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TechnoratiThe Clout of George Bush
Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.
- Shakespeare, Coriolanus
There are advantages to be gained from taking possession of a country rather than simply befriending its leader. Consider Iraq and Pakistan.
Iraq, as was recently observed in this space, is a possession of George Bush. Though sovereign in theory, Iraq was powerless to contradict Mr. Bush when he said it was all right for Turkey to invade that country. All Iraq could do was have its prime minister, Nouri al Maliki, make a phone call to Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime minister, to let him know of the need to "respect Iraq sovereign authority." The call preceded the invasion. Being sovereign, however, Iraq could play host to Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad even though Mr. Bush dislikes him and he is the leader of one of the countries that might be described as the Bush-Cheney axis of hatred.
Pakistan is a country whose leader Mr. Bush has befriended without first invading his country. Although he continues to instruct Pakistan on how it should conduct its affairs, he lacks the clout he has in Iraq. As a result, the country's citizens and officials have enjoyed thumbing their noses at Mr. Bush, notwithstanding his friendship with its president, Pervez Musharraf. Most recently the nose thumbing by the good citizens and officials pertained to elections and judges in Pakistan.
Before the Pakistani elections on February 18 that resulted in the election to parliament of a majority of members of Mr. Bush's two least favorite parties in Pakistan, Mr. Bush expressed his hope that Mr. Musharraf's party would retain its parliamentary majority. In an interview with Charles Gibson on ABC's "World News" on November 20, 17 days after Mr. Musharraf had summarily dismissed Iftikar Mohammed Chaudhry, Chief Justice of Pakistan's highest court and placed him under house arrest, Mr. Bush described Mr. Musharraf as "somebody who believes in democracy". That would have been a somewhat awkward statement if made by anyone other than the singularly obtuse Mr. Bush, since it ignored the fact that Mr. Musharraf became what he was by sponsoring a military coup, had 17 days earlier replaced not only the chief justice of the Pakistan supreme court but all the other justices, and declared martial law in order to make sure that the elections that were to be held in 2008 would be completely fair and open.
The elections did not turn out as Messrs. Musharraf and Bush had hoped. They were, instead, a disaster from the men's respective points of view. Mr. Musharraf's party was soundly defeated and a coalition now exists between the two opposing parties who have agreed to unite in their opposition to Mr. Musharraf.
According to a report in the New York Times, shortly after the February 18 elections the U.S. Ambassador, Anne Patterson, met with Benazir Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, the head of the Pakistan Peoples Party, one of the parties that emerged victorious from the February 18 elections. Believing herself divinely ordained if not by God, by Bush, she informed Mr. Zardari that the man from whom she came and whose emissary she was, favored the non-reinstatement of Mr. Chaudhry as chief justice. On the other hand, she let it be known, the reinstatement of all the other judges was now acceptable to the United States, an outcome that had been hinted at before the elections took place. She could have saved her breath.
On March 9, a press conference was held by Nawaz Sharif, leader of Pakistan Muslim League-N and Asif Ali Zardari. Reading from a prepared text Mr. Sharif said: "In today's summit meeting between the coalition leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N, it was decided that the restoration of the deposed judges as it was on November 2, 2007 shall be brought about through a parliamentary resolution to be passed in the national assembly within 30 days of the formation of the federal government."
Commenting on the Ambassador's attempts to influence Mr. Zardari as reported in the Times, Tariq Mahmood, a former president of the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association said he told the ambassador that the United States should "appreciate the results of the election. My message was very simple. You love democracy, you live in a democracy, why do you want to deprive us? You are always supporting the dictator."
Mr. Mahmood doesn't realize that Mr. Bush doesn't' recognize the difference between invading a country and befriending a dictator. He should hope that Mr. Bush doesn't figure it out. If he does, he may decide that it would be in his best interest to invade Pakistan to help it become the kind of a place Mr. Bush thinks it should be. This is one of those rare occasions when the world is a better place because of Mr. Bush's profound ignorance.
For political commentary see Christopher Brauchli's web page, http://humanraceandothersports.com
32 Comments so far
Show AllI don't like to deflect the issue here, but I see that everything discussed gets back down to how awful George Bush is and what mistakes he's made and why he shouldn't sleep at night.
Therefore, I would only like to offer deductive suggestions while saying,, "IF he's so terrible, wouldn't you line him up among war criminals? If he believes there is something yet to accomplish in a country that has its hatred claws clinching the heart of America, and the President has an alternative agenda, what would that be?
Why would that be?
If we had to break these things down into elementary pieces to share with the future generation, could we, indeed, explain the reason we're still fighting a foreign war to a child?
Scoop it in the pile and let's hash that slant, please. Thank you all!
