| Old Articles | | Friday, February 08 | | · | |
| Wednesday, February 06 | | · | |
| Tuesday, February 05 | | · | Savage Capitalism or Socialism: A Conversation with Luis Britto Garcia |
| Sunday, February 03 | | · | Canada vs. Venezuela: The Background Gets Even Murkier |
| Thursday, January 31 | | · | |
| Monday, January 28 | | · | The History - and Hypocrisy - of US Meddling in Venezuela |
| · | Canada Is Complicit in Venezuela's US-Backed Coup D'état |
| Wednesday, September 26 | | · | Why Israel Demolishes: Khan Al-Ahmar as Representation of Greater Genocide |
| Friday, September 21 | | · | US Disregard for International Law Is a Menace to Latin America |
| Saturday, August 25 | | · | How Long is the Shelf-Life of Damnable Racist Capitalist Lies? |
| Thursday, August 09 | | · | Martial Law By Other Means: Corporate Strangulation of Dissent |
| Wednesday, August 08 | | · | North Korea and The Washington Trap |
| · | Venezuela Assassination Attempt: Maduro Survives but Journalism Doesn't |
| Sunday, May 20 | | · | The British Royal Wedding, Feelgoodism and the Colonial Jumbie |
| Friday, May 04 | | · | |
| Monday, April 09 | | · | The Bayer-Monsanto Merger Is Bad News for the Planet |
| Tuesday, March 20 | | · | Finally, Some Good News |
| Thursday, March 15 | | · | Zimbabwe Open for Business, Code for International Finance Capitalism |
| Friday, January 12 | | · | Shadow Armies: The Unseen, But Real US War In Africa |
| Wednesday, December 13 | | · | The U.S. is Not a Democracy, It Never Was |
Older Articles
| |
 | |
Inside U.S.A.: Bush Promises Sunday Seven Days A Week
Posted on Tuesday, April 20 @ 17:24:25 UTC
Topic: Bushwacked
|
 by Ben Roberts
We must now really begin to entertain the thought of equating George Bush with
Moses. No. Not Moses the great outstanding leader and deliverer of biblical
fame. This Moses:
"The pigs had an even harder struggle to counteract
the lies put about by Moses, the tame raven. Moses,
who was Mr. Jones's especial pet was a spy and a
tale-bearer, but he was also a clever talker. He
claimed to know of the existence of a mysterious
country called Sugarcandy Mountain, to which all
animals went when they died. It was situated some-
where up in the sky, a little distance beyond the
clouds, Moses said. In Sugarcandy Mountain it was
Sunday seven days a week, clover was in season all
the year round, and lump sugar and linseed cake
grew on the hedges. The animals hated Moses bec-
ause he told tales and did no work, but some of
them believed in Sugarcandy Mountain, and the pigs
had to argue very hard to persuade them that there
was no such place.
Their most faithful disciples were the two cart-
horses, Boxer and Clover. Those two had great diffi-
culty in thinking anything out for themselves, but
having once accepted the pigs as their teachers, they
absorbed everything they were told, and passed
it on to the other animals by simple arguments."
This excerpt comes from the classic novel 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell. The
time was 1945, but looking at the Bush Administration with which we are now
saddled, and the mindset of the American electorate, it could very well be today.
Where do we begin? Oh yeah. Weapons of mass destruction. Bush told us that
Iraq possessed WMDs that would annihilate and vaporize us. He even provided
'proof' with grainy pictures of those diabolical sites during an address to the
United Nations. Hans Blix countered that the pictures were phony and were of
sites that had long been closed down by him and his people. Bush even sent his
top Easter Egg Hunt expert David Kay to Iraq in the wake of his Iraqi invasion to
locate those WMDs. Kay came back and reported that there were no WMDs. So
Blix was right all along. The moral of this paragraph is that you can pull a rabbit
out of a hat, but most definitely not a ballistic missile.
Bush sold America on the story that Iraq was hand in glove with terror networks
and responsible for the terrible September 11 attack on this country. Every
indication to date verifies this to be untrue. Stay tuned for the imminent
September 11 Commission report on this matter. But as to Iraq being heavily
involved in international terror networks. It is almost a comedy show in observing
how Bush and his entourage tries to get out of this. Prior to Saddam Hussein's
capture the tale sold to us was that resistance was coming mainly from 'Saddam
supporters,' 'Baathists,' 'saboteurs,' and 'dead-enders.' Then Saddam was
captured, and we were told that there should be an end to such activity. There
was not. So the White House then sold the story that the resistance was being
carried out by malcontents and jihadis from neighboring Muslim countries. But
then someone got wise and realized that this would not sound good to American
ears because it would mean that the conflagration was widening and not being
kept in check, as we constantly being told. So now the fighters in Fallujah are
'insurgents.' Despite the fact that these people are primarily Shiites opposed to
and victimized by Saddam Hussein, Colin Powell a few days ago referred to this
resistance as being primarily 'Saddam supporters,' and 'Baathist extremists.'
