|
America's "strong and resolute" Commander in Chief is safely enjoying
a five week vacation on his Texas ranch. Yes, that would be the ranch he owns by virtue of that
silver spoon that was dangling out of his mouth as he passed down the
birth canal. Following his example from Vietnam, his daughters remain stateside as Bush pontificates the nobility
of the cause for which 2,000 Americans have died in Iraq. Despite his unflinching conviction, Mr. Bush lacks the courage to
confront Cindy Sheehan and explain to her why her son really died.
Ultimately George Bush bears the responsibility for the death of Casey
Sheehan, yet he refuses to take a few minutes of his precious
"R&R" to impart his wisdom to Cindy about the noble
reasons for which he is putting our troops in harm's way. He owes her
and the rest of America an answer, but this Evangelical crusader cannot summon the mettle to
meet with her on his own doorstep.
Your
lies are revealed and your cover is blown
Support
for the war continues to wane. According to a recent poll
conducted by the highly respected, non-partisan Pew Research Center, 51% of Americans believe that Bush deliberately misled the public
about whether or not Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (the
primary justification for initiating the war). 58% of Americans now
believe that the US will not be able to establish a democratic, stable government in
Iraq (the notion that the US would establish the Iraqi government underscores the
imperialistic nature of America's intentions). Only 43% of Americans are now predicting a victory in
Iraq. It is time to start bringing our troops home to safety and to
stop the senseless slaughter of Iraqi civilians (the "collateral
damage").
Since
Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and no ties to Osama
bin Laden, why have 2,000 Americans and at least 15,000 innocent
Iraqi civilians died in Iraq? One could justify the American cause by stating that we toppled a
brutal dictator who committed genocide against the Kurds (native
Iraqis), but Hussein was a US
ally while he was committing these atrocities (until Bush the First duped
him into invading Kuwait
so the US
could justify the Gulf War against Iraq). Besides, there are multiple nations in the grips of ruthless
autocrats who are committing murders and atrocities, and America is not rushing to the aid of those innocent victims. In fact, the
United States government has installed and supported many murderous regimes throughout its
history. In the paradigm of the Global Empire of the United States, abuse of power and murder is acceptable as long as it coincides with American
economic and military interests. Why the sudden pangs of concern about
the plight of the Iraqi people under Saddam, Mr. Bush?
The
Grimm truth
If
fairy tales were true, the United States would be involved in the truly noble cause of "spreading
freedom", and America would have "firmly planted the flag of liberty" in
Iraq. However, reality keeps rearing its ugly head to mock the Neocons and
their fiction that the US is an altruistic, benevolent super-power sowing the seeds of
democracy in the Middle East. For openers, consider the deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqis
resulting from "collateral damage" inflicted by the American
military. Bestowing a "better government" as an
altruistic gesture would not involve obscene and scandalous profits
for members of the military industrial complex like Bechtel and
Halliburton, would it? What spiritually aware human being could overlook
the widespread Iraqi civilian suffering and death caused by the
brutal economic sanctions the US spear-headed for 10 years prior to the
war and perpetuated by the American invasion and occupation? How
about the Neocon's use of lies and defiance of the UN to initiate
the invasion? Torture and abuse of prisoners of war are not
characteristic actions of a nation "spreading freedom" or
planting a "flag of liberty". Tragically, as was the
case with Vietnam, there will be no happy ending to the "Tale of the
Iraqi Invasion". Suffering, war, terror, and death
are the bitter harvest the Iraqis are reaping, and the flag firmly
planted in their soil is one of economic servitude to the
American Empire.
Behind
the vacuous rhetoric about America "spreading freedom" lays a much more sinister motive for the
Iraqi invasion. The Neocons launched the war in Iraq to begin implementing the Bush Doctrine, their strategy to advance
US global domination. Invasion and occupation of Iraq afforded them what they believed would be a "soft target"
(obviously someone forgot to account for the challenges of "post
war" Iraq) to engage the four principles of their grand blueprint.
They exercised preemption by invading a country which
they deemed a threat to the United States. Acting in opposition to the United Nations, they
attacked Iraq unilaterally. Placing over 100,000 American troops in
harm's way, they placed Congress in a moral Catch-22 as they
demanded billions of additional dollars to perpetuate the
American military's "strength beyond challenge".
