Tuesday, August 15, 2006
As If Democrats Would Have Done Anything Different...
Buzzflash.com ran an interesting editorial on August 13, 2006. Excerpts:
The Buzzflash editorial seems to view the political use or manipulation of terror as a Republican vs. Democrat issue. When it says “the goals of the Bush Administration are the consolidation of power and the acquisition of natural resources and economic dominance, not the eradication of terror,” that is partly true.
I think it would be more accurate to say that the goal of terror eradication is not as high on the list of priorities as the other goals that were mentioned. But, in my opinion, it is a mistake to think this prioritization of goals is unique to the Bush Administration.
If the Democratic Party was in power, I believe their ranking of these goals would be so similar as to make no difference. This is because economic dominance and acquisition or access to natural resources (i.e., oil) is the primary agenda of the major corporate interests that underwrite both the Republicans and the Democrats.
Yes, “the Bush White House and GOP campaign apparatus will lie, cheat, steal, manipulate our emotions.” But, on the whole, the Democrats are not different. Remember Vietnam? In general, both Republicans and Democrats alike think nothing of currying favor and ensuring generous campaign contributions and other support by enacting legislation and policies that inure only to the benefit of large corporate interests while detrimentally impacting the financial well-being, and sometimes even the physical health, of ordinary Americans.
If the Democrats had controlled the White House after the 2000 election, I have no doubt that the Democrats would have played the “terror” card, much in the same way the Bush Adminstration has, to justify foreign interventionist adventures, the accelerated deprivation of civil rights, and to grab and hold on to political power. The evidence supporting this is the shameful way the Democratic congressional “opposition,” for fear of being branded as “soft on terror”, has for the past six years, with very few exceptions, meekly gone along with and failed to object to the Bush Administration on every initiative, including, but not limited to, the War on Iraq and domestic spying on American citizens. Only now that the Iraq War has become verifiably-based-on-poll-data “unpopular” are Democrats speaking out against the Bush Administration’s policy.
[The Bush Administration] will never seriously battle
the sources of terrorism in an effective, strategic fashion. That is because
politically they need the terrorists as much as the terrorists need them. And
the goals of the Bush Administration are the consolidation of power and the
acquisition of natural resources and economic dominance, not the eradication of
terror.
NBC just confirmed -- as BuzzFlash
editorialized earlier this week about the politics of terrorism -- that the White House forced the UK to move up
the timing of the alleged terror cell arrests, against the recommendations of
the British intelligence agencies. By so doing, the Bush Administration
compromised the investigation and kept it from obtaining further evidence and
contact names. In short, for purposes of political timing -- in order to make
partisan points from the election of Ned Lamont -- the Bush Administration
compromised our national security. This is an extraordinary betrayal of
America's national security, purely done so that Cheney, Snow and Bush could
attack the Democrats as weak on national security, knowing that the arrest
announcement was going to be made on Wednesday, because they picked the day of
the arrest.
These use of Rovian-timed terrorist announcements -- often extremely,
extremely exaggerated (as in the case of the Liberty City Insane Clown Posse and
the alleged Manhattan Tunnel explosions that would have defied the laws of
gravity if they were planned to "flood" lower Manhattan) -- are basically
treason. They are meant to frighten Americans into voting Republican. The only
viable winning platform of the Busheviks now (and remember that they cannot
afford either House of Congress to become Democratic, because it would likely
lead to investigations and the impeachment and prosecution of the senior Bush
Administration staff) is something like: "You see what the terrorists will do if
the Republicans are not here to protect you. The Democrats will just mollycoddle
them. Fear for your lives and vote Republican." After six years of cynical rule
and five years of an alleged "war on terrorism" that has killed tens of
thousands more people than the terrorists have, all the White House has to do is
invoke premeditated fear into Americans. And it has worked up to now. Look at
the media this week. The alleged British terror plot dominates the leads in
television, radio and newpapers around the nation. Fear is a powerful tool. It
goes right from the media into the brain. It appeals to our Reptilian sense of
self-protection. That is why it is the tool of demagogues. Yes, there are
terrorists out there who wish to do citizens of the United States harm. But yes,
we also unleashed them in Iraq to do us and each other harm. Bush is breeding
new ones every day in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush hasn't reduced terrorism; he
has increased its threat.
The Bush White House and GOP campaign apparatus will lie,
cheat, steal, manipulate our emotions -- and even carry out policies that breed
terrorists, because they need terrorism in order to win elections. They would
lose in a landslide if people were to vote on public policy
issues.
The goals of the White House are not to stop terrorism; the goal of the
White House is to allow terrorism to fester in order to -- as is the basic game
plan for dictators goes -- use fear to consolidate tyrannical power and do away
with our Constitutional checks and balances of government and guarantee of
individual liberties.
The Buzzflash editorial seems to view the political use or manipulation of terror as a Republican vs. Democrat issue. When it says “the goals of the Bush Administration are the consolidation of power and the acquisition of natural resources and economic dominance, not the eradication of terror,” that is partly true.
I think it would be more accurate to say that the goal of terror eradication is not as high on the list of priorities as the other goals that were mentioned. But, in my opinion, it is a mistake to think this prioritization of goals is unique to the Bush Administration.
If the Democratic Party was in power, I believe their ranking of these goals would be so similar as to make no difference. This is because economic dominance and acquisition or access to natural resources (i.e., oil) is the primary agenda of the major corporate interests that underwrite both the Republicans and the Democrats.
Yes, “the Bush White House and GOP campaign apparatus will lie, cheat, steal, manipulate our emotions.” But, on the whole, the Democrats are not different. Remember Vietnam? In general, both Republicans and Democrats alike think nothing of currying favor and ensuring generous campaign contributions and other support by enacting legislation and policies that inure only to the benefit of large corporate interests while detrimentally impacting the financial well-being, and sometimes even the physical health, of ordinary Americans.
If the Democrats had controlled the White House after the 2000 election, I have no doubt that the Democrats would have played the “terror” card, much in the same way the Bush Adminstration has, to justify foreign interventionist adventures, the accelerated deprivation of civil rights, and to grab and hold on to political power. The evidence supporting this is the shameful way the Democratic congressional “opposition,” for fear of being branded as “soft on terror”, has for the past six years, with very few exceptions, meekly gone along with and failed to object to the Bush Administration on every initiative, including, but not limited to, the War on Iraq and domestic spying on American citizens. Only now that the Iraq War has become verifiably-based-on-poll-data “unpopular” are Democrats speaking out against the Bush Administration’s policy.
Stumble It!