My father, an ordinary man, once taught me as a child a common wisdom. “You can read the letter through its addressor.” You can tell its contents by knowing who the sender on the outside is.
Most of the letters I receive don’t get opened. Junk mail goes straight into the recycle waste bin. Hopefully, it may some day be put to good use. Why bother?! No time to squander!
I didn’t sit down and listen to our President George W. Bush deliver his state of the union address as all “patriotic” US citizens presumably should do. Breathing in poison a mouth releases is not good for one’s health. No offense, the man’s words and delivery usually make me sick. Literally, my blood pressure shoots up high, to say the least. Why listen?!
The picture of a president in a free state my Arab teachers and Islamic culture engraved in my little head at childhood clashes with the one exhibited by the majority of US senators, representatives and other dignitaries, who interrupted the President’s speech seventy times by applause, and gave him their stamps of approval with their hands and feet. A president, particularly the leader of the most powerful nation in the history of mankind, I imagine, should be a man or a woman with a genuine smile; who is humble and compassionate; who works to uplift the down trodden and aid the less fortunate; who sees all God’s children as one undivided family; who shows tolerance, understanding and appreciation to cultural and ideological differences; who extends his hands to all in cooperation, friendship and peace; who takes into account the legitimate interests of the people and not big business; who has zero tolerance to racism, oppression and occupation; and who is committed to decency, human rights, dignity of man, rule of law and sovereignty of nations. A president must be able to look straight up into one’s eyes with nothing to hide. He or she must also be kind to Mother Nature. Above all, the president has to be wise and intelligent.
Obviously, George W. Bush does not meet these criteria or any of the above qualifications.
It boggles the mind to watch a grown up man behaving as a child, carrying a loaded gun, with his finger on the trigger, insisting to be a cowboy or a Rambo; and, though he has failed on the home and international fronts, he regards himself as more powerful than Hitler, Napoleon, Julius Creaser and Alexander the Great combined. Mr. Bush seems to be convinced that America’s greatness is a reflection of his greatness, and not the product of the collective ingenuity and hard work of its people, all colors, nationalities and beliefs, accumulated from one generation to another generation.
It is terrifying to look at a face of a man known to be unpredictable, who is mad at the entire world for no apparent reason, and at the same time, he is entrusted with the US nuclear arsenal; whose vocabulary is almost limited to war, death and smoke out of real people; who forcefully markets his own dictionary in which almost every concept of good and bad humanity concurs with, is completely reversed; who insists on “winning the hearts and minds of Muslims” through crusade wars and rivers of blood; and who chokes from tears for an American child who lost his father in the World Trade Center but makes no mention of thousands upon thousands of children who lost their fathers as well as their homes under tons of explosives that he dropped and continue to drop in Afghanistan to prove to the world that America means business. What a character!
It did not need a genius to conclude what the President was going to say. His performance in his first year of office in Afghanistan and Palestine, as well as the long list of nations that he targets for death and destruction, one at a time, say it all. It is absurd to support a policy which, as described by the Foreign Minister of Sweden, a US ally, is “stupid, insane and wrong”. and is leading to disaster.
Mr. Bush’s division of the world into friends or enemies and nothing in between is too frightening. Nations must openly declare whether they are with us or against us. If they are with us, they must join our coalition, and carry out our orders. To escape our wrath, world leaders know what we demand from them. They understand what they must do. Their countries’ riches and raw materials must be put under US corporate disposal, and their markets must be wide open for US manufactured goods, regardless of the damage to their finance and economies. What is good for corporate America, which is receiving $1.35 trillion dollars in tax break, is good for the world. Those who cooperate may expect “red carpet treatment”. The evil ones who chose to not be with us must expect “cluster carpet bombs”.
It sounds delirious but true! That was exactly the “carpet” message that was delivered to the Taliban negotiation team who visited Texas to discuss a “take it or else” Unical proposal to construct oil and gas pipelines going through Afghanistan, only a few months prior to the 911 attack on New York and Washington. The Taliban did not seem to comprehend.
When it comes to such messages, our President, son like dad, does not tell a lie. The corporate mafia and their allies carried out the New York and Washington attacks using the latest technology that was earlier tested and proven to be accurate and precise. An aircraft was successfully flown from the US to Australia and back with no pilot. Bin Laden, an “evil” man, and 19 young Muslims, “evil” doers, whose names were added to the passenger manifest three days later, were blamed. The US media and Hollywood that introduced the Bin Laden tape which made millions of people around the world laugh at our poor production were mobilized for action. Bombing of Afghani cities and villages that targeted civilian centers including hospitals, schools, aid centers and houses of worship started. Low-ranking Taliban and al-Qaida soldiers who earlier brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the United States as the only superpower were brought drugged, hooded, chained and caged to Guantanamo US military base in Cuba. Four months have passed, and Sheikh Bin Laden and Mulla Omar, the two men that Bush had promised to capture “dead or alive”, as we are told, still are on the loose. US technology, military might and generous bribery have not triumphed.
Henry Kissinger numerated the great benefits that the US reaped from the September 11 tragedy. In the final analysis, the death of 3,100 Americans is worth it. The oil corporations hope to gain at least seven trillion dollars. What a bargain! Congratulations! When it comes to corporate profits, it does not really matter whether the victims are Americans or Iraqis! What a mockery! The apartheid-like Zionist state alone gave its full support to Mr. Bush’s laughable remarks that label Hezbollah and Hamas that are fighting an armed to the teeth ruthless occupier as terrorists; speak of a nonsense nonexistent Iraq, Iran and North Korea “axis” of evil; and warn of Bin Laden’s “ticking time bombs” and “unprecedented danger to the ‘civilized world'”. Even Washington’s allies in Europe, South Korea and Japan were nervous, and distanced themselves from a policy that they see as irrational and dangerous.
Some commentators blame the pretzel caught earlier in the President’s throat for the additional damage to his head, and for his political hallucination that the US media in the land of “the free and the brave” refuse to question or challenge. I, however, do not prescribe to this theory. The culprit is not a tiny pretzel but the almighty oil, which he sniffs ten thousand miles away. George W. Bush did it again! It is not funny! The man took protective measures as advised by his lieutenants. But he placed the mask on his mouth, not his nose!