Just how dysfunctional has Iraq shown the USA government, media, and election process to be?

Question

Does the government EVER tell the truth or get it right?
Are the media so biased and corporate that they are useless?
Are they rogue institutions, responsible to no one?
People are taught to trust leaders. What if they really ARE cold blooded traitors??

Answer 1

I believe that Iraq has shown how dysfunctional this Administration and This President are. However, the country as a whole will survive his incompetence and deceit of the American people and the world. We have survived many catastrophes and Bad presidents. We suffered through the second least popular president after George W Bush (NIxon), and came out whole and strong. We survived Viet Nam, so I believe we can survive this tragedy in Iraq.

Unfortunately, it may take a generation to win back the tarnished reputation of the US as a result of this President's complete disregard for the values and opinions of the rest of the world. He has caused more damage to international relations, and increased global terrorism more in his six years in office than I would have ever imagined possible in 3 or 4 times that amount of time.

Answer 2

Man...you'd really enjoy that wouldn't you? Fact is, no government tells the whole truth all the time and usually tells partial truths some of the time. And as far as media is concerned, I do a little thing with gaining information called "Look at everything then make up my own mind". I don't get info only from those who express my point of view, only a fool would do that. I get my info from CNN, ABC, FOX, NBC and all political points on the compass, then make my own decision based on my BS filter. "Rogue Institutions". Well, that may be, in fact it very likely is true. The rich get richer. Water's wet, wind blows, fire burns...who cares? Traitors? Well, I don't feel that way. While I did not agree with our timing in moving into Iraq, it was an inevitable result. There were WMD, Saddam DID do business with Muslim radicals and paid anyone who would attack western interests $25,000.00, he was in bed with anyone who would further his little kingdom. All facts. The UN sanctioned Iraq 17 times. The decision to take him down may not have been at the most opportune time. But convenience? Yes, we were just across the border, why not?

So, in summation, my feeling is that it has shown a few weaknesses overall, but if we can get past the political bias and commit to the war, we can finish it in due course while minimizing the loss of life.

Answer 3

A dysfunctional government would be Iraq, ours may be impaired at times but overall no one has found a better system. Find a way to fix problems if your going to complain.
As for the Media it has lied to America since the 1960's. I am sure it always has but in the 60's it was taken over by spoiled little kids that have no heart, no guts, and want everything their way. As for the election process help to fix it. Get rid of the electoral college and go to popular vote, get rid of the two party system, Lobby's, and make it possible for anyone to run on an equal footing. Remember even the party of the poor (note sarcasm) their candidates are all rich too. Have to be to run.

Answer 4

Government intervention rarely helps anyone this is due the nature of bureaucracy. Government becomes so mired in details that it seldom gets around to positive action. Government does lie at times I am sure, but more often than not they are guilty of sins of omission rather than outright lying..
The media are slaves to ratings. They will provide information which garners those rating and in turn commercial advertising dollars. The media is generally truthful in what they report, but they are also biased due to the types of stories they report and how they choose to report them.
Politicians are corrupt because of the way the system is setup. It takes money to get elected and they pander to the sources which provide that money. In order to accomplish anything they must make deals. This deal making invariably means that someone will suffer while another benefits. There are indeed unethical people in positions of leadership, it is another unfortunate facet of human nature.
People in America no longer trust their leaders completely and never will again. However, they will not trust a traitor and to date no one has been accused of being such.

Answer 5

I wouldn't go that far (traitors), but I do think that the media thing is right on. The media influences a large majority of our opinions, whether we like to think so or not. How else will we get our information? They could basically tell us anything they want us to know and sometimes do.

Answer 6

No matter what is happening in the world, there will always be people that think that the government are a bunch of traitors. It really doesn't matter though, because they are just looking at it from one point of view, the war was inevitable, and it really has nothing to do with leaders betraying us... because they aren't.

Answer 7

The US government is not dysfunctioal, just the Republicans who temporarily control all of the power. Once the Republicans and their arrogant, war profittering, misguided governance is over the government will improve. Thank God for free press, because its so important that the media report the truth when your leaders lie to you. The election process is broken, when big business, special interests, lobbyists, and 10 second sound bites filled with insults have replaced honest debate, common interest, and one man-one vote philosophies.

Answer 8

Knee-jerk reactions by persons in impressive parts inspite of the actuality that, maximum American electorate need no longer come across themselves. 100% of elected Democrats strive against to circumvent ANY degree which will be used to circumvent diverse-district balloting, fraudulent registration and save on with-up balloting thereby and so on.

Answer 9

I think Iraq has laid bare the greed, nepotism and raw incompetence of our leaders. You judge a nation's institutions by what it exports. And the US and Britain these days export a very poisonous product: arrogance, greed and neo-imperialism. The media are just a circus of blow-dried blow-hards who jolly the whole debacle along.

Answer 10

What about the UN inspectors Saddam was supposed to let into the country? Him shooting down one of our planes way before the war?

What about ALL the politicians saying diplomacy failed way back? Clinton, Carter, Kerry - all of them said it.

Bush is the only one with a backbone to tell Saddam- look you let these inspectors in or there will be consequences.