Honesty is the best policy, unless … It’s always the exception to the rule that makes life… Honesty is the best policy, unless … It’s always the exception to the rule that makes life “fun,” and in the case of the rule about honesty, there are a million of them. Unless you’re telling your parents how much you had to drink last night, unless you don’t want to break a guy or girl’s heart, etc. Everyone has lied to gain an advantage, and nearly everyone would defend this practice. Yet most people would like to believe that if everyone was honest, it would be the best policy.

Still, we all want to lie, but yet none of us wants to be lied to. It’s trust that sustains friendships between people, and agreements between nations. If that trust is violated too often, distrust reigns. The spoken word becomes profane, and not even the purest intentions can be regarded as sacred. Lies can make the world one in which nobody wants to live. Yet so many people lie on a regular basis! Thus the dilemma of lying: how to lie without making the world a worse place. The answer in one word: credibility.

Whether people believe you is based on how credible you are. People are more likely to believe those who tell the truth and back up promises with action. Friends that mislead, promise support but fail to deliver, or friends that undermine your actions aren’t good friends. When “friends” do this, the only solution is to confront them and let them know their friendship is not indispensable. Ignoring the ill will of friends is tantamount to lying; it’s self-deception and destroys one’s credibility by appearing to be weak and able to be used. Self-confidence and integrity are essential to maintaining credibility.

While dramas of truth, integrity, lies and deceit play out in our own lives, a larger one of global magnitude is playing out on the international stage. The actors may change, but the principles remain the same. On Wednesday, Colin Powell presented the United Nations with damning evidence of an Iraqi cover-up of weapons of mass destruction. Explicit phone calls between Iraqi army officials concerning destroying and removing evidence from U.N. inspectors is all the evidence needed to prove Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and has no intent of giving them up. Iraq has been deceiving the world about its weapons capabilities for more than a decade; it is in “material breach” of U.N. resolution 1441, which warns of “serious consequences” for its breach. There is no question concerning Saddam Hussein’s credibility: he has none.

If U.N. resolutions have no teeth and Saddam can ignore Security Council resolutions at will, then the United Nations will have no credibility. Still, nations such as France and Germany wish to treat Saddam Hussein as if he has a shred of credibility. It’s been a decade, and weapons inspectors have failed to remove weapons from Iraq. Diplomacy has failed to persuade Saddam Hussein to comply with the United Nations. To believe that a few more months will lead to Iraq disarming requires amounts of self-deception and pathological rationalization that I can’t imagine. Yet, it’s exactly what so many nations advocate.

Fortunately, the Bush White House and its loyal allies are not delusional. There are those that understand credibility, in any community, requires backing word with action. The Bush administration is right to attack Saddam and show not just that the threat of American force against those who threaten global security is credible, but that America is credible when it presents a vision of freedom and justice for the world.

Honesty sometimes means acknowledging things that are difficult to deal with. It may seem easier to lie to ourselves and others than be honest, but every time we do, we undermine our own credibility. The decision to use force is a difficult one, and understandably one that people would be reluctant to support. But to hang on to the delusions that Saddam can be negotiated with, that weapons inspectors can find all of Iraq’s remaining weapons, and that “containment” is more than a euphemism for letting innocent people suffer at the arbitrary whims of a tyrant, is to be dishonest with oneself. Honesty demands the enforcement of U.N. resolutions; it demands the liberation of Iraq. Honesty is the best policy – and we as individuals, and as a nation, will benefit from the moral integrity honesty confers.

Offer your own clarifications to Jason’s moral understanding of honesty and trust to [email protected].