The strange, sad death of the American way (June 18, 2004)
Mellow Yellow
McGeough. (SMH)
There is a growing sense that Americans have become victims of September 11
in a way that has blinkered their democratic instincts.
So now the hard questions are being put in a pre-September 11 context. Would
Americans ordinarily tolerate a president who lies and exaggerates? A leader
who uses fear to manipulate his people to his own ends? A president whose
staff blow the deep cover of a CIA agent as political payback? A president
whose Administration channels billions of dollars to crony corporations on
false pretexts? A president who deems torture acceptable?
Would they accept a president who seems to agree with his advisers that he
is above the law?
The commentator William Rivers Pitt poses them all before concluding: "The
time has come, bluntly, to get over September 11; to move beyond it; to
extract ourselves from this bunker mentality which blinds us while placing
us in moral peril. It happened and it will never be forgotten, but we have
reached a place where fear and obeisance can no longer be tolerated."
Bush, Blair and Howard would dearly love to move on, to shelter in that
obedient, obeisant world and their shallow argument that the global
community must deal with the reality on the ground in Iraq; hoping, too,
that we'll just slip-slide with them, over and around their recklessness in
dragging Iraq into the War on Terror.
But legitimacy is truth and questions of legitimacy will keep drawing us
back to the propriety of their decision-making on the road to Baghdad - the
lies, the half-truths, all the obsfucation. This is not just a history
lesson; or a debating point for Americans and Australians as they luxuriate
in their democratic right to vote on the performance of their leaders in the
coming months.
In less than two weeks the US-led occupation of Iraq gives way to the
saddest little "sovereign" government the world has seen in a while.
Its legitimacy is in doubt and, therefore its viability, as much because of
the false-pretence by Washington, London and Canberra to justify war as by
Iraqi suspicion of the democratic fundamentals of interim government by
appointment, by the continued occupation of their country and by a firm
foreign grip on their treasury purse-strings.
And while some will dismiss all of that, arguing that time will tell, the
greater reality on the ground in Iraq is that the chaos and death from a
mismanaged foreign occupation is a product of all the lies.
Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney can't help themselves. Only hours before
the September 11 reports were published, Bush was talking up the sketchily
known activities of the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi as the "best
evidence" of a connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. It was
another lie. Cheney was at it a few days earlier, claiming there were
"long-established ties" between Saddam and bin Laden.
Almost buried in the blitz of reports on the commission's work was
yesterday's statement by a group of 27 former US diplomats and military
leaders - many of whom were appointees of this president's father and other
Republican administrations.
These are men who have done time in the Middle East, in Moscow and in the
highest levels of the US military, and this is what they said: "[The Bush
Administration] justified the invasion of Iraq by manipulation of uncertain
intelligence about [WMD], and by a cynical campaign to persuade the public
that Saddam Hussein was linked to al-Qaeda and the attacks of September 11."
"From the outset, President George W. Bush adopted an overbearing approach,
relying on military might and righteousness, insensitive to the concerns of
traditional friends and allies, and disdainful of the United Nations ..."
John Howard's unquestioning support for Bush puts him in the same dock as
the US President.
My anxiety on the road to battle was about the number of don't-know
questions that underpinned the Bush-Blair-Howard case for war and the
leaders' remarkable certainty.
Now we find that the unnecessary Iraq war has sucked resources away from the
War on Terror. Bin Laden is at large but Saddam is in captivity; Iraq did
not help al-Qaeda or bin Laden and it was invaded, while Pakistan, which did
help al-Qaeda and did sell its nuclear know-how around the Axis of Evil, has
just been elevated to the exclusive ranks of "major non-NATO ally" by George
Bush.
Other realities are confusing.
The White House insisted that US forces would be welcomed in Iraq with
flowers and songs. But only 2 per cent of Iraqis see the Americans as
liberators - and that's according to a poll by the US occupation authority
in Iraq.
