2005-08-12 - 10:25 a.m.
THE BUSH STRATEGY FOR EXECUTIVE ACTION
(A dismal dirge for a country fallen upon evil times by evil people.)
August 12, 2005
By Peter Fredson
We are soon coming up on a count of 2,000 “brave boys” who have died for Bush lies about oil, bases, embassies, and invasions of other countries. Perhaps the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq will soon match the 3,000 innocent people killed in the 9/11 disaster in New York. In this way Bush will be personally responsible for as many dead bodies as the Al Qaeda bombers accomplished. He must be very proud.
He must be proud of all the wounded and maimed soldiers, except that he keeps secret their arrival to U.S. hospitals, and somehow does not let them talk to the press about their experiences. We are not even sure how many maimed and wounded soldiers have come back from Iraq, or how many have actually died.
We do know that Bush is reluctant to show photos of coffins, much as he is reluctant to show photos of abuse and torture. In fact, he is reluctant to show anything except smirking and big toothy grins that everything is going well in Iraq.
He certainly prates much about how he “returned sovereignty” to Iraq. Does anyone with any sense believe that with 140,000 American soldiers occupying the country, taking over desirable real estate for bases and embassies, and daily demolishing homes and killing Iraqis, that Iraq has “sovereignty?”
Does anyone believe that Iraq people, after exile for years, and brought back to Iraq by Bush, are not puppets? Does anyone believe that Chalabi is truthful, honest, and upright? Really?
Does anyone believe that if the appointed “constitutional” Iraqis asked Bush to leave immediately, that he would smile, say “Sure” and load all his troops on planes and ships? Didn’t the “President” of Afghanistan ask Bush to do something like that? And didn’t Bush simply give him the finger?
Does anyone except a Bush supporter believe that if Bush left Iraq today that the Iraqi patriots would continue to kill Americans and set off bombs for revenge in New York? Does anyone believe the Bush explanation that by killing Muslims in Iraq they won’t come to the U.S. to do revenge?
How many lies will people swallow before they realize they are being suckered by someone without a plan except imperial domination? Like the movie Terminator, he will never give up. He is programmed to go on and on until he falls into some red hot furnace of molten metal.
The cowardly neo-con war hawks, who were reluctant to go on active duty, can get other people to die for them. Like in the Civil War, rich people could pay poor people to go to war as their substitutes. Today the children of neo-cons go to the best colleges, are given the best corporate positions, or have their daddies wrangle commissions for them so they will never have to face bayonets or bullets. They have no concern for Muslim deaths. Life is good.
Bush has gone through five disastrous years with only a few scratches, caused either by pretzels or bicycle spills. Surely he is the anointed of his God, a miracle of sound administration, competent in keeping a nation at peace and harmony, wonderfully diplomatic in bringing warring factions of a country together, and marvelously persuasive in keeping our democracy on an even keel despite great odds, (caused largely by his actions.) See how careful he is to avoid touching the Constitution, unless his firmly held beliefs oblige him to do that.
He has managed (with enormous help) to subvert an entire political party to do his bidding, and is well on his way to subverting the system of justice to do the same. He has bought the complete neo-conservative plan to conquer or dominate the world. He has bought the True Believer plan to assert Christianity as the True Belief dominating all others, requiring the demolition of the Wall of Separation between Church and State.
In this fashion he has united the nation under his and Dick Cheney’s tender attentions. He has accomplished a great feat in appearing heroic in the 9/11 disaster, by mentioning it some thousand times in his speeches designed to distract national attention for what seems like incompetence or deliberate sabotage of the national economy.
Look at the people he chose for his cabinet, against all criticism. Look at the person who wants to destroy the UN being chosen as “Ambassador to the UN.” Look at the hymn-chanting fascist chosen to be his first Attorney-General, who promptly set about destroying the basis for civil liberties.
Look at another legal advisor who told Bush that it was perfectly fine to use torture and abuse, indefinite detention, and to disregard the niceties of conventions. Look at the mealy-mouthed Black Angel of Death, Condi, who spends most of her time threatening other nations because they will not obey her master. Look at the blood-thirsty Rumsfeld who will not hesitate to drop a bunker-buster bomb on any Muslim house. Look at how Colin Powell was turned from a fine presidential candidate into a toadying sycophant willing to misinform for his white master.
Does anyone care to look at the Vice-President, master of evasion and deceit, Lord of the Flies?
Bush has acted the part of an imperial hero, like Julius Caesar, by appearing on an aircraft carrier and declaring MISSION ACCOMPLISHED , when in fact it is still not accomplished. Not by a long shot. See him strut, swagger and smirk, well satisfied that his lies have born glorious fruit to him and his sponsors.
