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Editorial See other Editorial Articles Title: Bush's Botched Legacy: Death, Destruction and Debt! On NBC TV last week Brian Williams was interviewing George Bush. At one point, he asked Bush what he had been reading lately. Bush replied, "Three historical books on George Washington and they are still debating Washington's legacy." I've never heard anyone say George Washington wasn't a great president. I've never heard anyone say George Bush was a great president. To even compare himself to George Washington in any way is the height of political blasphemy. After the blasphemy Bush continued reflecting on his current reading list. "I'm also reading a book on Teddy Roosevelt," he explained, "a couple Shakespeares and Camus." Williams, smiling, asked, "Why Camus?" Hastily Bush informed Williams that he was also reading Camus because he was an eclectic reader, stumbling over the tricky pronunciation of eclectic. After hearing Bush's reading repertoire, I wondered why he hadn't included one book on Middle East history, past and present. Considering the fact that the Bush Administration had plunged U.S. soldiers into the current Middle East quagmire, I thought it certainly might prove helpful to obtain a thorough knowledge of what he had gotten us into. Having launched into the bloody Iraq spectacle, the entire world now watches with shock and awe the evolving civil war between rival religious factions on nightly TV news. The 9/11 attacks were all Bush needed to frantically launch the infamous Iraq War; a war Bush insisted was a war against this enemy with weapons of mass destruction. Cooperating with Bush was Tony Blair, who declared that Great Britain was only 45 minutes from those weapons hitting them. Secretary of State Colin Powell dramatically declared at the UN, with documents in hand, that the U.S. could become victim to a nuclear attack from Iraq. Allegations contained in those documents were later proven to be fraudulent in certain cases and just plain wrong in others, but that did not prevent the Administration robots at Fox News to declare Powell's speech to be a "virtuoso performance." When Bush declared that the U.S. was compelled to wage war on Iraq, the U.S. Congress cheered Bush's war declaration with a standing ovation. Hugs, even kisses for Bush welcomed this now infamous declaration. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, referred to as Rummy by close friends, announced with fevered fervor, "The Iraq attack, we shall call a `shock and awe' attack." Many Americans felt a great patriotic pride. These gallant leaders were protecting them with those so-called "smart bombs" that were proudly bombing Iraq, determined to destroy Saddam Hussein. Some of those so-called smart bombs struck and killed innocent Iraqi civilians. But not to worry. The Bush Administration public relations response was simple, "This is war." This proved to be a popular mantra to cover all mistakes, no matter how many innocent Iraqi civilians were killed. Who can forget that day that will live in infamy when master bungler Bush decked out in a flight suit was sped from San Diego Harbor to a waiting U.S. naval ship to let the waiting world know, "The Iraqi mission is accomplished." In reality the Iraq mission had not ended. It had only begun. No weapons of mass destruction have ever been found. The U.S.A. had never been threatened by Iraq. It was a grand media manipulated hoax played on the American people and the U.S. soldiers, many of whom had volunteered to fight for the U.S.A. based on a terrifying tissue of lies. The Bush/Cheney led Republican Administration had the perfect excuse for launching a phony war. The Iraq War suddenly became one against terror, a war of idealism to deliver democracy and freedom to Iraq, spreading eventually to the entire Middle East. How very noble! There was no need for this Administration to apologize for innocent Iraqi men, women, and children being killed. The current estimate of Iraqi civilian dead is 250,000 and still climbing. The Administration did not want the coffins of the U.S. dead service personnel to be displayed on television. That might hurt G.O.P. poll ratings. Geneva Convention international rules governing warfare were ignored. Terror suspects were picked up and flown to other nations for interrogations, frequently being subjected to torture. Could it be that a lawless brigade is posing as a democratic government? After all, hadn't none other than George Bush designated Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as the "axis of evil"? Remember, all fundamentalist bible believers in biblical times believed that when God designated any nation as evil, all inhabitants were declared sinners. Wasn't the practice of genocide Jehovah's killing formula the answer to "sinner disposal." Recently Israel destroyed a power plant in Gaza. Now approximately half a million people are still without electricity. How many U.S. taxpayers are aware that the U.S. signed a prior agreement, that