Biological and chemical weapons? I've been carrying self-injecting syringes
of an expensive nerve gas antidote in my first aid kit since before last
year's war. I'm off to Baghdad again tomorrow. It's a city where I don't
need - never needed - the antidote. But truth serum would not go astray in
several other capitals.
==
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/17/1087245046825.html?oneclick=true#
Jones
them then their own country. Nick Andrews is a perfect example of
someone who thinks American thoughts and dreams American dreams and has
no sense of his own country's identity. I think they're all like that.
Oz is Alcatraz with satellite dishes. It's the biggest oil drilling
platform ever. It's a station. An outpost. They're all just aching to
come home.
You stay there, Nick, and keep yearning through the window of your
Commodore 64 at American things--things that aren't yours and never will
be.
Timothy J
Teddy
> I've met Australians and in some weird way, America is more vivid to
> them then their own country. Nick Andrews is a perfect example of
> someone who thinks American thoughts and dreams American dreams and has
> no sense of his own country's identity. I think they're all like that.
Ummm, if they're all like that, how could their country have an identity?
paramucho
To a degree, that was actually true in the fifties. America seemed to
be the Promised Land to many outside it and that's reflected in polls
taken at the time. In the meantime the polls have more or less
reversed. I was twice offered a green card in the eighties.
WhosWorst54
>You stay there, Nick, and keep yearning through the window of your
Commodore 64's power webtv, idiot.
--
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Jones
To a degree, that was actually true in the fifties. America seemed to be
the Promised Land to many outside it and that's reflected in polls taken
at the time. In the meantime the polls have more or less reversed. I was
twice offered a green card in the eighties.
Says Jones:
Yes, we're running out of haughty chromosomes. Everybody is just so cool
here now. Visit a few fertility clinics for the rich, and save us from
the likes of Paris Hilton.
Seriously though, my impression of Australians is that they used to
think of themselves far more in the British sphere of culture up to WWII
or so, and then the invention of television gradually seeped American
culture into their consciousness and altered their worldview. My
impression was that they were sort of tweedy unapologetic British
provincials loyal to the Queen and using British type money etc. until
the shift came.
Starting with the Beatles or thereabouts, it seems Australia unplugged
it's cultural umbilical from the Commonwealth and re-plugged into
America as a sort of fountainhead of social values. Australian young
people became more American in a way. It's weird, the power of showbiz.
It's all just colored shadows.
Anyway, I'll be holding Nick Andrews responsible for every Australian
blemish as time goes by. Don't take it to heart.
Timothy J
abe slaney
> Seriously though, my impression of Australians is that they used to
> think of themselves far more in the British sphere of culture up to WWII
> or so, and then the invention of television gradually seeped American
> culture into their consciousness and altered their worldview. My
> impression was that they were sort of tweedy unapologetic British
> provincials loyal to the Queen and using British type money etc. until
> the shift came.
It was the surfing.
Shower Scene From Psycho!
"Jones" <tlcr...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:12671-40D...@storefull-3255.bay.webtv.net...
oh wow, that's really going to worry some people.
Shower Scene From Psycho!
> it's cultural umbilical from the Commonwealth and re-plugged into
> America as a sort of fountainhead of social values.
OMFG, please tell me no one in america actually thinks
that!.............LOL!
Jones
tone, the way you think you're funny when you're not, laughing at your
own remarks--no Australian in 1950 would write like that. That's
America--your identity nipple--America made you like that, or should I
say you are how you based on your perception of America.
Timothy J
Billy Dont Be A Hero.
"Jones" <tlcr...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:4786-40D...@storefull-3251.bay.webtv.net...
> Madonna's a whore.
> She's a Jew
>and British one at that
> So the fake Brit fake talent fake Hebrew
>of some jewdoo cult
>she's saying "I wish I didn't have to be Jewish".
> There's not as real Jew alive who thinks there is or should be "nothing to
kill or die for", or "no religion too"
> some filthy Italian chick