The Masada Complex: Bush and Olmert are Exhibit A

“Man regards himself as harmless and so adds stupidity to his iniquity.”

— Carl G. Jung

Who suggested to President George W. Bush and Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that a Photo Op at Masada, on May 15, 2008, would enhance their personas? Whoever it was, they deserves plaudits, since it backfired. Masada, which I visited in the late 70s, is a fortress, 1,400 feet high. It is located in the desert, near the Dead Sea–a place where 960 Jewish zealots–men, women and children–committed mass suicide, in 73 A.D., rather than surrender to the attacking Roman legionaries. [1] Its significance has changed over time. To some today, it represents a psychological disorder, “The Masada Complex,” embodied usually in extremist politicos, who fear the rest of the world is out to get them. That does sound like Bush and Olmert to me!

As soon as Bush, with his hostile, O.K. Corral shoot-’em-up mindset, walked into the Oval Office, in January, 2001, he began scheming for a war with Iraq. Here’s a guy who has never heard a shot fired in anger. He had done everything he could, with his daddy’s help, to avoid serving the country in Vietnam. By March, 2003, however, Bush was ready to launch his preemptive war against a nation of 26 million souls, who had done America no harm. It was based on 935 certified lies of the Bush-Cheney Gang, aided by a complicit U.S. Congress and a mostly lap dog media. [2] As a result, 4,079 U.S. troops are in their graves, 30,000 more have been seriously wounded, an estimated 1.2 million Iraqis are dead, another 4 million or more have become refugees, along with returning U.S. military Veterans committing suicide at an alarming rate–18 a day! [3] The cost to U.S. taxpayers–$3 trillion.

Is America safer today as a result of the Iraq War? I don’t think so. All Bush did was kill a lot of innocent people and make more enemies for us in the Islamic World, while wrecking the U.S. economy. The bottom line is: War isn’t the answer for America.

What about Bush’s counterpart–Olmert? He has used his army to daily terrorize the 1.4 million peoples of Gaza, with bombs, missiles and blockades. If that isn’t bad enough, he directed Israel’s military forces to invade Lebanon in the summer of 2006, using a disputed border incident as a dubious excuse. Lebanon, including its capital, Beirut, was repeatedly bombed by the Israeli Air Force. Qana, a town where Jesus performed his first miracle, was the bloody site of yet another slaughter of the innocents, as Israeli missiles fell on it. To top all of that off, Israel dropped over one million, made-in-the-USA, cluster bomblets on Lebanon! [4]

Is Israel better off today as a result of Olmert’s nakedly aggressive policies against his Arab neighbors? No, it isn’t. Every time a rocket falls on Gaza, Israel makes thousands of new enemies around the globe. And one day, one of those “new” enemies is going to come up with a murderous device, that will make an exploding car bomb passé. Meanwhile, Olmert’s Lebanon debacle ended up strengthening Hezbollah, not weakening it. [5] War and the use of military force isn’t the answer for Israel either.

I submit that in 2008, Israel is, indeed, vulnerable. Its “Clean Break” strategy, pushed by the Neocon ideologues, has failed. More importantly, its moral treasury is facing depletion in the U.S. Another case concerning Israel’s spying in this country has just surfaced with the arrest of Ben-Ami Kadish. It may be connected to the one involving Jonathan Pollard. Supposedly, Kadish and Pollard, a convicted spy for Israel, had the same Israeli handler. Then, there is the matter of the Israeli super-spy, “Mega,” who the FBI has been hunting down for decades. In his article, April 25, 2008, pundit Justin Raimondo labeled all of this: “Pollard’s Ghost: Latest Arrest Exposes Israel’s ‘Fifth Column’ in the U.S.” Sooner, rather than later, America will cut Israel off at its knees. The hundreds of billions of dollars that have gone from Washington to Tel Aviv, since 1948, are also deeply resented, along with the enemies that Israel continues to make for us. Now, with our economy sinking fast, along with our bridges and roads collapsing, the mostly unspoken bitterness grows–daily. [6]

Carl G. Jung, the brilliant Swiss author, psychologist and scholar, said: “Man…with respect to his psyche…is an enigma to himself.” He also strongly believed that the evil that dwells within us is of “gigantic proportions.” He added that none of us, (this would include Bush and Olmert, of course), stand outside of humanity’s “dark collective shadow.” (7) This is scary stuff in an age where Nukes are available to two loose cannons, like Bush and Olmert. Let me suggest, that if that old Ulster firebrand, the Rev. Ian Paisley, and Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness, could make a deal for peace in the once violence-torn north of Ireland, then anybody who is willing can accomplish that same laudable end. It is time for humanity to put the guns away and try diplomacy!

As I write, Bush and Olmert, with their war-loving mentalities, are doing everything in their powers to set the stage for a U.S. led military attack on Iran. If it happens, it will be unmitigated disaster for the U.S., Iran, Israel, the Middle East and the world. Only the Congress can stop Bush from carrying out this foul deed, which may lead to WWIII. To date, it has miserably failed its Constitutional duty to check Bush’s repeated violations of his oath of office. I don’t think Israel will act alone against Iran. In any event, Olmert may be out of office before Bush leaves in January, 2009, if the corruption probe against him leads to an indictment. [8]

As they say in soccer, when the game has less then a minute to play: “The clock is on the field!” Will Congress check Bush before he perpetrates yet another massive crime against humanity and drags America further down the road to perdition? It should be clear to all after more than seven hellish years that Bush has little or no insight into the evil that lurks in his own heart.

Notes:

[1]. http://www.answers.com/topic/masada

[2]. http://www.publicintegrity.org/WarCard/Default.
aspx?src=project_home&context=overview&id=945

[3]. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoPcBYBvKAU

[4]. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5382192.stm
and
http://www.lookingglassnews.org/viewstory.php
?storyid=6795
http://www.pchrgaza.org/
and
http://www.alternet.org/story/45811/

[5]. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=J
Post%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1191257222241

[6]. http://www.iasps.org/strat1.htm
and
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12740
and
http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/
display/13332/index.php
and
http://www.irmep.org/Defaults.asp
and
http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/
rwp/RWP06-011/%24File/rwp_06_011_walt.pdf
and
http://wrmea.org/

[7]. C.G. Jung’s “The Undiscovered Self” and “Modern Man in Search of a Soul”

[8]. http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/372305.aspx