What Will Become of This
Don't you agree that this administration has done an incredible job at throwing out catch-phrases and slogans that deceive the American public? (Notice how I didn't mention any other country in the world.)
What has become a little unnerving however is how they use the same tactics to disparage anyone in opposition to their cause. They used this tactic in January and February, during the height of the world-wide peace marches. Their rhetoric created a vast divide between those who supported the war with Iraq and those who sought for diplomacy as an alternative to war. Those in opposition to Bush (including war veterans) were called unpatriotic, communists, socialists, traitors, Saddam-lovers, appeasers, to name a few.
In all cases, the rhetoric was used to create a state of paranoia in which Bush's followers vehemently espoused the notion that the ideological enemy (the most dangerous kind) isn't in Iraq or other "axis of evil" countries but within our very own.
During these frenzied pre-war months, America seemed turned upside-down and inside-out. Many echoed the similarites of the political and social atmosphere leading up to the Vietnam War– sons and daughters were volunteering for the war even though a parent, friend, co-worker, or relative was against it; friends were turned against each other; work became a place where one kept their opinions to themselves in order to avoid any undesirable repercussions.
Peace became an evil term. People with good hearts and valid intentions were scorned, ridiculed, and/or rebuked. Threats and intimidation reigned; paranoia seemed to be the very air we breathed. It was so easy to stay silent, even though it hurt to hold opinions in. Surviving is about so many things.
One senses now, in the aftermath of the Iraq War, that the Administration banked on this type of social pressure and the upheaval resulting from it.
Prior to the Niger uranium fiasco, Bush and the adminstration attacked his opponents again. This time calling them "revisionist historians"-- those who were attempting to revise the meaning behind Bush's WMD statements and reasons for war with Iraq.
In actuality, however, the articles and commentary I’ve read are not revising anyones history. They are spelling it out as they spilled out of the mouths of Bush, Ari Fleischer, Donald Rumsfield, Collin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, and other administrative spokespersons.
Neither were these ‘historians’ adding much commentary to these statements; they stood well on their own, a witness that if the WMD are not found, then it is highly apparent that it is not only the Niger uranium claim that was used to grossly mislead us to accept by faith (because faith is believing in something in which evidence is lacking) the pre-emptive war with Iraq.
Tonight, I read Ariana Huffington's masterfully written article titled Yellowcake-Gate. Huffington ponders whether Bush will be held accountable. But more importantly, she suggests why he should be held accountable. She concludes her piece saying the following (and I hope she wins an award for it):
At its core, Watergate was all about trying to make sure that Nixon won an election. Yellowcake--gate is much more than a dirty trick played on the American public. It's about the Bush administration's pattern of deception as it pushed and shoved this country into a preemptive war-- from the much-advertised but nonexistent links between Iraq and al-Qaida to the sexing up of Saddam's WMD.
No one died as a result of Watergate, but more than 200 American soldiers have been killed and a thousand more wounded to rid the world of an imminent threat that wasn't. To say nothing of the countless Iraqis who have lost their lives. And those numbers will only rise as we find ourselves stuck in a situation Gen. Tommy Franks predicts will continue for at least another four years.
With the events of the last week, George Bush has come across as very presidential indeed. Like his dad, he's been out of the loop; like Clinton he's become a world-class word weasel; and like Nixon he's shown a massive propensity for secrecy and dissembling. Not exactly the role models Karl Rove had in mind.
President Clinton was impeached for seven words he should never have uttered: "I never had sex with that woman." What price will President Bush have to pay for his 16-word scam?
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