1984 in 2005?

Double Think – a term from George Orwell’s novel 1984; “Reality Control. The power to hold two completely contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accept both of them,” (http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/ns-dict.html).

Double Speak – a term never used in George Orwell’s novel 1984 but often referenced to it; “Deliberately ambiguous or evasive language; any language that pretends to communicate but actually does not,” (http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/ns-dict.html)

USAToday.com reported today that Republicans have decided to “fight back” against the Democrats and their questioning of the Iraqi War.

On Veteran’s Day, President Bush stated, “These baseless attacks [Democrats questioning the war] send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America's will."

Vice President, Dick Cheney, responded to the statements by some Democratic Senators stating, “one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever made in this city [Washington DC]."

Wow! Really? Is it even more dishonest than actually making those false charges of WMDs in Iraq?

Here’s where the 1984 references come into play. It is scary to hear the two most powerful people in the free world use double think on a daily basis. We must have peace/we must have war.

In 1984, Winston defined double think as, “…to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them.”

President Bush and Vice President Cheney have done this since they ran for office in 2000. While Bush was trailing Arizona Senator John McCain in the South Carolina Primary, Bush and his team ran ads stating McCain had an African American child out of wedlock. Yet, Bush stated he would restore integrity to the White House. A politically shrewd move like that does not have any integrity.

Cheney stated Iraq and Saddam Hussein were involved in the 9/11 attacks. A complete lie. He stated it with such confidence of its truth, 70% of Americans believed it was true. Later, Cheney was asked if he remembered saying that and again he lied. He said he had never said that.

It is unbelievable to see how Bush and his cabinet have used double think to pursue endless war (another concept from 1984) in order to have peace. War is Peace. That is on page seventeen. I hope someone in the news illustrates this in an interview with one of these liars. I’d love to see George Stephanopoulos ask Cheney if he intentionally met to use 1984 as his policy bible or if it just happened that way.

As an interesting side-note, both the New York Times and USA Today ran articles about how the Bush Administration is using similar language about Iraq that Nixon’s administration used for Vietnam. How is this a surprise? Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were both in the Nixon administration. From the same people who brought you Vietnam and Watergate, now Iraq and the Valerie Plame Scandal. Liars, Liars, Liars, Liars! I’m not sure these people can even be considered good people. They certainly are awful leaders, but they just may be evil as well.

Most people read 1984 and said, “My goodness. I hope that never happens.” Cheney and his buddies read it and thought, “Cool. Let’s do it.”

I’m sorry. I know I’m sending mixed messages about America since I’m disagreeing with idiots like Bush and Cheney. So let me set the record straight: I love America and I don’t like seeing Americans and Iraqis die because someone lied. I want America to be a beacon of freedom, tolerance, love and peace and I don’t think that should be achieved by invading other countries and preemptive war.

So President Bush and Vice President Cheney, I may have just committed thought crime. Please don’t send the thought police after me. And if I end up missing, someone send a lawyer to Gitmo for me.