The war, destruction and death, seems to drag on forever, “staying the course” stupidly, while destroying another country, killing people for their oil, and ruining the economy and peace of his own country. Can anyone explain why we would invade another country, destroy it, and then reconstruct it? Seems like going to a lot of trouble for nothing.
Bush boasted of “being a uniter and not a divider,” but that utterance proved to be another of his many lies, much like the slogan “compassionate conservative” showed he had about as much compassion as a Nile crocodile. His boast of “Bring ‘em on” certainly brought many satisfactory deaths to add to his glorious record.
And he further distracted national attention from his actions by inserting comments about emotional issues whenever he was criticized for some fault. There is nothing like gay-bashing to arouse his loyal hordes of True Believers. They respond by wringing hands, shouting hallelujahs, muttering prayers, and crying in dismay at such obscene goings-on that the immortal leader can see no other solution than to change the constitution to match the belief system of whatever denomination is giving him the largest contribution to campaigns.
But he assuages their anger and fear by letting them post their 10 or 20 Commandments in court-houses, while he converts the Oval Office into a kind of chapel for Methodism. While protesting that he does not want to intrude his beliefs on anyone, he then, by executive order, creates National Days of Prayer, or National Read Your Bible Day and in speeches frequently alludes to being chosen by his deity above all others, as a kind of surrogate Savior just waiting for the Apocalypse.
He loves to distract at critical moments by flashing colorful alarms indicating people should be terrified and that he personally, (and perhaps Donald Rumsfeld,) will fully protect them with duct tape and gas masks. Next he will flash the alarm of same-gender marriage, which would disrupt the entire course of civilization, wreck all systems of morals ever invented, and offend whatever gods rule the universe.
If that doesn’t work, (but it always does) then talk about a woman’s right to choose to become pregnant or not. Forbid them to use contraceptives, but to use helpful prayer instead. Force them to have babies who will grow up to be cannon-fodder for the next neo-cons to seize control of the country. And if that doesn’t work, let your True Believers bomb the clinics, kill the doctors and other “providers”, and insist that you are not intruding your beliefs on anyone. That always gets a big applause as long as you pretend that you aren’t intruding any beliefs on anyone.
But always remind women that their god-given role is to have babies, clean up after men, to cook and sew, and give the men sex on demand, missionary style. Then quote bible verses urging them to shut up , tend to the serious business of washing men’s shitty underwear, and let men attend to whatever serious business arises.
Bush exploits flag, patriotism, 9/11, terror, gay-bashing, and religion. Sometimes he exploits several of these simultaneously to the thunderous claquing of sycophants to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner. We would not be amazed to find his underwear has crosses, flags, and brave soldiers embroidered on it. His speech writers spend a great deal of time finding words that appeal to the emotions of the True Believers.
In other words, Bush governs by not governing. He governs by distraction, by inciting terror, by waving flags, by the playing of martial music, by strutting and swaggering, by reciting bible verses, by uttering words like “liberty”, “democracy”, “9/l1” incessantly. By prating about morals. By using the code words of his religious followers. By following instructions of his neo-con supporters, the great corporate executives, the demagoguery of 40,000 televangelist entertainers, and by appealing to base emotions of simple-minded followers.
We know the symbiotic, incestuous relations of Bush to the Republican Party. We know that the Republican Senators would rather have finger-nails ripped out than offend George Bush. He has their number, he has them by the short hairs, and they obey him in lock step regardless of any investigation committee. They laud him, applaud him, and vote whichever way he directs them to vote. The slogan is “We must hang together, or we may hang separately.”
Not a word of criticism has been mentioned by Republican Senators in reference to George Bush. Certainly the word “impeachment” has been studiously avoided, or has aroused nervous laughter. Any charges of abuse or torture by Bush are greeted with bland inattention, with comments about “fraternity pranks,” and by trivializing any serious complaint. But the applauding of whatever stupidity Bush wants is tolling the death bell for American democracy.
The Republican Senators have lost their capacity for independent action, and consequently have lost the confidence of the majority of Americans that believe that Bush is the worst president America has ever had, and presents the greatest danger to democracy of any previous leader. It is of utmost concern to all Americans that the Balance of Powers has been sold to the highest bidders.
All the powers are stacked neatly in the Oval Office desk drawers just awaiting the next round of Bible quotations, the next pronouncements by Condi finding other nation’s conduct ‘unacceptable,” and the next pretext to go to war for glory and maximum profit.
After all, most of the Republican senators and their children are in no physical danger of living in Baghdad and getting a sniper’s bullet in their foreheads. Perhaps Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson would like to stroll around the streets of Fallujah?
Let us prey. Amen