if the power plant were destroyed, the U.S. would fund $40 million for reconstruction? Wouldn't it be wise for the U.S. to ask Israel to please not demolish buildings in connection with agreements the U.S. has made to rebuild if demolished? Hezbollah has carefully monitored every event in Gaza for a long time. They have seen the occupation and assassinations and demolition of homes Israelis thought might harbor individuals they identify as terrorist enemies. Palestinians conducted a democratic election. Hamas won the highest number of seats. Did Israelis imagine after years of occupation, assassination, and demolition of residences if they thought anyone who was against them might deliver the kind of violent conduct they had always justified, would vote for leaders condoning Israel's conduct? Israel promptly kidnapped some of the democratically elected Hamas government officials. This Israeli kidnapping episode of democratically elected Hamas officials gave the lie to the claim that the U.S. backed Israel because Israel was the only democracy in the Middle East. Forget that! What was the Bush Administration's response to Israel's kidnapping of democratically elected Palestinian government officials? George Bush and Condoleezza Rice's response was a hypocritical silence. Israel's response to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers was to immediately begin bombing Lebanon. The world watched in shock and awe as bridges, roads, and homes were demolished. What was Washington's response? George Bush declared that Israel had a right to defend itself after a kidnapping provocation. How demolishing a nation equates with the act of kidnapping two soldiers, Bush never could explain. Condoleezza Rice whizzed around the world repeating the Bush mantra, "Israel has the right to defend itself." The U.S. never once criticized Israel for kidnapping democratically elected officials. Now the world knew once again that the U.S.A. was obviously an unfair arbiter. The U.S.A. had lost all credibility for posing as a blazing beacon of democracy in the Middle East. Bush and Rice, in effect, gave Israel a green light to bomb the hell out of Lebanon day after day. Bombing was aided and abetted by U.S. delivered cluster bombs. Allegedly some in the U.S. power structure advised Israel not to kill civilians with these powerful, wide-ranging destructive bombs. How Christian of them! Did anyone at any time ever say that Lebanon had any right to defend itself? If Israel suspected only one Hezbollah fighter might be in a 10-story apartment building in Lebanon, as typically happened, on more than on occasion, the entire apartment building was demolished. Israel justified this typical warfare conduct by announcing they dropped leaflets in the Lebanese villages they planned to demolish. The warnings frightened civilians to flee. With the bombing of the Beirut Airport, bridges, even the roads, Israel's persistent bombing raids made it next to impossible for frightened residents to flee. So much for the thoughtful warning leaflets! Not since the Christian Crusades had the Lebanese people suffered a hell like this. During that infamous Crusade en route to Jerusalem, the entire Beirut population was slaughtered. The Christian Crusaders next marched menacingly around the walls of Jerusalem, fantasizing that if they blew their trumpets, the walls of Jerusalem would come tumbling down, just like Jericho. When the walls of Jerusalem refused to tumble no matter how long and loud they blew their trumpets, they barged into Jerusalem, slaughtering its entire population. The horror of the Christian Crusades has remained imprinted on Arab minds, motivating some of their thoughts and actions to this very day. How long will the horror of the 2006 slaughter in Lebanon and Israel haunt the minds of Israelis and Arabs? Political leaders will long debate who was at fault in the latest Lebanese tragedy. Death statistics are evidence of who suffered the most loss of life, over a thousand in Lebanon and over a hundred in Israel. Every single death was a tragedy. Condoleezza Rice's comment on the Lebanese plight was simply that the conflict was part of the "birth pangs" of the new Middle East. Rami Khouri, an analyst and columnist at Beirut's Daily Star newspaper, said that Rice's comments were "crude, insensitive and cruel." Roula Talj asked ex-President Bill Clinton to speak up and try to stop the Lebanese massacre. Talj felt it would be futile to appeal to George Bush to stop the war in the name of any humanitarian cause. She declared on CNN emphatically, "Israel is leading to what could become World War Three." Hopefully World War Three will not be the Bush Administration's tragic and destructive legacy.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 5.
#1. To: Brian S (#0)
Santorum on "Meet the Press" Sunday was still saying it was a necessary war, and we found weapons of mass destruction.
Santorum...POS
He and Lieberman going down will be sweet.
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