Bitter Truth

The news about the resignation of Kohler from the presidential post of Germany reminded me of the old stereotypical image of the politicians, people who just open their mouth and lie. Rather than focusing on the short and long term causes of this action on the German politics, it is also essential to ask to what extent it is necessary for a politician to lie?
To seek the answer to this question, one has to primarily define lie. One the one hand, lie can be considered as an untruth statement. The role of Ronald Reagan in the Iran-Contra affair can be a good example for explaining this type of lie. After being fully aware of the arms embargo to Iran and funding the contras in Nicaragua, he publicly denied his direct involvement. Further, despite the possible connection of the arm embargo to Iran, who was in a war with Iraq at the time, with the release of the American hostages in Lebanon; Reagan fully denied this relationship. Declassified document have shed light on many of the aspects of this event.
On other hand, one might define lie as covering the truth. As an example, although Kissinger wrote Crisis to deeply discuss his role in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, he fully ignores his first trip to Israel after the initiation of the war. Ironically, it was in the first trip that Kissinger committed slight mistakes with the major costs. A communication misunderstanding in setting the time of the cease-fire with Israel caused the continuation of the war and created a possibility of an atomic war. Depending on the definition of truth, one might call this a lie or hiding the facts.
The question remaining is if the politicians are able to say the truth? Will our political system function on the bases of truth? Kohler lost his position because he argued that Germany’s involvement in Afghanistan is due to economical reasons. I certainly support this argument and suggest that economical factors are major reasons for NATO’s operations in Afghanistan. However, neither the German public liked this statement (even my German friend fully disliked this honest statement) nor the politicians. So should the politicians be honest when their honesty costs their career? Should we know the truth when its taste is so bitter that we will hate it? To what extent should politics be an open game? Where is the border between propaganda and the facts? I am still thinking…

Further reading on Kohler's resignation: http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=16261428&source=features_box_main