"The truth, always the truth--at all costs"
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| 2212 02/03/2005 There He Goes Again (On Bush's "State of the Union" Speech Sam Hamod |
| 2.2.05 The title comes from President Ronald Reagan—he’d use it in a perjorative way when speaking about an opponent, in order to belittle him. I am doing the same thing, but my comment is based on fact and is not a baseless ad hominem attack (as were many of those attacks on others by Reagan). First, let us look at his new warning to Syria and Iran. He accuses Syria of sponsoring terrorism and aiding terrorism. The subtext of Mr. Bush’s speech is inferring Hezbollah of Lebanon, which is supported by Syria, and various Arab nationalists who believe the West should not be colonizing the Middle East again with an American flag. Let us examine Hezbollah. Hezbollah is a threat to Israel but not to America. Hezbollah fought, with many casualties, to force Israel out of the south of Lebanon. Somehow, Bush has not yet understood that it was Israel who broke the international law and invaded and then illegally occupied the south of Lebanon. Hezbollah merely fought, as a unit of the Lebanese Government, battles to rid Lebanon of the illegal Israeli forces. Prior to the recent hostilities on the borders of Lebanon and Israel, Hezbollah did not rocket Israel until Israeli troops again invaded Lebanon and fired rockets and planes bombed Lebanese territory. Somehow, because of the influence of the very pro-Israeli, Zionist neo-cons around Bush, our president never seems to learn the truth, or he refuses to believe facts and stays instead with the lies he is told, or the lies he believes from his imagination. What does Hezbollah do in Lebanon, aside from defending the country from the Israelis? Hezbollah builds schools, hospitals, renders social services and works hand-in-glove with the other major parties in the Lebanese government. In fact, when Bush last wrongly attacked Hezbollah, it took the Christian President of Lebanon to speak out to tell Mr. Bush that “Hezbollah is an integral part of the Lebanese government and a respected part.” As for Syria, it is constantly under pro-Israeli factions in the U.S. and a very small minority in Lebanon, who wants Syria to leave Lebanon. Unfortunately, few Americans remember that Lebanon was once part of Syria until it was broken off by the French and English colonial powers following WWI. The Allied powers did this to keep Syria from having a seaport, instead giving all the seaports to the heavier Christian state they named, Lebanon. But, Syria provides necessary military help to Lebanon to stop another invasion of Lebanon like the one in the early 1980s when Israel destroyed the whole of Lebanon and especially Beirut. Some of the damage is still evident some 20 plus years late. Incidentally, for those of you who lack a sense of history, it was none other than the rotund General Ariel Sharon who destroyed Lebanon with American weapons and allowed the massacres at the Palestinian refugee camps at Sabra and Shatilla. There is another reason that Israel wants Syria out of Lebanon. If the get Syria out of Lebanon, then they will have only a one-front war if they attack Syria, or if they attack Lebanon. But, by keeping the Syrian military in Lebanon, it means that if Israel were to attack, Israel would have to fight a 2 front war—something that is more risky for Israel to undertake, and it also means it might bring in Egypt. America and Israel both know that if a large war broke out, even Mubarak of Egypt might be overthrown and Egypt could enter the fray. Of course, Bush did himself no good by being critical of Egypt and Saudi Arabia tonight. They have been at his beck and call, but now that he’s beginning to threaten them as well, it well may be that he will regret threatening those he could depend on in the Middle East to support American policy. As for Iran, Bush said they are the biggest supporter of terrorism in the world. This attack also fit with his false claims against Iran, the claims that Iran is working on a nuclear bomb and that they are uncooperative with theIAEA. The EU, Al Baradi of the IAEA and other outside observers contradict the American Bush position—but Bush goes on with his misinformation campaign, just as he did about the WMDs in Iraq. In truth, it is becoming clear that Bush used the CIA as a whipping boy for his mistakes in Iraq because it was not the CIA who misled him, it was the phony “intelligence arm of the Pentagon” under Feith and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz that made up all that false intelligence about Iraqis WMDs! But truth is not something Mr. Bush feels bound to. He also failed to explain why our troops still have insufficient armor for their bodies, for their humvees and for their trucks. He also failed to explain how he’s going to save the dollar and try to resurrect our economy—the falling dollar, our major deficit are all matters of import. It was interesting that he continued to attack the social security system. Even the accountants in the social security offices say that his figures are wrong, but Bush goes on saying social security will be “broke” in a short time. He said he’d protect those who invest part of their social security in the market—but the market has been shown to be so crooked that even expert fund managers, who are paid millions of dollars, are unable to win in the market—so how are to rank amateurs to win in the market except by some small chance of luck? He neglected to mention that his changeover to private accounts would cost in the trillions of dollars—more than the social security would be short in the next 70 years—this from the government accounting office! As Senator Everett Dirksen used to say, “A million here and a million there, after a while it adds up to some real money.” In the case of Bush, it’s a billion here and a billion there—and we as a nation are going bankrupt in a handbasket. If you don’t believe me, read economist Paul Krugman or the IMF and the World Economic Forum reports on America’s financial condition. The newest study from Harvard University today also said that over 50% of bankruptcies in America are from medical reasons. There is no reason, with all of our wealth that America can’t have guaranteed health care. Bush says it costs too much, yet he has squandered billions of dollars in Iraq, asked for more last summer and now wants another $82 billion dollars to carry on this endless war that we are losing every day. We are the only major industrialized country in the world without a national health care program for all; people in America are left to luck and their own devices while the government spends trillions of dollars on the military each and every year. We have become more and more like Sparta—no longer like Athens; I fear this will continue so long as Bush and his minions are in power. Interestingly, of the money sent to “reconstruct Iraq”, less than $5 billion of that money has been spent in reconstruction, but more than that has been spent on mercenaries and on American companies who have failed to deliver on their reconstruction contracts. It is interesting that Bush is already threatening Syria and Iran, and implicitly Lebanon, while he still is losing ground in Afghanistan and Iraq. His military commanders have already made clear the American military is already stretched too thin—more wars would leave America even more vulnerable militarily, and economically. And, don’t believe that Iran will just roll over and be beaten on—nor will Syria. I might also point out that these countries have learned from Iraq that America may go in and “conquer” them, but then their guerrilla warfare will eventually bleed us to death, just as Hezbollah did to the Israeli military when they ousted them from southern Lebanon. If Bush decides to war against Syria and Iran, he will put more of military in harms way. My own thought is that if he’s so anxious to go to war, then he, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz and their wives and children, along with these men, should lead our troops into battle. Unless they do this, they should not ask anyone else to go into more wars. And, as the dean of the Washington Press Corps, Helen Thomas put it, as did many of our generals, “It is time to bring our troops home.” In analyzing speeches, it is also important to note what was not said. Glaringly absent from his speech tonight, and this is telling, was any mention of the threat from North Korea—which is known to have atomic weapons. Of course, part of the reason for that is China—China has told Bush to keep his hands off of North Korea. It has also been reported that China and Russia have sold some new strategic missiles that could destroy the American fleet’s carriers in minutes; thus, our fleet in Asia is vulnerable to extinction if Bush ever decides to attack North Korea. Perhaps Bush knows he can’t bully the Chinese or the North Koreans. Interestingly, Bush’s attacks are centered on Muslim countries—yet in his rhetorical flourishes he keeps saying he respects Islam and the Arab world. Yet, he keeps giving succor and major military and financial aid to Israel while it butchers Palestinian children, women and men. Something is wrong with a president who can’t face reality, a man who keeps sending others into battle while he himself went AWOL, a man who keeps spending us further into a hold financially, a man who speaks of democracy abroad while he is taking away more of our freedoms here in America. As for his speech tonight—it will be praised by his allies and supporters and damned by those who dislike Bush and his policies. In my case, I wanted to point out some facts, some realities that Bush had better face—for the sake of our country, before he makes even more of a mess of things in the world and at home. My concern is for our country, for our troops and for our children and grandchildren. I am afraid that Bush’s policies toward our economic crisis, his policies of attacking other countries based on false information or the ignoring of truth, and his policies on global warming are leading to the destruction of our once mighty and decent country. Real patriots must stand up to this skullduggery before it is too late. As George Bush senior once said about GW Bush, “He never seems to succeed at anything. We were surprised when he was nominated for president, we always thought it would be Jeb.” I fear, just like his baseball team, his oil business and his governorship of Texas, Bush is failing once again, but this time it’s not just a baseball team, an oil business or a state, Bush is taking our whole nation down with him in his errant and unrealistic ways. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sam Hamod writes on international and domestic affairs; he is the founder and former editor of 3rd World News in Wash, DC. He may be reached at shamod@cox.net |
