Lying to the Public; Life and Death Consequences

I don't have to tell any readers President Trump is said to tell lies most every day. The worst under discussion was his saying the pandemic was not a serious threat when he knew it was. I've come to think the President's mind precludes knowing something he says is true or false. He thinks, instead, saying what helps him look better in the eyes of others is a version of the "truth."

Here on the site, we have lies told about abortion. One repeated frequently is that abortion is a dangerous procedure. It is falsely claimed abortions put women's lives and mental states at risk. It has always been know by people in the profession this is not true and now a large study, The Turnaways, confirms it. In the study there were three deaths in childbirth among women denied abortions. There were none from abortions. How many women die each year because they are denied abortions?

Presidents besides Trump have told lies. President Johnson told a lie in the Gulf of Token Resolution to justify a decision he had already made. 

I'm reading a book about events leading up to the invasion of Iraq, To Start a War, by Robert Draper. During this time, President Bush was convinced the world would adopt democracy if Saddam were ousted/killed. In addition, he could not grasp that Saddam was a local thug. He was convinced, instead, Saddam had intentions to become a ruling world figure. 

Most of those surrounding Bush believed as he did. There were a few outliers, Powell for example. These officials knew or suspected the intelligence was wrong. But those who could have exposed the mistake and stopped the invasion of Iraq were unable or unwilling to do so.  

U.N inspectors made it known before the invasion their Iraqi hosts had made any and every suspicious site available for inspection. War hawks in the Bush administration had lists of sites they thought were hiding places for weapons of mass destruction or chemical warfare. There were suspicious "shells" in the desert, found to be spent old relics from the Iran invasion. There was a basement "men's room with a trap door to a warehouse of weapons." The building had no basement. "A weapon" in a school yard was an old piece of sewer pipe. "A cache of weapons to spread lethal chemicals" was a yard of rusty farm machinery.

Powell eventually delivered the marque speech of weapon claims. Shortly afterwards he learned he had been used. 

Best we all be as accurate as we can be.