Rule by the Insane
It has been a long time in my 83-year old life since I have I heard so much pious nonsense, spoken to a mass audience, about government policy and actions that are criminal in nature. One would have to go back to the time when Chamberlain was prating about “Peace in our time.” or to the Viet Nam war and “body count”. . Both “liberal” and “conservative” commentators, with all of the pseudo-sanity of a Joseph Goebbles discussing The Final Solution, use the semantic euphemism “pre-emptive war”.
Pre-emptive war, or simply preventive war, means attacking them before they attack us. The pre-emptive war against Iraq differs in no way from Hitler’s blitzkrieg into Poland, or The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It has been adjudged a war crime by The Geneva Convention--which we are a signatory to. Those leaders who initiate such an attack are subject to trial by an international court as war criminals.
In the last pseudo-election--John Kerry, that great liberal, stated that he would fight for America’s right to preemptive war. I just watched a debate on C-Span between Richard Pearle and Howard Dean, (another friend of ours) , where both agreed that the attack on Iraq turned out to be a good thing. First we have Shock and Awe, and now we have agreement that the continued occupation of Iraq is acceptable in spite of the “insurgency”—another euphemism for popular resistance by patriots. I shut off the TV as a surge of nausea overwhelmed me.
The advocacy and use of torture as a legitimate way to extract information is also a war crime. Albert Gonzalez who has just been appointed attorney general wrote the legal opinion that decided it was legitimate--with the argument that terrorists were not enemy soldiers—so much for the “WAR” against terrorism”. Condoleza Rice has just been made Secretary of State. Rumsfeld is still Secretary of Defense. Dick Cheney, Vice President, and George W. Bush, are still at their posts as a result of a stolen national election. It is no wonder that we Americans are hated and feared by the people of the world.
What is the reason for the horror that we call terrorism? The simple answer is that, like the guerillas that terrorized the Nazis--who were people fighting enemy occupation with the only tools they had at hand; it was the only possible response to Tiger tanks and Stuka dive-bombers. What was once called the War Department is now the Defense Department in a gigantic country surrounded by 3000-mile oceans. We need twelve aircraft carriers because Cuba might launch an assault against the United States. We object to North Korea or Iran having nuclear weapons when both the United States and Israel continue to stockpile them. If George Bush actually finds Ozman Bin Laden what will he do—nuke him?
If I gave the impression that the people responsible for this absurdity are insane crackpots I would be wrong.. They are people who are acting in their own self-interest and out of cowardice. They are not all sociopaths devoid of conscience. The cause of the insanity is that great psychopath—the corporation.
“The end of Democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of the lending institutions and moneyed corporations.”—Thomas Jefferson.
The giant corporations are not just plagued with CEOs who are criminals, they are driven by their internal prime directive, (the bottom line) to merge into monopolies, bribe public officials, dominate the media, put dangerous drugs and food on the market, fight regulation, and to sell arms to anyone. They start wars because war is good for business. They will not stop these activities until an enraged public confronts them. They cannot be convinced by argument because their decision-makers are chosen for their dedication to profits and ideologues that believe in social Darwinism. To them: the rich will survive the evolutionary struggle, and the poor deserve to die. History shows that revolution happens as a result of the heartless arrogance of those in power. The Russian revolution began before 1919 when a priest led a crowd of peaceful supplicants to the Winter Palace and the Cossacks slaughtered them.
A similar atrocity will occur here if global warming, or someone detonating an atomic bomb doesn’t occur first. This would mean the end of planet Earth. I am an optimist and believe that an intelligent people with modern communications can avert this catastrophe. A great groundswell of resistance to the radical excesses of this administration is developing in areas never heard from before. Large numbers of retired generals and admirals as well as people like Richard Clarke are becoming vocal about their concerns for the health of the Republic. Blogging reporters are exposing some of the more egregious idiocies of the administration--like the White House use of taxpayer money to bribe reporters, and the weird case of Jeff Gannon being selected for questions at Press Briefings. The election that kept Bush in power had its good side also. It disabused many people of their dedication to the two-party system. Books by Chalmer’s Johnson’s Sorrows of Empire and The Lies of George Bush by David Corn are selling well and the New York Times seems to have revolted against the insanity that pervades Washington.
Surf the TV with your remote and you experience the insanity of the corporation from the commercials. They offer a cacophony of noise and images that would drive one crazy if one didn’t have one’s hand on the remote mute button. What is perceived as the cold realism of the bottom line is actually a ticket to La La Land.