Lie passed into history became the truth

THE EDITOR, Madam:

From July 9 to 11, the great and the good gathered for three days of backslapping and unreserved self-praise, when elected leaders of 32 member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) celebrated their 75th anniversary in Washington, DC, where it was founded in 1949.

Topping the agenda was how many more billions of dollars will be given to Ukraine to prolong NATO’s proxy war against Russian aggressors, but not much effort was made to find a way to end the stalemate. Global media focus was on NATO’s de facto leader, US President Joe Biden, to see how he would perform; following him exhibiting so much confusion and distress in the CNN Presidential Debate on June 27.

The chattering classes were going non-stop for two weeks, while several leading Democratic Party politicians and donors declared that Mr Biden was too old to serve another four years. Mr Biden was as hard-headed and stubborn as he always has been, saying his terrible debate performance was simply a “bad night” caused by a cold. A week later he was interviewed on TV by leading Democrat commentator George Stephanopulous, but he only muddied the waters a little more, blaming his shambolic performance on jet lag, and showing a few more signs of distress.

So many people around the world, and especially the electorate in America, observed that Mr Biden definitely had an age-related health problem that the White House had apparently tried to keep hidden, but it is impossible to ‘unsee’ the debate debacle, of course. Then, on the final day of the NATO bun-fest, Mr Biden introduced the leader of Ukraine as “President Putin”, and later In his first solo news conference for eight months he took 10 questions from reporters. Apart from calling Kamala Harris “Vice- President Trump”, he seemed to have an adequate grasp on world affairs, and listed his accomplishments since being in office. In truth, elections are all about the future, yet he concentrated on the past.

To most observers, Mr Biden has been cloistered following several signs of him not being in very robust health; it’s apparent that his White House handlers are trying to tell the world that everything is hunky-dory, when it is obviously not. Ironically, NATO is not alone in celebrating a 75th anniversary, as in 1949 the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was published.

A telling quote from George Orwell’s famous book neatly sums up what’s been going on in the White House: “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. And if all others accepted the lie, if all records told the same tale, then the lie passed into history and became the truth.”

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada