smCOLUMN EIGHTY-EIGHT, APRIL 1, 2003
(Copyright © 2003 The Blacklisted Journalist)
SECTION SIX
sm
COLUMN
EIGHTY-EIGHT,
APRIL 1, 2003
(Copyright © 2003 The Blacklisted Journalist)
AN APOCALYPSE IS JUST WHAT THIS SINFUL OLD WORLD NEEDS
I don't like to hang out
in large crowds, but there I was on a recent Saturday, one of some 75,000 or so
people who recently marched along Hollywood Boulevard in a spirited
effort to tell Mr. Bush that we don't want his stinking war.
It was a moment of history
I wanted to be a part of, and that, I think, is what others around me felt as
well. There were equal contingents of young folks and old hippie bohemian types
like me, who came streaming out of the Red Car stop near Hollywood and Vine.
I heard somewhere that many
of today's children believe Germany was an ally in World War II, not the
enemy. Maybe, most unfortunately, they are onto something. Maybe, there's more
truth than fiction in that notion.
These youngsters, though,
seemed conversant enough with politics and history. I know some of us seniors
could not help but compare this with Vietnam era war protests. Some of us males
missed the abundant display of flesh and sex, the defiant consumption of
contraband substances and the general sense of rebellion that existed three-plus
decades back and does not seem as strong now.
Back then we were all much
more optimistic about the future, and we could love and dream a bit, even if the
threat of nuclear war was always there, and today is nearly upon us.
Even Nixon wasn't anxious
to give such an order, except after 6 p.m. Because he was a drunk, after 6 p.m.
he was usually so plastered the only order he could think to give was "Nuke
the Fuckers? to any questions posed to him. After 6 p.m., his aides carrying
the red button were ordered by Kissinger to stay away from him. Kissinger wanted
all decisions going through him first. No doubt Nixon would have regretted
starting World War III in a drunken stupor ---this guy Bush doesn't seem to
have that level of comprehension.
Nixon was smart enough he
cut a figure of Shakespearean dimensions. But this one, even if he begins
nuclear war, as he seems bent upon doing, this present "president? would
always be seen as what he obviously is -- a mean, venal and stupid man.
His followers say we should
hate the French. Our aircraft manufacturers should not go to the Paris Air Show.
But I think the French and the German argument that you don't "get
Hussein? by killing hundreds of thousands of his denizens--- even if they are
Iraqi---has a lot going for it. To be against Bush is not to be against
God---only a supposed president, and there's a lot of reasonable question
about whether he's even that.
There's a whole lot of Americans who say you can't say you're going to get Hussein and civilian casualties will be minor. As if calling them collateral damage changes the facts of the case. But if
'Bush is a Taliban---it's just that he's a Christian one instead of a Moslem one'
you are going to knock out
water and power facilities, just for a starter, that is bombing civilians---
just like the Germans did to London half a century ago. That is meant to
demoralize, injure and maim mass populations.
The history is that bombing
often produces the opposite result that the bombers want. It produces anger and
hatred and a desire for revenge. Every one but Bush seems to understand that.
Maybe there is some spark
of decency in Bush, or we would have hoped for more from Powell. Powell was a
human face of this administration, but he has to have known that the most
honorable thing he could have done was quit the Bush administration in protest
of what he was doing.
It looks like it's too
late to stop the conflagration. We can only hope that in the course of this war,
the Pakistanis and Indians and Israelis and North Koreans don't start lobbing
nuclear weapons at their enemies. In Bush's mind, those are just collateral
damage of the coming Apocalypse. It's as if he wants that Apocalypse. It's
part of what he believes.
Of course money is at the
heart of the Bush drive for war as well. The family is
literally in the business of war---and oil, of course.
But don't underestimate
that strange and sinister ideological component. Because of it, Bush has painted
himself into a corner. He has an army ready,
itching the trigger finger; it's too late to stop.
Perhaps without realizing
it, Bush seems to be trying to bully the world the way he has his own country.
He joked about the inconvenience of democracy when the presidency was stolen for
him, "joking?
that he knew he wasn't being made the dictator, only president. By the
way he said it, you knew that he was expressing what was really on his mind.
For some reason, many
Americans have not resisted the crude attempts by this man
to overthrow this nation's constitutional democracy. But for the rest
of the world, what comes across is just plain bullying---and the administration
attempts to deny it are hypocritical lies. And a lot of Americans are waking up.
Bush is a Taliban---it's
just that he's a Christian one instead of a Moslem one. It's in everything
he does, in every decision he makes. His vision is that of a Christian
fundamentalist, whose ideology talks of peace and makes war because of its
zealousness to convert. They hate the Moslem fundamentalists because they are
each a mirror image of the other--- and this is the stuff of which Holy Wars are
made.
And as we have seen, it's
dangerous that this self described "crusader? is the guy with his hand on
the button. It's like something out of Jonathan Swift, when the Yahoo is the
ruler.