Despite their constituency's growing opposition to the war, Congress
could hardly deny American troops the funding they needed. To complete
the "quadrifecta" of principles forming the bedrock of the
Bush Doctrine, the Neocons are carrying out their morally despicable
invasion and occupation under the guise of "promoting
democracy and freedom".
It
is critical to note that the chief architects of the Bush Doctrine,
which ensures that the poor and working class of America were (and will continue to be) thrust into the inferno of war, found
ways to evade conscription into service during previous US
imperialistic endeavors. Bush, Cheney, "Scooter" Libby, Karl
Rove, and Paul Wolfowitz each sat safely on the sidelines during the Vietnam
invasion, which claimed the lives of 58,000 Americans (and an estimated
3 million Vietnamese). Donald Rumsfeld rested comfortably in his dorm
room at Princeton while 37,000 Americans died in
Korea
(with an estimated 2.5 million Koreans). As a vehement opponent of US
imperialistic wars, I would laud them for choosing not to participate in
those wars were it not for the fact that now that they are ineligible
for military service (and enjoy more security than any humans on
the planet), they use the poor and working class as disposable components of
their military industrial machine to advance US corporate and
plutocratic interests. While one could argue that the current military
personnel joined voluntarily, it is quite reasonable to conclude
that most
US
soldiers did not sign on to die for the expansion of an
imperialistic empire and the further enrichment of
America
's elite.
"We
the People" still have a voice
On
September 24, United for Peace and Justice (http://unitedforpeace.org/) and
International ANSWER (http://www.internationalanswer.org/) will
orchestrate a non-violent march to the White House (involving an
anticipated hundreds of thousands of advocates for peace and social
justice). The participants will make the following demands upon the
administration:
1.
Stop the war in Iraq
2.
End colonial occupation from Iraq to Palestine to Haiti
3.
Support the Palestinian People's Right of Return
4.
Stop the threats against Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, and North Korea
5.
US out of the Philippines and Puerto Rico
6.
Bring all the troops home now
7.
Stop the Racist, anti-immigrant and anti-labor offensive at home
8.
Defend Civil Rights
9.
Military recruiters out of our schools and communities
Not
coincidently, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, two of
the American Empire's primary vehicles for enhancing corporate profits
and wielding financial tyranny over other nations, will be meeting
to plan further economic conquest as protestors are delivering
their demands to the White House.
Without
justice, there will be no peace
What
the proponents of the Iraq invasion do not realize (or care about, perhaps) is that peace and
justice are inextricably linked. While terrorist acts are evil and their
perpetrators deserve severe consequences, they are ultimately desperate
acts of revenge against the imperialism, hubris, avarice, abuse, and
murder perpetrated by the US government for many years. I strongly believe the
United States has the right to pursue its attackers to the ends of the Earth to render
justice and to defend its people, but that is not what the Bush
administration is doing. The Neocons simply have simply used terrorist
attacks as a rationale to unleash the Bush Doctrine. By invading
and occupying a sovereign nation, America's leaders have wasted many lives and vast resources, while fueling
antipathy toward the US and creating new terrorists. If the Neocons truly had noble intentions,
they would be employing far fewer American military forces in a much
more efficient way by hunting down and rooting out the true perpetrators
of terrorism, and they would be revising US foreign policy to root
out imperialism, economic aggression, and flagrant disregard for
international law. Instead, the Neocons chose to brutalize a nation and
thumb their collective noses at the world.
You've
got to change your evil ways, baby....
America
needs to drop its obsession with being number one. It is time for
the United States to become a member of the world community rather than a murderous bully.
Obscene over-consumption has become a hallmark of the United States. While not all Americans fall prey to Madison Avenue's propaganda
glamorizing gluttony, many do. People of other industrialized nations
enjoy a respectable standard of living without consuming a quarter of
the world's resources (while representing only 5% of the world's
population). Other nations face reprisals and penalties for the
violation of international law. Without regard for justice, the United States wields international law like a club or blatantly
defies it, depending on what best suits American interests at the time.
