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STRATEGY FOR TOTAL VICTORY

by Open-Publishing - Sunday 7 May 2006
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Governments USA Peter Fredson

STRATEGY FOR TOTAL VICTORY

By Peter Fredson

May 7, 2006

I recently reviewed remarks of George W. Bush and those of his cabinet officials regarding war, terrorism, environment, deficit, employment, pensions, social security, Medicare, the oil crisis, health management, education, science, religion, patriotism, scare tactics, security arrangements, CIA, and many other topics of national interest.

In no case have I been satisfied with the clarity of the remarks, or their credibility. Instead I find a steady diet of misinformation, deliberate falsehood, preemptive denials, and completely undeserved optimism concerning the status of any problem. The word “incompetence” constantly recurs.

It seems that the strategy of the Bush administration, in addressing national problems, is to use aggressive preemption by stealth, misdirection, end-runs to eliminate debate, claims of executive privilege, and a show of arrogance that claims any respect for law, constitution, common decency, honesty and candor is to show weakness.

Compassion, pity, regard for infirmities, solicitude towards helpless persons, are all tokens of declining power and unworthy of an imperial disdain for common people. The Bush administration courts only people of wealth, privilege and power, preferring to let weaklings perish in a version of Bush deterministic Darwinism.

Bush is an absolutist, with no shades of indeterminism. Once he is satisfied that he has an absolute answer, either from his advisors or his God, he will stay the course, no matter how illogical it becomes.

Most people would contend that this is a form of lunacy, like watching re-runs of a football game, expecting a different outcome on the next re-play. Others would say that Bush is living in a world of fantasy, a bubble of comfort, in a never-never world for people wearing rose-colored sun-glasses. In any case, he seems to be under an illusion, or delusion, that everything is going well, even if it is going down the drain.

Part of this is deliberate strategy of his advisors, be it Dick Cheney or Karl Rove. This strategy surely includes the following:

1. Never admit to a mistake.

2. Never apologize.

3. Never say anything you started is going poorly.

4. Use personality tricks to overcome incompetence. Smile, swagger, shake hands, hug people, pat little children on head, nod head, blink, gesticulate, expostulate, and show sincerity.

5. Exploit 9/11 to the maximum, assuring people daily that you are capable of protecting everyone from “terrah”, everywhere, by boasting of using deadly power and missiles anywhere and everywhere.

6. Instill fear of unspecified disasters continually to scare the population into submission to fascist tactics.

7. Use photo-ops constantly for impression management of a gullible and ignorant political base.

8. Use executive privilege to deny any useful information to critics, and use executive privilege to make unsuitable appointments to sensitive political posts, thus bypassing Congressional approval.

9. Exploit Christianity and all its symbolism, rituals and dogma, to satisfy fundamentalist aspirations, disregarding all other views as contemptible.

10. Publicly declare that all criticism is unworthy, and equal to treachery, to a country at War with the world, thus giving comfort to all enemies, seen or unseen.

11. Distract critics by favorite applications of sex, abortion, marriage, commandments, pledges, immigrants and other issues.

12. Distract national debates with color codes and alarms denoting when terrorists are liable to strike everyone dead in their homes.

13. Make speeches daily in every known media, especially FOX NEWS, giving only one optimistic side of any issue. Carbon copies of previous speeches will do nicely as most ignorant audiences will not recognize the lack of originality and complete absence of new ideas. Bloggers will pick up the slack, but Bush mustn’t count them as effective.

14. Make frequent references to Laura.

15. Avoid pretzels, people wearing slogans on sweat-shirts, Cindy Sheehan, Helen Thomas, Steven Colbert, Dick Cheney with a shotgun, Ken Lay, Scooter Libby, Tom DeLay.

16. Try to get as many American flags into each photo as possible, with huge signs proclaiming VICTORY, or even MISSION ACCOMPLISHED AGAIN.

17. Slander works wonders, i.e. Swift Boat People and fake journalists.

18. Selective Leaking eliminates the worst critics and shows you at your best.

19. Remember that FOX NEWS is your friend, now and forever, and all others are dirty lying bastards.

20. Stop saying that “You want to know.” You already do.

21. Remember that the Buck can easily be passed back down the line, or even tossed into the dumper.

22. Remember that Blame can be shared, generously.

23. Keep insisting that Iraq now has Democracy, Liberty, Freedom, Leadership, Sovereignty, Peace, Stability, food, electricity, clean cities, no rubble, no fear, and there is NO Civil War, and that it was all “worth it.” Reconstruction is going well. And, it was NOT about oil!

24. Millennium Corporation is a fine model for citizenship, honesty, efficiency, and Dick Cheney is a nice fellow. Contracts are not necessary between friends.

25. Torture is sometimes necessary to save a country from terrible disaster and horrible mushroom clouds, so don’t knock it. McCain is over-sensitive on this point.

26. Remember that we have NO designs on Iran, no war, no CIA agents, no secret Marines there, no missiles, no nuclear bombs, just nice diplomacy with our fine ambassador Bolton and Condi Rice urging peace constantly, unless the bastards want to screw with us.

27. In case of emergency, tell people to go F--- themselves.

28. When tired, go to Crawford, strum a guitar, eat cake, get on with your life, bang Condi, avoid unfriendly reporters, cut brush, take a pill.

Forum posts

  • 29: Don`t mention that Warren Buffet has for several years, bet against the dollar, and has just invested $4bn in Iscar, an Israeli "engineering" co. Buffet apparently sees little future in the american economy, or are there other factors?