LIE OF THE WEEK: 12-29-2006

State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey on the Ethiopian army's invasion of Somalia in support of the "transitional government":

"What we'd like to see happen as soon as possible is arrangements take place between the Islamic Courts Union and Transitional Federal Government for a ceasefire."

THE TRUTH: When will we ever learn that meddling in the affairs of other countries leads to more problems than we can predict or handle? Have we forgotten that the root of all of our problems in Iraq and Iran was the CIA-instigated overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iran in 1953, which led to the popular 1979 revolution to overthrow the US-backed oppressive regime of the Shah, which led to our strengthening Saddam Hussein as a regional power to fight Iran during the 1980's, which led to our current conflict in Iraq? Have we forgotten that our support of some extremist groups fighting the Soviets in the 1970's and 1980's in Afghanistan is what gave those groups the funding they needed to spread their message across the world? (Note: I am not saying that most of the forces fighting the Soviets were extremists, but the CIA supported all of them without considering the consequences). It's clear that the Bush administration has been supportive of the Ethiopian actions in Somalia and to claim that we are for a ceasefire and peace is just plainly not true.