In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Every time Bush is asked about American soldiers getting killed daily in Iraq, he says one of two things: "We have brought freedom to the Iraqi people, who thanks to us, no longer live in fear of a brutal evil tyrant" and that once having brought down a "cruel and evil regime" our soldiers are there to "maintain stability and enforce the law."
Oh yeah? Since when was that the mission? Notice how Bush stampedes us into war with the promise that Iraq is an imminent nuclear threat to the United States, ready to unleash all the devils of hell on every American within 3 weeks unless we invade immediately, and now our job is suddenly changed, that having found absolutely no WMD and admitting the intelligence used to justify invasion was wrong, now we must "enforce the law" (what law?) and protect Iraqi "freedom" (what freedom? They don't have basic services). Has anyone failed to notice how he utterly switched the base of the argument? How is this going down with the families of the soldiers, to say nothing of the soldiers themselves? And why isn't Congress fulminating about being so completely hornswaggled? What the fuck? At least with Vietnam we had the lie put to us consistently. Here the lie changes day to day. Even putting my own politics aside, I'm trying to imagine myself a complete Bushie, buying into all the arguments, the most I can come up with is the old Pax Americana, that is, we have to be there, we have to take over the Middle East and lay down the iron fist to stop everything from blowing up, but Bush isn't even making that argument. Instead, we're supposed to care all about Iraqi freedom and injustice, and that American soldiers are now Middle East police? Law enforcement has nothing to do with being a soldier -- so now suddenly it does? And what law is he talking about? The law of "I shoot whoever I want"? Because that's the only law I can see right now happening over there, which is more like nature red in tooth and claw than a Pax Americana, or even a simple local government. I just don't know how he can get away with it, our guys are getting completely blown up and Bush just stands there yammering things that don't make any sense. How come our guys are getting blown up? Remind me again? Meanwhile Rumsfeld is saying we'll be there for "as long as it takes." As long as what takes? Why isn't anyone asking this question and demanding a genuine answer? What exactly is the stated mission, other than shifting platitudes about democracy and freedom? Does anyone know? Also, if this is indeed a Pax Americana, it's working really well, isn't it?
As to it's being high school all over again, I had a nightmare four years ago that I woke up and everybody -- the whole country -- was permanently in the eighth grade. My entire adult world had devolved to the eighth-grade mentality. Every aspect of society was being conducted from the emotional level of eighth-grade. It was truly a horror.
- Michael 8:00 PM - [PermaLink] -
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