Wednesday, July 03, 2013
The "credenza defense"
Back in the days before the invasion of Iraq, George Bush was quoted as saying that he "didn't have plans for invading Iraq on his desk." I quipped, via this blog, that "no, he has them on his credenza" (look it up if you don't know what that is!) and defined the "credenza defense" - something which is "literally true, but fundamentally a lie and meant to deceive the listener."
And now we have the classic "credenza defense" from President Barack Obama (a.k.a. Bush III), who just a few days ago (mis)informed the world that he was "not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker." And that was literally true. Instead, he used the "civilized" (and less costly) alternative - just get your allies to deny overflight privileges to a civilian airliner (which just happened to be carrying to President of a sovereign country!), thus forcing it to land.
A classic "credenza defense." Less politely, a brazen lie (on top of the outrageous assault on sovereignty, and the demonstration of the utter subservience of the world to its most powerful imperialist power).
