SELF-IMPORTANT SUPERIOR PEOPLE
By Peter Fredson
It is confusing to try to follow George W. Bush's speeches. They are full of highly emotional symbols such as Liberty, Freedom, Democracy, and Sovereignty. Bush is a master at obfuscating or distorting their meanings to suit his imperial and arrogant ways.
For instance, on Tuesday March 8th, 2005 Bush made a speech in which he told Syria to get its troops out of Lebanon "and give way to a democracy movement that is providing hope in the Middle East."
He said: "The Lebanese people have the right to determine their future free from domination by a foreign power. The Lebanese people have the right to choose their own parliament this spring free of intimidation,"
Bush said he wanted the Middle East to get away from authoritarian rule. "Across the Middle East, a critical mass of events is taking that region in a hopeful new direction," he said.
Bush asked Arab rulers to give their people greater freedom. He lauded "small, but welcome steps" toward competitive elections in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and said that "the thaw has begun."
Bush told Syria to "end its nearly 30-year occupation of Lebanon or become even more isolated from the world." He dismissed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's pledge to shift Syrian troops to eastern Lebanon, calling it a delaying tactic.
Bush did not mention the consequent rally to continue Syrian occupation from thousands of Lebanese.
The point is that Bush sometimes seems to know what "determining a nation's future free from a foreign power" means, and that "The Lebanese people have the right to choose their own parliament this spring free of intimidation."
It is therefore curious that he does not seem to know that Iraq should have the right to determine its own future free from a foreign power, or that it can do so free of intimidation, duress and deadly force. Either that or his arrogance and lust for power overwhelm any faint connection to logic.
Bush has about 140,000 people in Iraq, (including CIA, contractors, missionaries, etc.) with guns, cannon, tanks, planes, block-buster bombs, bull-dozers, high-explosives, night-vision goggles, armor, lethal weapons pointed at Iraqis, check points with machine guns, all vociferously shouting Liberty and Democracy while killing, destroying property, and appropriating Iraqi resources for themselves. There is NO exit strategy, everything is contingent upon the whims of Bush and Rumsfeld, but everything is under very tight control, except for "insurgents."
Sure, our troops are getting killed daily, but Bush knows no regret. Sure, everyone now knows that Bush invaded Iraq under false pretenses, that were NO weapon of Mass Destruction, but Bush shifted the terms adroitly to the evilness of Saddam.
We trust that "regime change" also applies to Bush for sheer malevolence, cunning and lying.
Bush had his sycophants take control over every function in Iraq, appoint Iraq exiles and malcontents to positions without any authority, and is busily building one of the largest air bases for permanent occupation of Iraq. He has no intention of giving sovereignty, except UNDER his authoritarian corporate Neocon rule.
If you think that Millennium and other "contractors" are simply going to pack up their equipment and leave Iraq, then you are either a True Believer or stupid beyond comprehension.
If you think that Bush is building a huge embassy in a small country because he is helping their sovereignty, then you are hopelessly ignorant and willfully malevolent.
Any treaty, or contract, or any legal document signed by any Iraqi while invasion troops still occupy their country and control their every movement is null and void by all international agreements. Duress is the operative word, and Bush is the master of deceitful duress.
Any claim that Bush is giving Iraq either freedom or democracy is another one of many lies spun by Bush and his Neocon warmongers.
The other day Condi Rice supposedly told Mr. Putin that he should give his people more democracy. That is real chutzpah coming from a neocon bureaucrat who is trying her best to change our democracy into a paradise for corporate True Believers.
But then again, no one ever accused the Bush people of being humble.