Here's GWBush.com's translation of Bush's State of the Union address:
"I will be a two-term president, even if I have to start World War III."
Axis of Evil? That's about as ridiculous as the time Reagan said socialist Nicaragua had the "largest standing army in the world and is only a three-day march from the Texas border."
Let's try to think rationally about this new Axis of Evil which so threatens the Fatherland:
North Korea is a starving mess that has already agreed--no, begged--to cease its missile program in exchange for aid, and has agreed to international inspection. (However, Bush jeopardized the agreement when he came into office by saying off-the-cuff that he didn't trust the North Koreans to uphold their end of the deal. Afterwards, his aides backtracked and Powell had to fly all the way over there to clear things up.)
Iraq is a defeated country which we already occupy. We have already decimated its military, we have already dismantled its weapons programs. We patrol its skies and regulate everything that goes in or out of the country.
And then there's Iran! It was most incredible to see Iran pop up in the Axis of Evil. Bush called it a country where "an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom." Actually, Iran has been having democratic elections for some time. Last year's election saw an <http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/iran_vote000219.html>83% voter turnout (and yes, women have the right to vote). Candidates of varied political stripes participated. Last year the <http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_654000/654135.stm>winning presidential candidate was a reformer who was opposed by powerful Islamic fundamentalists. But he won with <http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/iran.election/>77% of the vote. If you ask me, that's a lot more democratic than certain super powers I could mention. The most ironic thing about Bush's comments on Iran is that the results of Iran's first post-WWII democratic elections were overturned by a U.S.-backed coup that reinstalled the Shah and led directly to the Islamic revolution. (Don't believe me? <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0070535906/qid=1012441675/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_8_2/102-3604937-0575338>Read the account by the CIA official who pulled off the coup.)
Anyway, Bush is really starting to scare me. I think Bush&Sons&Company, Inc., are so afraid of a repeat of '92 that they're trying to make this war permanent. They've learned that people stop caring about war when the war's over, so this war must not end--at least not until after November 2004. Personally, I don't think the American people will fall for it.
What really saddens me though, is that the American people will have to fight this battle all on their own. Neither the media nor the Democrats will stand up to Bush's war hoax. I listened to the State of the Union address on NPR, that bastion of radicalism, and during the pre-game chatter they all kept saying "our nation at war" and "our wartime president." It's the emperor's new clothes in reverse: Bush told everyone around him "look at my new war" and everyone actually saw a war.
There is no war. There WAS no war. It was just a bombing mission. We do that every couple of years somewhere in the world. Yugoslavia, Somalia, Iraq (many times over since the Gulf War), Sudan, Haiti, Panama...help me out here, folks, I know I'm forgetting a few.
Is it different this time because so many people were killed on Sept. 11? If so, then shouldn't we be fighting a war against the people who did it, and might do it again? What ever happened to "Osama Dead or Alive?" Whatever happened to Mullah Omar? The sad fact is that this has nothing to do with them. Nor does this have anything to do with Iran, Iraq or North Korea.
Bush's "war" has nothing to do with protecting Americans. It is only about one thing: defeating Democrats. Don't take my word for it: <http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/abc/20020118/pl/rove_020118_1.html>read what Karl Rove says about it. (And for what? Just so that corporations can keep getting tax refunds measured in billions, instead of just millions.)
And what the hell is this Freedom Corps? The first thing I want to know is what color shirts are they going to wear when they go patrolling for "suspicious activity"? Better not be brown. I mean this is really getting eerie! First, Pappy used Hitler's phrase "New World Order" and now Junior is raising a "Frei Corps?" When Hitler was just getting started, his Freicorps had the job of patrolling for suspicious activity too, and as you can imagine they found plenty.
Well, you can either sit there watching America turn fascist, or you can do something! Come participate in the GWBush.com forums at: <http://gwbush.com/phorum/>http://gwbush.com/phorum/
And slap some of GWBush.com's anti-Coup / anti-Corruption / pro-Democracy stickers up somewhere. If you're really bold, you could even put on a GWBush.com T-shirt, but watch out: you might get reported by the Freicorps! <http://gwbush.com/store/>http://gwbush.com/store/
Sincerely,
Your faithful Wartime Webmaster,
Zack
ps: Go Go G.A.O!