The Art of the Re-Spin

By: J.G. Schwam

In the ongoing effort of the Bush administration to justify it's invasion of Iraq they've decided to try and re-spin it's original justification. Recent statements by the White House now claim that the so-called evidence was not new, it was simply re-interpreted based on new fears. This gives new power to art of spin. We now know that it is acceptable to wage war based on old intelligence that has not been validated to be accurate in the current time frame. It is simply no longer necessary to do so.

This means that because Yasser Arafat was once a terrorist we can simply re-interpret the evidence now arrest and try him at a secret tribunal along with George H.W. Bush because we can now declare that the once insufficient evidence against him for Iran-Contragate now poses a new re-assessed threat.

It's the newly coined art of the Re-Spin. If the first spin doesn't float well then all you have do is re-spin it. Simply determine that old intelligence can now be dug up, re-hashed, reassessed, and re-spun.

What great new concept this is. It means that you don't to really have to do any hard work. All you have to do is brush the dust of last year's work, or the year before and say that you've decided that this old data has re-emerged as a newly enhanced cause for concern. It's even better than just lying. In fact it makes lying obsolete. It's no longer a lie it's still true. It is just a newly renewed reassessment of old evidence. Good old obfuscation and mendacity will never be the same. Among it's other accomplishments the Bush administration has solved the age-old political problem of how to lie without having to recant mendacious or exaggerated prior statements thus allaying any concern of getting caught in a lie.

It's rather like perfecting political ventriloquism. The only puzzling thing is who's the dummy and who's the ventriloquist, Karl Rove, George W.? Perhaps we the people are the real dummies here. Presumably at least, we're buying it.