Office of Strategic Lying: A classic Rumsfeld maneuver

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Donald Rumsfeld's abrupt abortion of the Office of Strategic Lying (a.k.a. the Office of Strategic Influence) -- in response to critics who feared for Washington's stellar reputation for honesty -- deserves to be ranked as one of the great propaganda coups of modern times.

Rumsfeld sounded upset, I know, but that was just another aspect of his public-relations brilliance. Reading the literally minded, largely positive reaction to his announcement, I realized that a good many citizens must have inferred that the Pentagon and the White House have been routinely telling the truth over the past few decades.

In all frankness, the only thing more dishonest than an Office of Strategic Influence aimed at deceiving foreigners is the suggestion that the Bush administration, or any other since World War II, likes to tell Americans the truth.

"The office is done," a seemingly hurt, aggrieved Rumsfeld told a press conference. "It's over. What do you want, blood?"

Thus, with three short phrases and a touch of martyrdom, the former drug company CEO swept away the Pentagon Papers, the Church Committee hearings and the collected works of Seymour Hersh, all of which speak to the vast array of lies perpetrated by the U.S. government since the world's greatest superpower took center stage, at Hiroshima in 1945.

The Washington Post reported Rumsfeld's retreat as a "victory for the military public-affairs community," which "had worried that the new office would blur the line between their work of dealing with the media and the public and the 'black' world of covert operations, which sometimes involves disseminating false information."

When was the line ever clear?