Who do we trust?

We are currently being bombarded with conflicting information.

The Bush administration says that things in Iraq are going pretty well and blame the media for presenting a distorted view of events.

Ayad Allawi, once the Bush administration's choice for prime minister in Iraq, says "If this is not civil war," he said, "then God knows what civil war is."

John Murtha, a democrat who is much beloved by the military for being their congressional cheerleader, says "Our troops are caught in a civil war," Murtha said on "Meet the Press." "Twenty-five thousand Iraqis are fighting with each other inside the country, the best estimates I see."

So who do we believe?

You know I have worked with children for most of my adult life. Rarely a day goes by when I am not asked to sort out a conflict between two children. Each of them present their side of the events and it is up to me to figure out which one is to be trusted.

Now the first thing that I do is consider the children's past behaviors. Who has been the most honest in the past? Children often play fast and loose with the facts. But if one child is more prone to deception that gives more weight to the other child's argument.

When considering the Bush administration, how many of us have found them to be truthful most of the time?

The second thing I do is consider who has the most reason to lie. Which child might be trying to avoid getting in trouble or want the other child to get in trouble?

When considering the Bush administration, do they stand to benefit from lying?

And then you think about the risk that Jack Murtha is taking by expressing his doubts publicly, does he risk to losing his office? He does indeed.

The third thing that I have to consider is how much do the children respect me? In other words are they likely to lie to me? Many children may lie to their parents but would never lie to their teacher. And some children will lie to anybody. So which one of these children would most likely lie to me?

Does the Bush administration respect us? Do they treat us like we have value? Would it bother them even a little bit if they were to lie to us?

I think that if you were really honest with yourself, if you really had respect for yourself, you would be able to glean the answer. As much as it might hurt it is pretty obvious that our government does not respect us and they have lied to us repeatedly.

I know it hurts but we can't allow it to keep happening to us. We need to demand respect from this government. If the people in these important positions don't respect us then lets replace them with somebody who will.