The Evil of Official Deception!

According to the Britannica Dictionary, deception is the act of making someone believe something that is not true or an act or statement intended to make people believe something that is not true (https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/deception).

Deceptions occur all the time. You can say it is inevitable because more or less that is human nature. Unless a person fears God or is a member of a community with a strict code of conduct, he can easily use deception as a tool of advancing self-interest.

At the personal level the impact of deception is confined to individuals. While the person who has been deceived may suffer terribly, the impact hardly goes beyond the person’s immediate circle of people, viz., family and friends. Official deception is something altogether. Official deception is divided into main broad categories, governmental and corporate. According to the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential, other names of official government deception are:

· Government lying;

· Deliberate lying by government officials;

· Misrepresentation of facts by national leaders;

· Deliberate distortion of official news and information;

· Official over-reporting and under-reporting;

· Government duplicity;

· Perjury by government agents;

· Susceptibility of electorate to government repetition of untruths;

· Intellectual dishonesty in government;

· Government insincerity; and

· Contradictions in official statements

http://encyclopedia.uia.org/en/problem/135150

The Journal of General Management describes corporate corruption as:

‘’ The misrepresentation of reality with the aim of obtaining competitive advantage. It can be planned or accidental, be done to others or be a self-deception. It includes non- disclosure, secrecy, lying, and manipulation of the context…’’

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/030630709001500406?journalCode=gema

Official deception, especially the government type, is highly deadly because it has the potential to kill (a lot of people), disrupt economies, destroy cultures, and even destroy nations! When government deception and corporate deception works together as allies, ordinary citizens are highly threatened.

The historical landscape is littered with countless examples. An example of this unholy alliance is the many wars that had been taking place in the past, and are still frequently taking place in different parts of the world, to serve the interests of corporations. Most of these wars start because weapon manufacturers need to test and sell their armaments, or certain commercial interests want to steal resources, that do not legally belong to them. Since corporations don’t overtly own armies, to achieve their objectives they enlist the help of their governments. To justify the war the government then unleash its propaganda machinery to deceive not only its citizens, but also other nations, if it needs be.

We could site thousands of cases here. However, for the purpose of this article, two cases will suffice. In 1989 the US invaded Panama ostensibly to overthrow General Manuel Noriega, who it accused of drug trafficking and human rights abuses. The invasion was called ‘’ Operation Just Cause’’. However, not everybody was fooled. “The Panama Deception” is a documentary film directed by Barbara Trent and released in 1992. It explores the United States’ military intervention in Panama in 1989 and sheds light on the media manipulation and government propaganda surrounding the event.

The documentary raises questions about the U.S. government’s real intentions, suggesting that the invasion was driven by strategic and economic interests rather than solely by a desire to protect American citizens or promote democracy. It argues that the U.S. government manipulated public opinion and the media to justify the military intervention, presenting it as a necessary response to protect American lives and restore democracy in Panama.

“The Panama Deception” also examines the impact of the invasion on the Panamanian people. It highlights the civilian casualties, destruction of neighborhoods, and alleged human rights abuses committed by the U.S. military during the operation. The film provides testimonies from Panamanian civilians and journalists, challenging the official version of events and presenting a different narrative of the invasion and its aftermath.

Some analysts believe that the real intention of the invasion was to sabotage the implementation of the Panama Canal Treaty, also known as the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, which was signed between the United States and Panama on September 7, 1977. The treaty outlined the transfer of control of the Panama Canal from the United States to Panama and set a specific timeline for the transition process. The treaty stipulated that control of the canal would be officially transferred to Panama on December 31, 1999.

These analysts believe that US went ahead with the implementation of the treaty because of the exposure made by “The Panama Deception”.

Another high-profile case is that of Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Before the second Gulf war which overthrew the Iraq government under Saddam Hussein, for years, using the pretext that Iraq had a dangerous stockpile of Weapons of Mass Destruction, the United Nations ‘was used’ to send weapons inspectors inside Iraq, ostensibly to locate the weapons. At the same time the Iraq people continued to suffer terribly under the UN Security Council Resolution 661, first imposed when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. The resolution called upon all UN member states to implement a trade embargo, prohibiting the import and export of goods and services to and from Iraq. It also included restrictions on financial transactions and froze Iraqi assets abroad.

The sanctions on Iraq remained in place until 2003 when the United States-led coalition invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein. Although the precise number of people who died as a direct result of economic sanctions in Iraq is a matter of debate and controversy, a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) titled “The Impact of the Gulf Crisis on Children.” estimated that between 1991 and 1995, there were an additional 500,000 deaths of children under the age of five in Iraq, which was attributed to the deteriorating humanitarian situation caused by the sanctions.

At the end of the day no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. It was all a BIG DECEPTION. A lot of lives, including American lives perished in order to implement the deception. According to official figures from the U.S. Department of Defense, as of September 2021, a total of 4,424 U.S. military personnel were reported to have died in Iraq due to hostile action during the Second Gulf War. This includes soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who perished in combat, as well as those who died from non-hostile causes while deployed in support of the war effort.

The implementation of this deception highly destabilized Iraq. The destabilization fostered an environment of corruption and chaos. A 2005 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that between 2003 and 2004, approximately 10% of Iraq’s oil production was lost to theft and corruption. Another report of 2012 by the Iraq Energy Institute, estimates that around 100,000 to 150,000 barrels of oil per day were being smuggled out of Iraq in 2012. This represented a significant economic loss for the country.

If you have read this article to the end, please provide your comment. You have probably heard of the way the culture of silence is detrimental to the interests of us common people.

Also subscribe in order to systematically read my other articles. Thanks in advance for that. To show a token of appreciation please get a free pain relief recipe here: https://sihakwanza.gumroad.com/l/jgbun