Two Presidents and One Inconvenient Truth

We have listened and believed (?) the Brothers President when they both said that ninety percent of the guns being confiscated by the Mexican police were found to be purchased in Texas and other states and smuggled across the border into Mexico.  Both President Calderon and President Obama repeated this statistic over and over, and it was carried by the media day after day.  President Calderon even stated that 93,000 (plus or minus) automatic and semi-automatic weapons used in crimes, including murder of police officers and political officials, were found to be purchased from small gun shops and then smuggled into Mexico.  I wanted to believe both presidents would be truthful about this.  In fact, it turns out that these statements, repeated time after time, are not true.

Documents such as cables between Mexican and United States federal agencies, as well as some cables and memorandums obtained by reporters and in some cases by Wickileaks, have demonstrated something totally different.  According to statements BY THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT and by United States federal authorities as well, the fully automatic rifles and pistols, as well as grenades, land mines, and stinger-type rockets were in fact PURCHASED by Mexico from "legal arms dealers" from the United States, Columbia, and Israel, to name a few.  Then, again according to written correspondence of both the Mexican and United States governments, various Mexican federal and state agencies "lost track" of nearly fifty percent of those weapons.  

I, like many others, desperately want to believe our government when told some fact or another, when offered some explanation or another.  But situations like this point out how often the government is not credible.  President Obama cannot be considered credible anymore.  I have long since quit giving credence to Mr. Calderon.  But it is still very upsetting when our own president uses false information to then advocate for stronger gun laws here in the United States.  Of course, in fairness to Mr. Obama, Mr. Bush certainly had some "credibility gaps" as well.  But Mr. Obama ran on the claim that his would have the most open and transparent government ever.  If he HAS the most open and transparent government ever, we - the people- are surely in trouble.  I hope those that support Obama "no matter what!" will at least look into the information I have discussed here.  There are so many good Democrats who, though they have different points of view than mine, still want a government that is honest, open, and transparent.  I hope you will see, that like Bush the Second, Obama is not that open and transparent person, either.