Halloween
October 31, 2003
What Time Is It?
What day is it? Every day it seems like I read, "Iraq Hit by a String of Deadly Explosions", and my mind spins and I have to stop and figure out whether I am reading about a new one, or if this is one I have already read about. And every time I read it, it seems like the date is today.Now it has gone from scifi to something wierder, free fantasy, Kafkaesque Phantasmagoria. Every morning is the same. It starts with a number -- date and time -- and from then on it proceeds precisely like the day before. It's always the same day when you wake up. It's Ground Hog Day.
The situation in Iraq is getting even more out of control and tragic than even its most rabid opponents -- of whom I am one -- imagined. The scale and intensity of the tragedy that has been unleashed by a bunch of lunatic power freaks is unfathomable. And we are going to be having to live with it and sort it out for a long time. The damage is already severe, and the ongoing catastrophe is both inextricable and rapidly deteriorating.
Thanks to a bunch of frauds. A criminal conspiracy. A junta who wanted to rule the world, and certainly still does, but is not doing a very impressive job of it. It appears that they had no more than a move or two on the chessboard figured out -- really figured out -- in their grand scheme before they launched into it.
They had their objective, and they had a general modus operandi, which was to bring all the tremendous power they had at their fingertips to bear to bully their way to victory in every situation, to be totally ruthless and without remorse. Nothing very complicated when you have the most powerful military machine in the world at your disposal. But as far as strategy, they had very little.
Now they are seeing that their carefully laid plans are not playing out quite like they did in the neocons sick imaginations. Real life ain't no chessboard.
These guys are playing out their fate as just what we always knew Bush and his buddies were: rich kids who never had to work for anything, who are used to spending other people's money and never having to work for a living, always having someone to cover for them when they screwed up.
Now they've got the whole world as if it were the sports car their parents bought them for Christmas. And they are going to smash it up. But it will be okay, thinks little George, because mom and dad, or grandpa Prescott will buy me a new one. But when you are in the driver's seat of the sole superpower of the unipolar world, there ain't no parents big enough to bail you out.
And elsewhere on this desperate planet:
October 25, 2003
Bring 'em Down
October 27-28
What Democracy Looks Like
When the Supreme Court handed down its Bush vs. Gore decision, democracy-loving people around the world were stunned. Many outside of the U.S. asked, "Are the people of the U.S. really going to allow their democracy to be undermined this way?" Americans were the the butt of snide remarks by many channels of international media, and for good reason. What happened was a disgrace to America and to democracy.Perhaps it would have been better if Americans had hit the streets right then in huge numbers and said in no uncertain terms: You are not going to take away our democracy. But the fact that it didn't happen does not necessarily mean that Americans are going to sit by forever while the Bush administration plunders the world by force, and destroys the country's democratic tradition.
Most conscious, law-respecting Americans were very disturbed by the partisan, legally absurd decision handed down by the Supreme Court when the right wing decided to give the election to their friend and colleague George Bush even though the votes had not been thoroughly counted. But at the same time, law-abiding Americans were stumped as to what to do about it.
How to deal with an illegal usurpation of power on the highest levels is a difficult question. With the corporate propaganda machine urging Americans to get over it and move on to the New World Order with George W. Bush, the unelected president, most Americans wanted to believe everything would work out okay, and then during the next election they would have a chance to put it right, to have a real election. With a more civilized administration, one that respected the democratic heritage of America, that hope may have justified itself. At that time George the King of Liars was saying he was going to "govern from the center" and telling other lies that are obvious in retrospect to the most casual observer who is not totally brainwashed.
Of course he didn't govern from the center but from the same far right, radical power-hungry point of view from which he seized the office in the first place.
Yes, it has been challenging, but now we see many kinds of actions taking place on many levels of society simultaneously. More and more well-known, respected people are coming out with statements against the Bushistas. John Mellencamp and Rickie Lee Jones are two of the people who have made their anti-Bush voices heard in recent days. Polls are revealing a larger percentage of the population that wants the thugs out. Activities are taking place on many levels. And this is what democracy really looks like. It's not just about voting every few years. It's about the majority of people doing whatever they can within their own individual realms of power to make their objections known and to try to correct the error.
The outrage is appearing, manifesting. People are getting wise to the Bushes and to the media propaganda machine. People are rising up, making their voices heard. It's going to be very interesting. If the voting machine fraud is blown open so voting can't be easily fixed, Democrats may succeed in keeping George W. unelected.
See:
GOOD LINKS
October 28, 2003
October 29, 2003
Defensive and Lame
The administration is painfully defensive now about Iraq. Of course they should be. They should have been on the defensive when they first tried to push the insane policy. If our designated representatives were not for the most part too cowardly to challenge the war party, we might not be in this quagmire now with young Americans getting killed practically every day.Now Powell calls the attacks against the occupation of Iraq "brazen," a word that would well apply to practically everything the Bush administration has done since its ignoble beginning. Ironic. Here's Powell on NBC News the other day: "We did not expect it would be quite this intense this long. We are still in a conflict, and I don't think the president ever sought to minimize that." See the New York Times
Powell lamely describes the administration's utter impotence to deal with the situation they created as though it had been foisted on them from nowhere: "We are in this insurgency sort of situation where people strike and run and it is a much more difficult security environment." Then, as if suddenly coming to his senses about how pathetic he sounded, he added, "I am confident in our ability to deal with it."
Although "the situation is still dangerous," Powell said on CNN, "at the same time, there are very, very positive signs" that pacification is taking root, according to the Times. Pacification taking root? What a quaint metaphor. Taking root like an underground nuclear device.
Bush's Lord Mayor Bremer raises the eloquence of fools to new levels. He says, "we are halfway" to the formation of an Iraqi government. Like the frog that jumps halfway to the wall with every jump, and never gets to the wall.
"Most of the country is, in fact, orderly," Bremer said, which could have described D-Day, as well, on August 6, 1945 in Japan. If your head is immersed in molten steel and your feet are encased in a block of ice, your average temperature is perfect.
Bremer concedes that, "Look, it can't be fun to be occupied." Whoops. Little slip there.
Then an attempt at recovery: "But the fact is, life is much better for the Iraqis today than it was six months ago and much better than it was a year ago. And they know that."
Yes, life in Iraq is divine. It's just these few Saddam loyalists who are causing trouble.
As horrible as life is under the occupation, it may have been even worse under the brutal U.S. sanctions.
October 30
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Date: 10/29/03 6:02:36 PM Eastern Standard Time
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