And now, all outrage has become muted and lethargic. All protests, in the wake of BushCo’s nauseating fear-based win last November, have become pale and moot and limp. We are numb and resigned to the steady stream of lie and abuse. This is the sentiment, even among many fear-hammered red staters who insist on seeing Bush as their pseudo-religious dumb-guy Messiah: a sort of national teeth gritting, a dark period in America, a hunkering down and waiting for it to be over and for the light to emerge again.
- Mark Morford
Four years after he managed to steal an election, George W. Bush took the office for his second term, his election the product of lies, deliberate perversion of the truth, and 1400 dead American soldiers. Along the way, he has parlayed 9.11 into the underlying reason for virtually every decision he has made. In fact, if one were so inclined, one could reasonably argue that 9.11 was the best thing to ever happen to George W. Bush. I’m not grotesque enough to belabor that point, but it’s a very trenchant reality.
Now we get four more years. It’s enough to make those of us who care deeply about our country want to go home and kick our dogs.
And then you read the appalling little story about how BushCo is now “taking steps” to further the investigation into why their original intelligence on Iraq was so painfully, treasonously, colon-clenchingly wrong, why they thought Saddam had giant Costco-sized warehouses stacked to the rafters with snarling nukes and nasty biotoxins and active warheads when, in fact, he had nothing but a couple Dumpsters full of rusty 20-year-old shell casings and a bucket of stale glue.
And don’t forget the part about how Congress allotted hundreds of millions of dollars for the futile WMD search, with no public accounting of the money, and the entire budget and the expenditures are to remain classified, by order of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Ha ha. Sigh.
This is about the time your head spins all the way around and you shudder in disbelief and you stifle a giggle and hold your sides and restrain yourself from gagging, think happy thoughts about sex and love and trees because otherwise you just smash your head with a brick and throw puppies into paper shredders to numb the pain and quiet the screams.
Because if you’ve been paying any attention at all, this is when you remember that it was at Bush/Cheney’s own order that the CIA intelligence reports be intentionally skewed and rewritten, that they doctor their reports to say what BushCo wanted them to say to justify their vicious and unwinnable little war that is quickly shaping up to be one of the most economically debilitating, socially humiliating, deadly quagmires since Vietnam.
I do not wish for George W. Bush to fail. That sort of small-mindedness helps no one. What I DO wish for is exactly what is NOT going to happen: that Bush recognizes that America is not defined by his narrow, moralistic Christian faith. Religious belief can be a wonderful thing, if and when it is used to enhance the life of those who believe. When it is used to marginalize and diminish those who do not share those beliefs, it is just plain wrong. Yet Bush and his neo-Conservative cohorts seem to have no problem with trampling on the beliefs of those who think differently.
I understand that Michael Newdow lost his bid to eliminate the prayer at last week’s Inauguration. While I thought his crusade to remove “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance was the moral equivalent of pissing into the wind, I do think that removing the Christian prayer is an idea with some merit. America is a nation of more than Christians. We are Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and Packer fans- among other things. What kind of message does it send when the only religious observance offered is the majority Christian one?
But, I digress. I am trying to be optimistic about the next four years, primarily because there isn’t a more palatable option (or, really, ANY option). I fear, however, that the reality will be somewhat different. Iraq has become George W. Bush’s Vietnam; with no exit strategy and no apparent plan, hundreds, if not thousands more American soldiers will come home in body bags- and for what? The appalling reality is that we are in Iraq because George W. Bush sold us a bill of goods, and as a nation we were too stupid to ask the questions that needed to be asked. We swallowed it whole, because anything couched in those magic numbers: “9.11” seems to bring critical thought to a screeching halt.
For someone who grew up during the Vietnam War, I fear we are headed down the same path. Congratulations, America; you have exactly the quality of leadership you deserve…and how many of our sons and daughters are doomed to come home in bags because of abysmal, undemanding judgement?
Germany 1932 anyone?
Every thinking American should have an escape plan that he keeps to himself. One can only hope that over the next 4 years--hopefully only 4--that murderous bastard in the White House is not allowed to take things so far that we need such plans.
No doubt we all get the question "If you don't like the way things are going, why don't you leave?" The best response is probably, "Since you and your kind are not even pretending to behave like Americans, why don't you leave instead, so the rest of us can clean up this country we love?" Privately, one should probably add, "...and I live within a tank of gas of Canada, just in case you fully get your way."
Yes, let's recall 1932 when Hitler, enabled by the appeasement of isolationist liberal governments, grew in power and built a military machine that literally rolled over soverign nations until reality (Winston Churchill) set in and the evil was eventually defeated.
For the first time in recorded history, people in Afganistan and Iraq have a chance to shape their government. To compare this glimpse of freedom to the oppression of basic rights that was fundamental to the Nazi war machine is either an admission of ignorance, or an obtuse attempt to sway an apethetic American voter to an illogical point of view. Yet, such comparisons of Bush to Hitler and Irag to Viet-Nam continue to be the basis of the liberal/progressive/democrat culture.
In the crisp light of informed reality, the absurdity of such notions is revealed.
Please, tell me more about how Bush = Hitler, and how Iraq = Viet Nam. I enjoy fiction!
Well, Bob I think the error of your simplistic analysis of Bush=Hitler, Iraq=Vietnam statement is obvious. First, let's step back a bit from your argument that people in Afghanistan "have a chance to shape their government". Yes, perhaps if they live in Kabul, but most of country remains firmly controlled by feuding war lords, under systems every bit as oppressive as the Taliban. Secondly, Iraq is not Vietnam, if only because the American people will simply not tolerate such an enormous waste of American lives for a mistake. Already, poll after poll show that a substantial majority of Americans (larger than the majority that voted for GW) believe the war is a mistake. These are not fictions, this is reality.