Ongoing support of repressive regimes (like Saudi Arabia's) to further
America's economic interests, unflinching support of its proxy military
enforcer in the Middle East (Israel), disregard for the plight of
the Palestinians, and hypocrisy over who gets to join the "nuclear
club" are but a few more examples of how America's government engenders
more abhorrence of America and invites continued terrorism.
While
the Neocons make a mockery of global justice with their foreign policy,
the Bush Doctrine has also enabled them to begin sweeping away
the gains made by domestic forces for social justice during the
Twentieth Century. Whether one believes that these achievements were
reached with the cooperation of men like FDR and LBJ, or that these
leaders simply acquiesced to the pressure of labor and civil rights
movements, America made great strides toward equality and justice
through social programs and reforms like Social Security, Minimum Wage
laws, the Voting Rights Act, school desegregation, Medicare, Medicaid,
the advancement of women's rights, environmental laws, and
consumer protection laws. By spending $600 billion per year on
programs related to their precious military industrial complex
(consider that $600 billion represents 60% of the world's
total annual military expenditures of $1 trillion and that the US has
only 5% of the population), deepening the federal deficit to an
unconscionable $7.5 trillion, and utilizing shameless propaganda to convince the
minions of legalistic Christian sects and many undereducated
Americans to act in a self-defeating way by embracing an
agenda of Social Darwinism and global conquest, the Neocons have ensured
serious setbacks to social justice in the United States.
Remember
when the "good old days" were not so good?
Emma
Goldman, a crusader for social justice until her death in 1940, was
imprisoned by the US government during World War I for daring to
criticize mandatory conscription, and was eventually deported to Russia
(with J. Edgar Hoover presiding at her deportation hearing). Despite
her US citizenship, she was banished from the US for having the audacity to question the leaders of the American
Empire. With great clarity, she described the Empire of her time:
"The
history of the American kings of capital and authority is the history of
repeated crimes, injustice, oppression, outrage, and abuse, all aiming
at the suppression of individual liberties and the exploitation of the
people. A vast country, rich enough to supply all her children with all
possible comforts, and insure well-being to all, is in the hands of a
few, while the nameless millions are at the mercy of ruthless wealth
gatherers, unscrupulous lawmakers, and corrupt politicians. Sturdy sons
of America are forced to tramp the country in a fruitless search for bread, and
many of her daughters are driven into the street, while thousands of
tender children are daily sacrificed on the altar of Mammon. The reign
of these kings is holding mankind in slavery, perpetuating poverty and
disease, maintaining crime and corruption; it is fettering the spirit of
liberty, throttling the voice of justice, and degrading and oppressing
humanity. It is engaged in continual war and slaughter, devastating the
country and destroying the best and finest qualities of man; it nurtures
superstition and ignorance, sows prejudice and strife, and turns the
human family into a camp of Ishmaelites."
She
published these words as part of her New Declaration of
Independence in 1909. While much changed for the
better after Emma Goldman penned her thoughts, the Neocons are
ushering in an era of oppression and misery similar to the one she
described. In spite of the humanitarian gains of the Twentieth Century,
the American Empire is thriving, and Emma Goldman's words ring as true
today as they did in 1909.
In
the throes of spiritual death
For decades,
J. Edgar Hoover continued his dogged pursuit of threats to the
Empire. In the 1960's, he focused his tenacious efforts on Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., another champion of social justice who had the
unmitigated gall to speak out against US imperialism. While often dismissed as paranoid conspiracy theory, there
is even the realistic possibility of Hoover's involvement in King's
assasination. Perhaps Hoover participated, and perhaps he did not, but the elite of the
US government certainly did not shed tears at King's demise. They were rid
of a serious threat to their agenda to keep the wealth in the hands of
the few and to maintain US global hegemony. Once he was safely dead, America
's leaders could sanitize King's message and appease black America by placing him in the hallowed pantheon of "American heroes".
While I believe that King was truly a hero, the recent elevation of
Ronald Reagan to the status of American hero by our leaders demonstrates
how little "official hero" status means in the US.
Before
he was assassinated, King had this to say about the unfulfilled promise
of America in his 1967 speech entitled Beyond Vietnam: a Time to Break
Silence:
"A
nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military
defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual
death.
