Since their president and their Pentagon brass assured Americans in 2003 that the Iraq war would be a quicky "cakewalk" and their vice president added his own conclusion that insurgents who were killing U.S. troops were "in their last throes," Americans have developed a completely justified distrust of glib "good news" communiqués from the Bush administration about Iraq.
The calculated White House effort to hype the war and mislead Americans in the belief they'd support the war is now haunting President Bush as he appeals to the public to be patient with his "surge" strategy.
It's not just that his approval ratings are in the low 30s.
Perhaps this is the least welcome news: A new CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll finds that 53 percent of those questioned do not trust Army Gen. David Petraeus to give an honest report on conditions in Iraq when he reports to Congress in mid-September, although Petraeus has been hailed and advertised as a straight shooter.
Furthermore, 72 percent said a positive report would not change their view of the war: six in 10 Americans oppose the president's handling of the war and believe it's going badly.
The message in this poll for President Bush is Ben Franklin's timeless wisdom, that "honesty is the best policy," and Abe Lincoln's tested proverb that "You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."
Only absolute honesty can see this country through the last 16 months of this administration and show the way to a better future.
