that Saddam had nothing to do with the 9/11 attack.

That someone wasn't Dick Cheney, who emerged from behind the curtain Friday to round out the public relations terror trifecta at the right-wing Heritage Foundation in a bitter, snarly assault on anyone who dares question Bush's reasons for setting the world on fire. Although Bush and Rice fancy themselves above the law, they at least made a futile attempt to sway public opinion. Cheney, however, defiantly sees himself as outside the law. Maybe it's just me, but when I see Cheney, blood-drenched newsreel scenes unfurl behind him; his eyes flicker with flames. When I see Cheney, I dissolve in uncontrollable, anguished tears.

"September 11, 2001 changed everything," Cheney said, and assured us it was the "defining moment" for George Bush. In that moment, a guy who couldn't even spell "foreign policy," changed it from deterrence or containment -- from diplomacy and negotiation -- to massive, global preemptive murder of any individual or nation who might someday want to hurt us. Because, according to Cheney, "we must not forget that we lost 3,000 innocent lives that morning in scarcely two hours..."

It's clear to Cheney that we're surrounded by Energizer Bunny terrorists -- all in the process of acquiring chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. He says the war will not be over until they are all destroyed. Forget Iraq. Cheney says Iraq is only "part of a larger mission" that we accepted -- you guessed it -- on September 11.

In an angry tirade, throwing down the gauntlet to intelligence services worldwide, Cheney brazenly hooked Saddam to al-Qaida. "Saddam had a lengthy history of reckless and sudden aggression. He cultivated ties to terror, hosting the Abu Nidal organization, supporting terrorists, making payments to the families of suicide bombers in Israel," Cheney said. "He also had an established relationship with al-Qaida, providing training to al-Qaida members in the areas of poisons, gases, making conventional bombs..."

Perhaps Cheney's most bizarre effort at public relations was a litany of outright lies about the progress and findings of US weapons inspector David Kay. Cheney quoted Kay as reporting that "Iraq's WMD programs spanned more than two decades, involved thousands of people, billions of dollars, and were elaborately shielded by security and deception operations that continued even beyond the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom."

However, in his Oct. 2 congressional testimony, Kay said -- "All the Iraq Survey Group evidence collected to date indicates that there were not any active programs to develop or produce chemical or nuclear weapons."

Kay told the Congress unequivically, "Information found to date suggests that Iraq’s large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new CW munitions was reduced -- if not entirely destroyed -- during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of UN sanctions and UN inspections." About Saddam’s intention to develop nuclear weapons, Kay said, "to date we have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material."

It is clear to me that these three manipulators need a refresher course in Public Relations 101. Clearly, the sole purpose of their empty rhetoric is to induce mind-numbing fear in a populace which they hope will unite to keep them in control until the "danger," or the upcoming election, has passed. Anyone who thought this new PR drive would result in some justification for the bloody chaos Bush, Cheney and Rice have created should be not only disappointed, but outraged as well.

Yes. I can see clearly now. Americans must remember September 11, 2001 -- and we must stop the political use and abuse of those 3,000 innocents and their families by this administration. It's time for the madness to stop. Clearly.

© Copyright 2003 by AxisofLogic.com

Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma freelance writer, a former US Army Public Information Officer and Axis of Logic contributing editor.Reprint permission is granted if it includes name of author, designation as Axis of Logic publication, and original www.AxisofLogic.com URL