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| 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 |
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Inside U.S.A.: George W. Bush: A President Compared To What?
Posted on Tuesday, June 15 @ 14:31:14 UTC
Topic: Bushwacked
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 by Ben Roberts
As this nation eulogizes and remembers its 40th President, Ronald Reagan,
what I overheard yesterday was quite fitting for the occasion. There I was
breezing around the fitness path in my small town in suburban Washington, getting in
my walking workout. In front of me was an elderly retired white couple
getting in their walk as well, albeit at a slower pace. As I came level with them
the woman said this to her husband: "Well as much as Reagan stinked, and he
really stinked, this President is much worse." As stated this couple was elderly
and not part of some young, partisan, in-your-face-attack-anything-political,
segment of our society. These were Americans in their golden years, who have
seen a lot of good and bad come down the pike. After hearing this the questions
came aplenty as I began to ponder how George Bush, the 43rd President of the
most powerful nation in the world, got so in the sewer with the American people
he supposedly represents? How did he lose the faith and trust of Americans?
Did he have that faith and trust in the first place? And can he reclaim said
faith and trust? A smorgasbord of questions that beg for answers.
It appears, for all intents and purposes, that Bush never had the faith and
trust of the American people in the first place. His whole coming into office
was under a cloud of win-at-all-cost trickery, when we consider the 2000
Presidential elections in Florida that embarrassed America in the eyes of the world,
making it look like a corrupt banana republic electoral process in need of
international observers. Since that shocking out-of-the-starting-gate event
there has been no let up, as the Bush entourage has appeared to hark back to
medieval times of hucksters and quacks, as they have repeatedly tried to sell us
snake oil of every kind.
The Iraqi weapons of mass destruction bill of goods sold to us and the world
by the Bush Administration was pure and simple snake oil. There are no such
weapons. The Iraqi connection to Al Quaeda sold to us by Bush was snake oil. The
claim that attacking Iraq would be a boon for all because it would lead to
democracy and peace breaking out all over the Muslim world and resolution of the
Palestinian Israeli conflict, was snake oil. We have no such scenario. The
outcome is that the cauldron of the Middle East is boiling even hotter since
that time. The TopGun George Bush's 'Mission Accomplished' bit was snake oil.
Hundreds of our dedicated soldiers have perished since then. The Bush
Administration claims that our forces are valiantly fighting 'foreign Muslim insurgents'
in Iraqi towns like Fallujah and Kufa is snake oil. It is an attempt to
strangle the truth that our American troops are locked in a life and death
struggle with everyday Iraqis incensed with our occupation of their land. An article
by Patrick Graham titled 'Beyond Fallujah: A Year With The Iraqi Resistance,'
in the current June 2004 issue of Harper's Magazine, clearly exposes this
snake oil smokescreen. Many facets of the 'war on terror' amounts to nothing
more than snake oil. One could go on and on, but we'll stop here, because this
one is big, and warrants discussion, especially in light of the recent
embarrassment the Administration faced a few weeks ago when it attempted to terrorize
America.
The spectacle in question took place a few weeks ago when FBI Director,
Robert Mueller, and Attorney General John Ashcroft held a news conference to warn
of an impending terrorist threat. The particulars outlined were that 'there was
no specific threat,' there was 'increased chatter,' terrorist were intent on
carrying out a 'spectacular attack' in America like maybe on the G8 summit
or the World War II Memorial event on the mall. These two Bush Administration
harbingers of gloom and doom went on to add that raising the color code alert
level was not warranted despite their dire warnings, and they asked us in
America to assist them in being on the lookout and helping them to apprehend seven
known terrorists. Wow! Some load. But a load of what? A one word answer? Crap!
Look at this realistically. Things do not add up. If the danger of a terror
attack was so ominous then why did the Administration think it unnecessary to
raise the threat level? And what nonsense is this when the intelligence czars
in this country beg for our assistance to help them apprehend some rabid
terrorist, two of whom until not very long ago were nothing more than outspoken
Muslim clerics. One in Britain, and the other in Canada. Diabolical terrorist?
Really now. You and I have no background in intelligence, so how can we possibly
assist in the daunting task of apprehending these alleged malcontents. I don't
know about you but I have absolutely no interest in being recruited for such
a task. If our crack intelligence was clueless and unable to deter the murder
of three thousand of its citizens by such men in what was September 11, then
you and I are totally out of our league in thinking that we can triumph in such
an undertaking.
The reality is that the Bush Administration wanted to accomplish the
following: Sow the seeds of fear and paranoia in an 'us' against 'them' atmosphere,
turn us neighbor against neighbor, and stem its own bleeding. Yes, on this
last point America must remember that Bush and his Administration were
hemorrhaging badly from pictures of the shocking brutality of our troops against Iraqi
citizens at Abu Ghraib prison. A gentle Muslim woman told me she has nightmares
after seeing some of those photos. Since then she had a medical episode where
she was admitted to a hospital emergency room because she stopped breathing.
The diagnosis was that she had an anxiety attack. Wonder why? That photo of
the American down on the ground in a crowd of what appears to be naked human
flesh seemingly trying to pound them into the ground with a white gloved fist
looks diabolically fiendish. If they could distract us from all this with some
ominous terror threat then they could breathe a sigh of relief. Know what? It
did not work. The Administration was blasted by the media and American citizens
for what appeared to be a disingenuous display designed to gain political
advantage, and rightly so. The ominous terror threat hype disappeared with hardly
a whimper. This was quite pleasing to see. Bravo for Americans! Bush and his
people learned the valuable lesson that 'they control the frequency, they
control the volume, but they cannot control whether or not we in America tune in to
the static.' They will surely think twice about another such undertaking.
At the outset I asked about George Bush being the President compared to what.
Here is a perspective that's both funny and serious. A Native American Indian
described that his people call George Bush 'Great Walking Bird.' This name
came about because they concluded that he was so full of *!^# that he was
unable to fly, hence 'Great Walking Bird.' So funny that you might burst out
laughing. But also serious to see how far the Presidency of the United States has
fallen under George Bush. And if people in America feel that way imagine what
the wider world is saying. This country desperately needs deliverance. After
all these years and all the history, good and bad, America is still too much of
a gem and a beacon for humanity to be dragged into the slime pit.
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