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Right Wing Wrecking Crew
As the struggle between the warmongers and the peace movement
escalates the true nature of right wing extremism in the Bush White House is
being exposed. They have two desires. One is to promote world war.
The other is to weaken, and if possible, destroy American
democracy. They have made both these objectives clear, openly and defiantly.
Bush says he wants peace but he mobilizes a hundred thousand
US troops and thousands of tons of war materiel in the Middle East at the cost
of a billion dollars a week for war on Iraq, a tiny country run by a tinpot
dictator that does not threaten our country, let alone invade us.
Meanwhile all this frantic military and anti-democratic
mobilization is neglecting the much greater threat - the enemy responsible for
9/11, Al Qaida.
Bush says he wants to promote democracy in the world while he
undermines democracy at home. The War Powers Act gives the President
unconstitutional power to declare war. Even more, it gives the Attorney General
Ashcroft power to jail any and all he thinks guilty without legal representation
or trial, it also gives the government Big Brother power to get a secret warrant
to search your home. It can also monitor your Internet, read your emails,
examine your online purchases with little judicial oversight and the FBI is
authorized to monitor your political activities and send agents into your house
of worship.
What all this looks like is a belief held by warlords
everywhere. It is the belief that people will believe anything if it is repeated
often enough. The oft- repeated statement that Iraq must be 'regime
changed" at any cost in lives destruction and money is having the opposite
effect. People are not believing.
The warmongers propaganda campaign is having "unintended
consequences". It is causing growing numbers here and around the world to
emphatically disagree. The monumental millions of peace demonstrators around the
world February 15 proved the failure of their Big Lie. The simple truth stands
out that yes, Saddam Hussein is a bad guy, yes, he ought to be deposed and yes,
the Middle East is a sore spot that needs medication, but throwing bombs will
not solve the problem, it will create more problems.
Nor will the abrogation of democracy at home solve problems.
It will create a myriad of problems as Americans struggle to reestablish
democratic rights, as they will surely do.
What all this boils down to is that the Bush warmongers are
engaged in a colossal gamble. They are gambling the future of peace and
democracy in the high stakes game of controlling the world. If they win, like
empires of the past, they will have to militarize the entire world at an
unbelievable cost in lives, finances and freedom, and ultimate collapse.
This world they seek to dominate is not composed of simple,
weak, primitive societies such as were conquered in the past. It is a world of
more advanced societies and cultures that won't run for the tall grass when a
few artillery pieces are fired. The world is far more complicated, advanced,
organized and well able to see the consequences of being conquered by an
imperialist superpower.
They know freedom does not come out of the barrel of a
superpower gun. That world is resisting and will continue to resist. That lesson
was learned by the Hitler superpower. We hope Bush and the warmongers learn that
lesson of history. Unfortunately they seem to be at the bottom of the class. If
they overlook the lesson they will bring a technological holocaust to the world.
Surely we deserve to be spared that fate.
To say there is no other way of handling tinpot dictators is
to say we are incapable of humanity. To refuse peaceful alternatives to a war of
unforeseen consequences in Iraq is to say we fail as a civilization.
The contrast between our reaction to North Korea and Iraq
puts the lie to war in Iraq as the only path. They bring a colossal war machine
to bear on a weak Iraq while they deal circumspectly with the far more
dangerous, nuclear-tipped North Korea. It is true that the world would be a
better place with a nuclear free North Korea. But as almost everyone agrees,
military threats are too big a risk there. So we will have to seek a peaceful
method of countering North Korea. If it can be done peacefully in North Korea,
it can more easily be done peacefully in Iraq.
The horrendous designs of the right wing crew are having more
unintended consequences, however. They are making clear everyday just what their
program means as they continue to threaten peace and democracy at home and
abroad. They are being exposed as wreckers.
They cannot continue to weaken the economy with wild tax cuts
for the rich without being seen as financially reckless. They cannot continue
destroying the environment without being seen as ruining the natural world on
which we all depend. They cannot continue cutting needed social programs
regardless of human suffering without being seen as heartless. They cannot
continue abandoning international treaties founded on humanity's welfare without
being exposed as an international bull in the china shop. They cannot continue
abandoning international treaties founded on humanity's welfare without being
exposed as a reckless superpower.
They cannot follow a policy of every advantage for the
richest at the expense of rest of us without being seen as morally bankrupt
I view of all the above the unprecedented spontaneity and
enormous volume of protest against an undeclared war can be seen in a new light.
The protests are not just against war in Iraq. They are a protest against the
way things are going generally under right wing dominance. People are sensing a
risk to the general welfare symbolized in a war against Iraq. It is the risk
felt in 401k corporate capitalist recession. It is being seen as a slide to the
bottom on a right wing corporate bobsled.
As more and more of us see this full meaning of the right
wing wrecking crew's program, the sooner we will get rid of them. We can build a
new system of peoples' law instead of corporate law. As we build a movement in
defense of peace, democracy and prosperity, remember:
A BETTER WORLD IS POSSIBLE!
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