Self-evident truth

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"

I've written about this before. If government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed, the paramount crime that a government can commit is lying to the people, because it undermines the very legitimacy of the government and invalidating whatever consent it received from the people. This is especially true in matters of war, because the lives of thousands or millions, and the welfare of our country and other countries are put at risk.

This is what I keep thinking about when I read the two stories this week about the kidnapping and killing of American soldiers in Iraq this week.

The first story the government put out was that the Americans were killed trying to repel an attack.

As that story started falling apart, we have learned a new, and apparently true, version of what happened.

"The attackers went straight to where Americans were located in the provincial government facility, bypassing the Iraqi police in the compound," he said. "We are looking at all the evidence to determine who or what was responsible for the breakdown in security at the compound and the perpetration of the assault."

As the AP puts it, "The confirmation came after nearly a week of inquiries. The U.S. military in Baghdad initially did not respond to repeated requests for comment on reports that began emerging from Iraqi government and military officials on the abduction and a major breakdown in security at the Karbala site."

This attack happened on January 20, last Saturday.

Now let's see, what was happening this week?

Oh yeah, the State of the Union message. You don't think that lying about the attack to keep the focus on Bush's message on Tuesday had anything to do with it, do you?