BUSH PREACHES PATRIOTISM TO VETERANS

DRAFT DODGERS LECTURE VETERANS ON PATRIOTISM

By Peter Fredson

November 12, 2005

Oh, the irony of it all. Yesterday was Veteran’s Day, to honor both the living and the dead soldiers who had served their country. Yet the main speakers were Neo-Con Bush War Hawks, mainly draft-dodgers, sons of wealthy and influential people, who opted not to give their valuable lives for their country.

President Bush, the Vice-President, and other members of the Bush administration gave speeches to veterans about duty, honor, patriotism, Iraq, and other campaign issues. No one seemed to recognize the anomaly, the inappropriateness, of someone who never served in wartime, who had the gall, the impertinence, the chutzpah, of speaking to people who actually had served. The veterans did not seem to know they were being exploited for a political campaign.

President Bush revealed part of the new strategy for countering the loss of public confidence by “tu Quoque.” What is “tu Quoque?” It is saying “Well, maybe I did something bad, but you all did it too.” President Bush wants to recuperate his voting strength by saying that many Democrats backed his lies about Saddam Hussein. Remember?

Bush and most of his cabinet were on television and radio constantly for several months spouting slogans about “mushroom clouds”, “aluminum tubes”, “bacteriological portable laboratories,” “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and “Axis of EVIL” The Bush cabinet beat their war drums and chanted “War NOW.”

They went to Congress and expostulated loudly, grandiosely, that there was imminent danger of destruction, rivaling that of 9/11 and that the country could not take procrastination as an answer. They demanded immediate WAR, and generally speaking most of Congress went along with the President’s assertions.

Now Bush uses that near unanimity to get himself off the hook of possible impeachment. He presents himself as an innocent victim of bad intelligence, but says “tu Quoque” to escape the bad press.

The problem is that, regardless of whether Bush was elected or selected, he became President and was in charge, ostensibly, during the 9/11 disaster. Also, regardless of whether he acted cowardly or heroically, he was the President. The Truman Buck passed to him as responsible for any actions taken by the country. Congress enraged over 9/11, with someone supposedly in charge, closed patriotic ranks and took the word of George Bush that war was not only necessary but urgent.

What patriot, looking at the Twin Towers damage, would have the temerity to say “Let’s examine this further before taking action?” What patriot would say “Presidents often lie, and this one could be lying, so let’s wait and see if George is a liar?” Few people knew then that George was a habitual liar and that every word of his speeches had to be carefully deconstructed and unspun.

We now know that Bush and his neocons, long before 9/11 had determined to dominate the world, to invade Iraq, Syria and Iran, and only waited for a good pretext, a good solid lie, to give the orders for Shock and Awe. We now know that George, and Dick, and Donald exploited flag, country and religion toward neo-con world domination.

We know that Turd Blossom was one of the architects behind Bush’s present quagmire, and that the major efforts of Republican Senators now are focused on preventing any disclosure of Presidential culpability. Their strategy was to hang together, to keep secret all the illegalities and corruption, and pretend that all allegations of wrong-doing were trivial. We know that their tools are deceit, slander, misinformation, leaks, firing whistle-blowers, and similar dirty tricks.

It looks like there might possibly be an investigation of war crimes committed by Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. It looks like finally Abu Ghraib, Baghram, and Guantanamo illegal detentions, torture and abuse might be taken seriously by our court system, unless Bush can appoint another True Believer to the Supreme Court to shield his illegalities. It looks like another huge scandal will revolve around Bush’s secret C.I.A. jails in foreign countries in full violation of all legal norms.

It is interesting that Republican Senators seem more interested in who leaked the information about the existence of CIA jails, than in the criminal and unconstitutional behavior exhibited by the egomania of Bush in contempt of Habeas Corpus or other legalities. A blogger likened this to the action of police to a person who smashed the glass on a fire-alarm when he saw a fire break out. They arrested him for breaking the glass and turned their backs on the fire. Sounds like something the Bush crowd would do.

Unfortunately the Truman Buck which was passed down from one President to another, somehow never stopped at Bush’s Oval Office desk. Denial is a powerful tool, as is secrecy, and the Bush crowd uses both tools to maximum advantage.

How is it possible that Bush can maintain this charade, that many people still believe that there were WMD’s, or that designating a person and evil and asserting that some God tells you to invade a sovereign country does not arouse grave suspicions that Presidential credibility should not be taken at face value?