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No longer having to worry about re-election, the Bush-Cheney
junta is geared up to take their neo-conservative
policies to breakneck extremes unimaginable to even
the most cynical observers. And before the naïve
American public knows what has hit them, they will
have already sacrificed all that is dearest and most
treasured.
It should be obvious to all that this election swayed
on the singular issue of fighting terrorism. “We
must fight the terrorists over there so we don’t
have to fight them here” was the rallying cry
of the Bush campaign. “Taking the fight to the
enemy” was the impetus that drove so many Americans
to vote for George W. Bush.
In a cunning unequaled in the history of American
politics and assisted by a team of media disinformation
specialists, the administration actually was able
to convince half of the American public that Iraq
had direct links with Al Qaeda and the attacks on
9/11, all facts to the contrary be damned. In the
run-up to election day Bill O’Reilly and his
Goebbel’s-like brethren were still citing Abu
Mussab al-Zarqawi’s alleged medical treatment
in a Baghdad hospital (after losing a leg in an American
air-strike in Afghanistan) as proof of a sinister
connection—even though U.S. intelligence officials
have now disregarded this claim as a bogus report,
and acknowledged that the guy still struts around
on two feet.
The relentless propaganda worked. It must have. For
how else can Bush supporters stomach the morally repugnant
manner in which Iraq's citizens have been exploited.
To be using them as a honeycomb to attract terrorists
from around the region who are as eager to kill fellow
Arabs as they are coalition Forces. To have killed,
according to the highly respected Lancet journal,
more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians under the auspices
of creating a Democracy that will magically begin
a domino effect throughout the Middle East. All the
while bankrupting the American treasury with unprecedented
deficits, forcing the government to borrow almost
$2 billion a day from foreign lenders—communist
China being the second biggest creditor.
Yes, China. Off the radar screen of most U.S. citizens,
Asia’s giant will make her presence felt sooner
rather than later on the myopic television set that
is the American consciousness. Unlike the rapid, and
ill-conceived, dissolution of the Soviet Union, China’s
slow commingling of Marxism and Capitalism has created
an economic juggernaut that, both hungry and determined,
is eager to challenge Uncle Sam’s current world
hegemony. Should she decide to quit the perpetual
saber rattling and annex Taiwan by force, Bush and
his boys will have no option but to protect the island,
while continuing their fragile toe-hold in Iraq.
A draft will then become inevitable. Budgets will
be cut to the bone. Overextended in both resources
and manpower, American will be at its most vulnerable
to Osama and his growing legion of terrorists, now
recruited from the ashes of shattered Iraqi families.
To compensate, the administration will be forced to
curtail certain rights and freedoms for the security
of God and Country.
And then and there begins the brave new world.
| D.A. Blyler is the author of
the novel Steffi’s Club. His essays have
appeared at Salon.com, The Korean Herald, Bangkok’s
The Nation, and other international and online
publications. A lecturer at Rajabhat University
Rajanagarindra, he makes his home in Thailand.
His latest novel can be purchased at Amazon.com. |
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