Drunk with Power

How many times have you wondered: “If I was a tycoon (or a millionaire) what would I do?” or something to that effect. I bet hundreds of times. Well, if not, then at least a couple. You see, being a millionaire is not easy. You have to consider the legal procedures like payment of taxes and possible criminal dealings like murderers who would gladly want you killed or kidnap a beloved to get your money.

Accordingly, how would you like to be the most powerful person in the world? Take George W. Bush for example: He seemingly has the support of all Americans, who constitute the world’s only superpower. But how do you get to where Bush is? Become a president of a country is a simple answer. In his case, a country that has a great deal of power and authority é a superpower.

So what is a superpower and how does a superpower become what it is? Well, you need to prove to everyone that you are a superpower. You need to make a powerful statement. And, that é you do by force. Therefore, all you need is a strong military, and some intimidating weapons, including nuclear, biological and chemical ones, and the like. So what do you wind up with? In order, to become a superpower you need to own “weapons of mass destruction”. Thus, agreeing that America is a superpower, you have to agree to the fact that America has weapons of mass destruction é exactly what the weapons inspectors are looking for on the other side of the globe, namely Iraq.

So why are the Americans so threatened by the Iraqis even though Iraqis don’t even possess these weapons? Perhaps since the Iraqis, being a Third World country, are not supposed to have the weapons that the superpowers have, because they are not entitled to them. Why? Because they are Arabs, and being Muslim doesn’t help either, and they are completely inferior to the American race é a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Well guess what: that’s not all.

Indeed, successive American governments have not given its nationals what it promises. Look at the state of America today: unemployment is up, the economy is in recession, the government is unable to defend its citizens (perhaps unwilling at times?), and the public continues to be in a state of terror. All this, while their president demands more money for defense and drags them into another war, screaming patriotism to silence critics. This is in the country. Meanwhile, around the globe, the administration arrogantly flouts international laws with no one to question it, imposes inhumane policies on other governments and seeks to gain more and more control over countries worldwide.

All the while, the US governments claim to be “of the people, from the people, by the people”. Is this really what the Americans want? Do their governments represent them fairly? If not, are the Americans doing something about it? Remember the Civil War, in which so many of their forefathers died for what they believed in, as they are taught in their history lessons? Where are those kind of people today? If they are present, do they no longer care about the rights of non-Americans, who are as human as they are? Or does their government tell them that those foreigners aren’t worth their attention?

Some might agree with that because it was the outsiders who bombed their Pearl Harbor, right? Well, the American government had the information of the bombings even before they happened, and yet, it did nothing to stop it. And even if it didn’t know, then are you implying, by any chance, that the Japanese are more intelligent than Americans? But that also doesn’t make them a better race, does it? So, what did America do to retaliate? Bomb Hiroshima! In this way, the USA became the first country and still is the only one, to ever use nuclear weapons. Even Hitler, the mastermind of the Holocaust, did not do that. And yet, the world, including the Germans, seem to be still paying Israel blood money for what Hitler did. Where is justice for the tens of thousands of Japanese? Or has America suddenly decided to forge an alliance with the Jews?

Let’s think about events as recent as those occurring in Afghanistan. The Taliban were handling the affairs of their country, bringing stability and peace, until Bush said that Afghanistan needs a regime change. But why? Because of their oppression? No, the only reason Bush wanted a regime change was because he could not stand watching an Islamic government prosper. Especially not over the perfect site of an oil pipeline for American oil companies to profit from. Those same oil companies, under whose shadows, Bush grew up. Those same oil companies, for whose sake, the Bush administration promised the Taliban “a carpet of gold or a carpet of bombs”, back in summer of 2001, long before the day he invokes very often now to justify his so-called war on terror.

Take the Gulf War as yet another example. Iraq invaded Kuwait for its oil, or so we are told. Why would they need to? Their oil reserves are much larger than Kuwait’s. How come Iraq survived even after the Gulf War and the inhumane sanctions? They had enough oil to start with. They didn’t need to invade Kuwait. Was it just a setup by the Americans to gather sympathy and establish a reason for attacking Iraq, seeming that the American government didn’t really seem to mind when Saddam’s regime, a staunch ally in the ’80s during the Iran-Iraq war, told it about its plans in 1990? Perhaps, then, it was merely a way to allow the Americans to have quite a bit of control over the Arabian Peninsula? If Saddam was the problem, why didn’t America kill him when they had the chance? Why didn’t they nuke Iraq? They would have made sure Saddam was dead if they really wanted him dead.

Now, why does America need to create another scene to destroy Iraq? America’s economy has probably been in its lowest for the past years; but now they want Iraq’s oil to compensate for the twin towers. Apparently, it’s not Saddam’s regime that is threatening to the whole world; it is Bush’s administration that needs to be changed. Saddam is not threatening the world with terrorism. He is not saying that whoever is not with us is against us. In fact, he is only trying to build his country back from the destruction caused by the Gulf War.

So why are some countries accepting that Saddam should disarm? Because they feel threatened by Iraq? No, but because every country that has accepted is either threatened by the US or its allies into accepting or given oil rights after Iraq is dissolved. Where does this place the Iraqis? Yes, it’s probably true that they will get jobs in oil factories and other foreign companies vying to invest in the oil-rich country. But how much of death will they have to suffer before they get to that place? Isn’t there enough poverty in Iraq that you have to create more? I have heard of giving a little to get a little but this is human life we are talking about. Or does a superpower actually care about every single human, non-American life?

Consider this. How many astronauts recently died and Bush attended their funeral? They were seven! Not a word do you hear from him about the thousands of people across the world suffering, directly, because of his policies. In fact, one of the crewmembers, lauded by Bush himself, was an Israeli soldier, who participated in bombing Lebanon and Iraq, and who could have been rightly accused of war crimes.

He belonged to a country, Israel, which has weapons and continues to produce, purchase and even export them openly, whether they are of mass destruction or for whatever purpose, even down to mere submachine guns. Why isn’t America concerned about the Israeli issue? Because they support Israel. In fact, Israel is one of the countries, or should I say establishments, to receive maximum American aid. They both don’t care about how many Palestinians get killed. They don’t care how many homes of innocent people are razed down. They don’t care about what other people think and don’t have the slightest idea what others are going through.

Every person has a right to self-defense, and that is a right granted by God, above all else. It is even guaranteed by the UN. Is Saddam being denied of it, then, only because he is an Arab? A Muslim? Or is it because he is not a citizen of the United States and does not support Bush? Apparently, that right only applies to America since all their troops that are stationed all over the world are only there to “defend their country”. In reality, they are defending their selfish interests, not their country.

It is true that once you give a child what it wants, its priorities change and it wants something else and the chain goes on. In the same way, historically, whenever the US is given what it wants, its priorities change. It wanted more and still does; more from the rest of the world, for itself and its country. How selfish can the Americans get? How greedy? How intensely involved in their own world that they forget about others? Why can’t they live and let live?

No, they have set an aim for global domination and will stop at nothing to achieve it. They are becoming an imperial power, rather than a superpower. They will destroy everyone and everything that gets in their way. What happened to the people who hated imperialism? What happened to the “land of liberty”? What happened to the hopes of the ancestors of Americans themselves? Do they remember that they left England in the first place, to stay as far away from imperialism as they could? Yet, now they are acting as an imperial power, an empire.

And so, like a millionaire who has to willingly accept the risks his fortune and assets may cause for him, President Bush must now prepare himself for the consequences of his unjust policies worldwide. Pitifully, so will those who voted for him and whom he represents é the American people themselves.