No matter whether it is in domestic policy or international affairs, the
Federal administration of George Walker Bush focuses on certain recurrent
themes to promote its own agenda and attempt to give legitimacy to its own
efforts to govern the American people and rule the world. Amazingly, the
American people are so myopic and so diverted in their attention that
Americans seem far more oblivious to both the facts and the ramifications of
these matters than practically the entire world of humanity outside the U.S.
borders. A brief look at three issues shows how the mentality of the Bush
administration sets an agenda that history will likely assess as the most
counterproductive of any American presidency in the history of the republic.
Fear - Americans are manipulated into fearing other nations, and other
nations, seeing the actions and bluster of the Bush administration, are
learning to fear America. This is the most unhealthy foreign affairs policy
set in the history of America. Even America's long-time allies and friends
among nations now are taught to fear that a lack of total cooperation with
any and every Bush policy initiative will lead to negative repercussions.
And the American people are faced with a constant barrage of
quasi-"intelligence" revelations about the fearful state of the world and
why America must not only be armed and potent, but actually launch
pre-emptive wars against threats and threatening regimes. No matter that
some of these regimes were set into power by America policies and funding of
the past -- if a case can be concocted that a sovereign regime of any nation
poses a threat to American interests, whether security interests or economic
ones, that nation become literally targeted by the war-making machinery of
the most potent military organization in world history. Fear drives
domestic and foreign policy in a way that is, in and of itself, frightful
to decent, peace-loving humanity all around the world.
Lies - If George Orwell was alive today, he would see fulfillment of his
own predictions of societal rule by the Bush administration. Joseph Goebbels would be proud of Bush and his regime. Lies are told, repeated,
and spoken again and again so matter of factly and with such conviction that
it is apparent that Bush himself no longer can tell the difference between
truth and fiction. If a declaration suits the primitive worldview of the
Bush administration, it is considered "true". Information is sorted out
according to usefulness within the Bush agenda. If it suits the agenda to
claim Iran, Iraq, Syria, or other nations have weapons of mass destruction
-- then evidence is concocted, fabricated, distorted, or manipulated to
further the agenda, no matter how untrue. Interestingly, often Bush feels
no need to provide an explanation for his administration's behavior, on the
grounds that America is always right and America is so powerful that no one
can question American policy regardless. But if Bush decides he wants to
provide some sort of explanation for its behaviors, he is more likely than
not to be lying or deceiving the listener, and the media is likely to repeat
the lies without questioning. The corporate media has now become the
unabashed purveyor of propaganda, now matter how blatantly false, of the
Bush administration.
Inequities - The Bush administration stands for accumulation of wealth and
power into the hands of the wealthy few. Corporations are prioritized over
citizens. Rich receive large tax breaks, and poor to middle class receive
tiny to miniscule tax breaks. Israel, the brutal occupier of Palestinian
lands, is subsidized with billions of dollars of aid, while Palestinians are
accused of "terrorism" and allowed to suffer endlessly. Iraqi citizens
swelter without electricity and water under US. occupation, while the Iraqi
oil industry is revived for the benefit of American corporate interests. L.
Paul Bremer and Tommy Franks occupy palatial estates in Baghdad, under heavy
security and opulence in Iraq, while Iraqi children die of cholera and
chronic diarrhea. US defense contractors receive billions of new funding
to prepare for future preemptive wars, while American schools do without
infrastructure repairs and American children
have to do without pencils and books and toilet tissue. American soldiers
risk their lives in the U.S. Imperial Army, while their own medical benefits
are slashed at home, and when American soldiers come down with diseases
caused by exposure to toxic by-products of modern warfare, they are sent to
psychiatric treatment instead of acknowledging government culpability for
their grievous injuries. General Officers make millions writing books on
how they run their wars, and the grunts watch their children born with birth
defects.
And with all the fear, lies and inequities, the Bush approval ratings place
him in the lead for the 2004 Federal election. Is the American public
sado-masochistic now? Is America going to "burn out" instead of to "fade away"?
Maybe George W. Bush is a Neil Young fan and wants his administration to be the
pinnacle of American historical power -- from here it may be all downhill; down,
down, down to oblivion. Not too many world citizens would mourn America if Bush
leads America to failure comparable to his business ventures....
The writer is a member of several falconry and ornithological clubs and
organizations. He contributed above article to Media Monitors Network (MMN) from California, USA.
