George Bush's "War on Terror" has become the source of all our evils. I believe that it was born out of his personal weakness and insecurity, his lack of faith in the American people, and in his capacity as a strong leader. As a consequence, he chose fear as his weapon to hold us, at a time when most Americans were understandably afraid.
Capitalizing on this fear may have been devilishly clever politically in that it strengthened the political hand of the Republicans while at the same time de-legitimizing all opposition. But it was also wicked and just plain stupid as far as our nation's greater good was concerned. Indeed, the war on terror serves his purposes only. Not America's.
Lately, he, (Bloody George) has been barking a lot about root causes. Recently he said: " We want to address the root causes of the violence in the area, and therefore, our mission and our goal is to have a lasting peace--not a temporary peace."
Root causes, eh? But he could only go so far. What he cannot say is that the root cause of all evil in the Middle East may be that most intractable occupation. That is the one word you'd never hear from his mouth. Occupation. Amazing, isn't it? They can talk about the Middle East or Iraq for weeks if not months without mentioning the elephant sitting right in the middle of the room - the occupation.
If we start with the proposition that all occupation fosters resistance, then it is in the interest of occupier nations to label all who resist their occupation/oppression as criminals or terrorists. Just as it was a crime for a slave to try to escape from bondage, it is criminal to struggle against one's oppressor.
This illustrates why the Palestinian militant movement Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Iraqi resistance are all characterized as terrorists groups and criminals by Israel & the US, both occupier nations.
To be clear, Hamas is a terrorist group solely because Israel occupies the West Bank, the Iraqi insurgents are terrorists only because they fight against the American occupation. When the Taliban fought the Russians in Afghanistan the US never labeled them terrorists, now that they are battling against us, they are of course, terrorists. This explains why Russia lists neither Hamas nor Hezbollah as terrorists in a list of seventeen groups it regards as terrorists organizations. It goes without saying though that the Chechnyans are on the Russian list.
Co-opted nations who take US dollars or arms and who support the US's terrorism frame, such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan and Egypt for example, are viewed as responsible nations, while any nation which supports the resistance movements - Syria, Iran, Venezuela (?) - never mind some of these movements were democratically elected, are labeled supporters and sponsors of terrorism. It's all such a puerile game, one wonders how supposedly mature men can bear to play it with so many lives at stake.
Israel appears determined to hold on to large swaths of the West Bank and to deny the Palestinians a viable state. There is enough blame to go around but Bloody George has not used his offices in the better interest of this cause and to foment a lasting peace in the area. He has encouraged division and destruction, and his war on terror has made the situation a lot more toxic.
This war on terror seems to have been designed to quell all opposition at home and abroad to his policies. Clearly it has failed miserably. Because he see the world through this black and white frame, his WOT has painted him into a corner whereby he can only talk to friends and shun, insult, denigrate and threaten those with whom we have differences. He thought he could bludgeon his way through, that the world would yield to shock and awe. Scare them enough and they will cave. Well, this seems to have worked only with some Democrats. Iraq has taught him nothing and the Israelis did not learn from Iraq.
He has callously played to his party's base for his own personal aggrandizement, and in the process made us more hated and less respected.
As long as there is a war on terror there can be no peace, he is stymied. But he doesn't want peace, he wants power.