Vidal on Bush
The great Gore Vidal, an American treasure, was interviewed by LA Weekly, and, as always, said some priceless things.Bush's legendary "approval ratings"? Rigged. And the American people will figure it out. Vidal: "the American people ... are asked these quick questions. Do you approve of him? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, he blew up all those funny-sounding cities over there.
"That doesn't mean they like him. Mark my words. He will leave office the most unpopular president in history. The junta has done too much wreckage."
The "war" in Afghanistan? Afghanistan had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks. It's "an imperial grab for energy resources."
Vidal: "We went to Afghanistan partly because the Taliban -- whom we had installed at the time of the Russian occupation -- were getting too flaky and because Unocal, the California corporation, had made a deal with the Taliban for a pipeline to get the Caspian- area oil, which is the richest oil reserve on Earth."
The bin Laden family is "one of the richest families in the world... They are extremely close to the royal family of Saudi Arabia, which has conned us into acting as their bodyguard against their own people -- who are even more fundamentalist than they are. So we are dealing with a powerful entity if it is Osama."
The American people remain innocent, or ignorant, of all this because "Unfortunately, we only get disinformation from The New York Times and other official places."
One more choice tidbit: When Bush Sr. was elected, Nixon told a friend of Vidal's, "He's a lightweight, a complete lightweight. There's nothing there. He's a sort of person you appoint to things." -- By David Cogswell