America, the richest and most
powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution
of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us
from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take
precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from
molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have
fashioned it into a brotherhood."
America is indeed approaching a spiritual death. Our dark cabal of Neocon
leaders, several of whom have held positions of great power
under Reagan, Bush I, and now Bush II, are perpetuating
unrestrained expansion of the American Empire while utilizing Orwellian
propaganda to convince its subjects that they are still living in
the "land of the free". They have taken advantage of the
inculcated apathy and ignorance of many Americans to begin the
erosion of civil liberties through the Patriot Act, to increase
regressive taxes while decreasing progressive taxes, and to launch an
unabashed assault on the UN rather than working to help reform it in
a way that would benefit the world, including America. They are bankrupting the federal government to the point that it will
no longer be able to "afford" social welfare programs. They
have launched the Bush Doctrine in Iraq. Thanks to the Neocons, many Americans are convinced that the
Judicial Branch needs to be relegated to the status of "junior
partner". Bush's proposed 2006 budget laid out aggressive
cuts to social welfare programs and increases in defense spending. The
administration steadily chips away at the wall of separation of
church and state, which serves to protect both entities from undue
influence over one another. Neocon policies are assaulting
the rights of workers and consumers to enhance corporate profits.
Exploiting the alleged necessity brought on by their "war on
terror", this administration conducts many of its
activities in secrecy. Under Bush, the environment is under siege. With
the Neocons at the helm, those exhibiting xenophobia, hubris, proper
support for the "American Way", anti-intellectualism, and over-consumption are considered
to be patriots. As a nation, America is quite near spiritual bankruptcy. Like pigs rolling in the
mud, the Neocons thrive in an American culture which promotes shallow
thinking, immediate gratification, excessive spending based on easily
obtained credit, bellicose attitudes, and a shameless narcissism devoid
of empathy.
Soul of America can be resuscitated
There is still time for America to change course. Armed with the Constitution (an outline of
governing principles without equal), unparalleled wealth and
resources, brilliant minds, a strong capacity to rise to challenges, a
melting pot of cultures and nationalities from which to draw human
resources, and unprecedented military strength, the United States can
still fulfill its destiny and responsibility to guide humanity
back to the light (http://www.worldwiderenaissance.com/mainstuff/
mainportalpage.asp?Level=Main) through leading by example,
using its power responsibly, and cooperating with other nations rather
than pursuing global domination. I know from the responses I have
received to my previously published essays that there are many Americans
ready to join in this spiritual renaissance to direct our energy and
resources away from war, hatred, and materialism, and toward the
advancement of human rights, the environment, science, medicine, and
humanity in general. Many have written me asking why I stay here if I
hate America so much. My answer is that I do not hate America. I loathe the corruption, hatred, murder, and gluttony that our leaders
carry out and promote in the name of Americans, but I also see the
positive aspects of our nation, and its rich promise and potential. I
have no intention of leaving my homeland. I will continue to advocate
for social justice and to dissent against tyranny and corruption through
my writing. I will continue to pursue and practice my spiritual values
of moderation, non-violence (except in defense of family, friend,
nation, or self), honesty, responsibility, living within my means, acceptance
and empathy for others (regardless of race, religion, gender, or sexual
orientation), zealous pursuit of self education, commitment to my
marriage, responsible co-parenting of my children, respecting the
environment, donating money to organizations supporting
charity and human rights, teaching my children to pursue intellectual
and spiritual freedom, engaging in critical thinking, and applying a strong
work ethic. My wife and I will travel from our home in Kansas to be at the White House on September 24 to help hundreds of thousands
of others delivering the demands for social justice and peace. It is my
sincere belief that there are many others who care as much as she and I
do, and it is my sincere hope that together we can reinvigorate the soul
of America.
I leave you with one final thought,
complements of Theodor Seuss Geisel from The Lorax:
Unless someone like you cares a
whole, awful lot. Things aren't going to get better, they're NOT!
Jason
Miller is a 38 year old activist writer with a degree in liberal arts
and who works in the transportation industry. He is a husband and a
father to three boys. His affiliations include Amnesty
International, the ACLU and the Americans United for Separation of
Church and State. He welcomes responses at willpowerful@hotmail.com
or comments on his blog at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/.
|
