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More
Than Enough on Iraq
Our
Rusty Hook points out that its record of criticism and opposition to Bush's war
in Iraq has been more than proved correct by mounting public criticism and its
fumbling prosecution by neo-conservatives. From every corner of American life we
hear increasing opposition. It has
risen to the point of open calls for pulling out of Iraq now, even in the daily
press.
People
are beginning to wonder how Bush and his neocon imperialist cohorts thought they
could fool the American people and others into backing a fictitious president in
a war for fictitious reasons as Michael Moore put it in his recent book, Dude.
Where's My Country?
The Bushies may have followed the theme of the
book Friendly Fascism by Bertram Gross written in 1980. In his book Gross
proposes that neo-fascism need not rely on forceful suppression at home, but
could gain a dictatorial hold by clever, modern use of mind control. After all,
with almost monopoly control of the media and Republican control of the
government, it would seem opposition to their plans would dissipate in short
order. Of course the unconstitutional Patriot Act and Attorney General Ashcroft
would be a back-up just in case. In addition, if you pick an victim such as Iraq
that is uneducated, in the habit of being oppressed, there is a combination
guaranteed to succeed. But
"the best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft-agley" as the Scottish
saying goes.
Things
can go wrong.
They
certainly did. What went wrong is what is always wrong with leaders of the
corporate world - they believe we are a bunch of low class, ignorant slobs that
cannot think beyond TV, games, and entertainment. Otherwise we would be smart
like they are and have lots of money. Unfortunately most people think wealth is
a measure of intelligence, that we are measured by the content of our purse
rather the content of our character, to paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr.
Purse and color are not measures of intelligence or character. We are
slowly learning that in our struggles for human rights. What we have learned is
that war is the problem, not the solution. We learned that in both Korea and
Vietnam. We learned a very profound truth which the nepcons cannot learn. War
against an aroused people's power is a loser.
It
may have to do with land - in fact it surely does. If we digress for a moment we
can point to the history of land control beginning fifty or a hundred thousand
years ago when grass seed was genetically transformed to grain seed. Grain seed
was heavy and stayed put when falling to the ground. It eventually began to dawn
on hunter-gatherers that a means of cultivating grain in a stable location was
possible.
Thus we were transformed from wandering hunter-gatherers to farmers - and
the need to control land.
Control of land lead to warfare and imperialism
and eventually to the industrial revolution. Its gains and ills are now being
visited upon us. War is the mother of all its ills.
We are learning that. The Iraq war in that sense
has served the good purpose of awakening. We can see we are being conned by the
neocons. We don't like being conned and we are going to dump the conners out of
office in the coming election. We should put them in jail, but the system
doesn't allow that unless we take them before the International Criminal Court
for crimes against humanity, of which they are guilty.
As a sign of widening concern about who is to
blame for the mess in Iraq, we turn to George F. Wills, probably the most
recognized U.S. conservative spokesman. Wills writes in The Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, 5/11/04: "But empire is always about domination.
Domination for self defense, perhaps. Domination for the good of the dominated,
arguably, But domination. And some persons will be corrupted by dominating. That
is why leaders of empire must be watchful. Very watchful.
..."
So, regarding Rumsfeld who should have been
"very watchful", . . . "He knows he failed the president.",
Will writes . . . "When there
is no penalty for failure, failures proliferate . . . "Failures are
multiplying because of choices for which no one seems accountable."
"One question is... Are the nation's efforts
in the deepening global war - the world is more menacing than it was a year ago
- helped or hindered by Rumsfeld's continuation
..."
He knows his MacBeth and will recognize . . . :
Were he to resign, would discerning people say that nothing in his public life
became him like the leaving of it?" Or, in other words, is it not honorable
to desert the sinking ship? Finally,
Will quotes Charles DeGaulle: "The graveyards are full of indispensable men
." The
same might be said of Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush.
"Well,
we could go on and on. We won't really take care of the problem unless we curb
the power of the corporate world. The election of Kerry for president could be a
step in that direction. But it will require continued pressure from all of us to
make sure needed changes are made to restore democracy after Bush's schemes to
wreck it..
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