To counter the stories spread by Moses let us recall that early in the occupation
our army took over a school in Fallujah and made it its headquarters. There was
a huge demonstration mostly of the children demanding the building back so that
they could go to school. A US troop carrier pulled up and shot dead 13 in the
crowd, many of them the demonstrating children. Also, last year citywide
elections were slated to take place in Fallujah in an effort to calm tensions.
Believe it or not American troops were delighted by this and busying themselves
setting up makeshift ballot boxes and polling stations. They were very upbeat
about having a hand in introducing the Iraqis to democracy as they knew it. Their
enthusiasm was thoroughly shattered when Overlord Paul Bremmer intervened
and canceled the elections. Seems odd does it not that in this instance our
fighting men want peace and democracy while the civilian administrator and his
bosses want no part of it. Now we are hearing a lot about the Muslim cleric
Moqtada Al Sadr in regards to the violence in Fallujah. Moses tells us that he is a
murderer and a fugitive from justice. The truth is that he is a Shiite leader of
some influence in the area. He, his family, and his people were brutalized by
Saddam Hussein. Now the perpetrator is our own government. Our army shut
down Al Sadr's newspaper some time ago. How is that for democracy? Talk
about the Patriot Act going global. So you see Fallujah did not just happen. It
was seething for a long time before boiling over. And don't expect for it to simmer
down anytime soon, given the fact that our forces have dropped a bomb on a
mosque there, and killed in excess of 600 citizens in the town and nearby areas.
To bolster support for his invasion in Iraq, Bush sold an expansive and upbeat
story of how the action in Iraq would cause peace and democracy to take root
there, break out all over the Muslim region, and finally resolve the Palestinian
Israeli conflict. Just a few days ago Bush endorsed Ariel Sharon's unilateral
disengagement from occupied Palestinian territory. Sounds encouraging does it
not? Don't buy it for a second. Moses at work again. It guarantees that various
Israeli settlements remain on Palestinian land, while denying any right of return
for Palestinians. This ensures that the Roadmap is dead on arrival, ensures that
the Palestinians will not have a state or anything remotely resembling one, and it
will ensure that violence against Palestinians, Israelis, and Americans remain the
order of the day. A wise man once said that 'There can be no peace until there is
equal rights and justice.'
The Moses routine is by no means limited to George Bush. A few weeks ago
Donald Rumsfeld was being taken to task for the escalating American deaths in
Iraq. He responded that it was better that the violence against Americans take
place there rather than in our cities. How callous. Was that heard by American
families who have lost their children, parents, and siblings in Iraq? It is clearly
apparent that Rumsfeld has not suffered such a sad misfortune. We also have
more than a few Moses types in the media. On the radio show 'To The Point'
with Warren Olney, a reporter with the Los Angeles Times, and embedded in
Iraq with the US Army, Tony Perry, reported a most odd incident in Fallujah. He
informed listeners that US forces had dropped a 500 pound bomb on a mosque
in Fallujah and blasted it with a Hellfire missile from a helicopter after it had been
used as a staging area by a number of insurgents to launch attacks on US
forces. According to him, the mosque itself was undamaged in the attack. What
is more, no one died as a result of the attack. How incredible! In another
segment of the show that night John Burns of the New York Times, and also
embedded with US forces in Fallujah recounted an ordeal of his being captured
by insurgent and held at a mosque in Fallujah. In this story he described seeing
Iranians traipsing in and out of the mosque. According to him, he knew they were
Iranians not because they spoke Farsi or any such thing, but because they
looked and were dressed as such. Mind boggling! I can tell a white man from a
black man, but can you differentiate an Iraqi from an Iranian on this basis?
Forget about the legions of Moses selling us tales. They have, and always will be
around. What concerns me is us in America going about our daily lives. Granted,
some of us can see through the tall tales. But a staggering number of us are like
the horses Boxer and Clover in Animal Farm who 'had great difficulty in thinking
out anything for themselves... they absorbed everything they were told..' Not a
good prescription for democracy. Another huge swath of this country knows the
truth but would rather look away, absorb what Moses tells them, and pretend
everything is fine or will be fine, as in Sugarcandy Mountain. How unfortunate.
But ponder this: 'The most dangerous and debilitating lies are not the ones told
to us by others, but rather are the ones we tell ourselves.'
Ben Roberts is a newsletter editor, freelance writer and published author.
His book, Jackals of Samarra, was published in January 2001.
Ben can be contacted by email at: grandt730@aol.com
|
|
| |
| Article Rating | Average Score: 0
Votes: 0
| |
|
|
