Millions of Americans realize the truth of something said recently by Prime Minister Helen Clark of New Zealand. Ms. Clark stated publicly that if Al Gore had been elected President of the U.S. at the last election, the war on Iraq would not be occurring now. And that is no doubt true.
As the heavily suppressed rays of light and truth escape from under the Bush/Cheney propaganda campaign and media screen, more Americans are beginning to understand that opposing this war does not imply support for Saddam Hussein and his evil regime. We know from abundant documentation that it was the “insiders” of the Reagan/Bush, Bush/Quayle and Bush II/Cheney regimes that were willing to overlook Saddam Hussein’s evils done at the very time that those personnel were negotiating lucrative business deals with Saddam on a personal basis. When the business deals faltered, then all those businessmen cum politicos gained their “consciences” and decided that the regime had to go. And they began a planning process over the past decade that has finally brought their “ends justify the means” program to reality. Bush, Cheney, George Schutz, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, Condoleeza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, and Colin Powell (among others) all seem to subscribe to the political doctrine that the ends justify the means.
This doctrine means that whatever means are necessary, lies, deceit, misinformation, propaganda, fabrications of “evidence”, violence, preemptive war, deployment of cluster bombs and depleted uranium munitions, unilateral military actions in violation of the U.N. charter and international law — all of these justify the end goal of removing their former protégé Saddam Hussein for power.
Now, we are beginning to see even more light on motives and goals of this process. We are seeing mention by government sources that a goal of the newly “installed” Iraqi government should be to recognize the State of Israel. We are hearing that Bush has given the “green light” to installation of a government that will act according to American interests — not necessarily the democratically approved views of the Iraqi people.
We hear that the U.S. has offered to put military forces as a buffer between the Turks and the Kurds in Northern Iraq to prevent the Kurds from claiming possession of Northern Iraq’s oil fields, naming Mosul as their capital and proclaiming an independent democratic republic of Kurdistan. The U.S. wants freedom and democracy, but NOT THAT MUCH freedom and democracy?
But after considering all these relevant facts and details, millions of Americans DISAGREE that the ends justify the means. Millions of Americans opposed Saddam Hussein, but they have watched the workings of the Bush agenda and the Bush propaganda meisters and they realize that George W. Bush is a far greater threat to world peace and U.S. security than Saddam Hussein was, is, or ever could be. George W. Bush has both the will and the wherewithal to do enormous damage to the U.S. and the world. His lack of understanding of history, cultures, and context makes George W. Bush the most incompetent world leader in recent memory. News reports continually remind us of Bush’ lack of knowledge and lack of understanding; his gullibility and his “black and white” sense of perspective. Bush met with Brazilian officials and was astonished to learn that black (Negroid) people lived in Brazil. Bush entered office not knowing that Islam is divided into major Sunni and Shiite sects. Bush was led to believe by Tony Blair last week that Britain brought peace to Northern Ireland, with no additional context to burden his limited grasp of history and politics in that part of the world. Bush loved to take a helicopter ride with Ariel Sharon and he came to believe that Israelis are the victims of terrorism and Palestinians are terrorists. That is all Bush knows or wants to know and it is probably all he will ever know about that part of the world.
Millions of Americans are seeing through all the haze. Millions of Americans know now that the Bush regime is America’s worst nightmare. Millions of Americans will work to peacefully topple this regime. The end does NOT justify the means. So the Bush regime must be toppled peaceably, through the electoral process, or perhaps through impeachment. Millions of Americans are beginning to realize that the key officials in the Bush regime (named earlier) ought not to hold positions of power in the future, and one potential remedy for this problem is called “War Crimes Trials”.
Right now, Americans are keeping much of their views internalized for the same reason Iraqis kept their views of Saddam Hussein internalized. There is fear of Ashcroft, fear of retaliation, fear of being called a “traitor” or a “Quisling”. But soon enough, the American public will have an opportunity to remedy the huge national embarrassment and disgrace brought about by the corrupt administration of George W. Bush. When that happens, Americans will rejoice all across this land, just as Iraqis are now rejoicing over the downfall of Saddam Hussein.
The writer is a member of several falconry and ornithological clubs and organizations. He contributed above article to Media Monitors Network (MMN) from California, USA.