Wouldn't a better title for this article be "The (Dark) Cloud of George Bush"?
MaxheMust:
So?
Sincerely,
Your pal Dick
Please stop referring to this Punk as Mr. Bush or George Bush or perhaps most insulting of all, President Bush. Just call him Bush or George Wanker Bush. This Punk is one of history's great criminals. Call him what he is, not what he isn't!
Sorry to be a downer, I'm just sad right now. Sometimes it's hard to hope.
I'm sad. It seems no matter what I read digging for the truth it doesn't matter. I feel that even if a 10 million people showed up in Washington tomorrow to protest the war and demand accountability from our government, we would just be beaten up and cordoned off into "free speech zones" and if riots ensued, we would be met with a military crackdown. All of the people who have any power to impeach or prosecute the administration have done nothing but talk. the cartel has called their bluffs. Congress sapinas (sp?) people and they just don't show up. the administration practically laughs off Congress' demands for almost anything. It's a
joke. Congress has cut off it's own cajones and handed them over to the cartel in a handbasket with a nice selection of cheese and wine for our friends at the white house. What's left? Here's a telling quotation:
"The [Bush]aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as
people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your
judicious study of discernible reality.' I nodded and
murmured something about enlightenment principles and
empiricism. He cut me off. 'That's not the way the
world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an
empire now, and when we act, we create our own
reality. And while you're studying that reality --
judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating
other new realities, which you can study too, and
that's how things will sort out. We're history's
actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just
study what we do.'"
From Ron Suskind's article here
"...the truth will awaken the masses in time..." says bornfreemen.
Well, it's never happened before on this planet so there's always a chance I suppose. Not much of a chance, mind you!
Most of the masses wouldn't know the truth if they fell over it! Mind you, there's not much of it around these days. Only on Faux News.
And Bill tells it as it is. Or at least as he sees it. Shame he's only got one eye and his left leg is longer so he leans heavily to the right on most things! If only Lieberman would join him!
God, they would shake up the world media, those two.
Hitler's dead, isn't he? Shame.
www.dangerouscreation.com
He should hope that Mr. Bush doesn't figure it out.
Not to worry ...
... that does not matter.
You figure that out, OK?
Can you hear the thunder and roar of real American power.
"We the People"
I have faith that soon all will be told, the truth will awaken the masses in time save our Constitution ,and in doing so save our country.
God, give Americans strength to Save the Constitution.
BeForKids;
Thanks, I thought I was a bit high for the prewar pop of Iraq... Too lazy to quickly google it, my bad. So, they're down to about 22 million people, and the us army still can't maintain order in the country they occupy. Doesn't make the idea of a war with Pak any more likely...
BeForKids said:
My god. Is this a democracy? Our last four Presidents have been a man with Alzheimers, a CIA spook, a flim flam man, and now a sociopath.
Isn't that the truth! It just goes to show - never underestimate the stupidity of the American people. PT Barnum said it best when he said, "There's a sucker born every day!" We can only hope that people will do better this time, but......I'm not counting on it. People are too swayed by 30 second sound bytes. They don't look into their candidates stands on things carefully. They judge them on whether or not the person would be a good buddy to have a beer and a backyard barbecue with. They choose personality over substance. In other words, look for a new American Idol president rather than someone who can guide this country through the rough waters in which it finds itself currently floundering.
MaxheMust said:
At some point in the next year or two, Bush and Cheney will be impeached and charged with war crimes.
We can hope, but until and unless impeachment is put back on the table, then it's never going to happen. Oh, sure, we the people can keep demanding it of our Congressional leaders, but if they keep rebuffing us, we'll have to take matters into our own hands and force the issue somehow. After all, we're supposed to be government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Well.....we're supposed to be, anyway. Doesn't mean it is. Anymore, we're nothing but a corporatocracy. Money talks. If you've got it, you can buy policy. If not...well, forget it. Remember, in Washington, no one can hear you scream. (After all, you might be considered an "enemy combatant" and be carted away in the middle of the night to some black site to be waterboarded, never to be heard from again......)
You will never see W approach a microphone without the words "Fuck, I hate this and all these people" under his breath---his whole body says it just before he "has to" begin any kind of public address, especially Q&A. He thinks nobody notices, but you can visibly see him sigh, roll his shoulders, "harrumph" and scowl, twist his lips in contempt---the same contempt his vicious (yet sainted) father had for democracy shown when he looked at his watch impatient for a Presidential debate to be over. (The Bush Crime Family are all waiting for democracy to be over.) Funniest/most sickening recent moment: on David Letterman's show they had a film segment, "President Bush Pretends He's Interested," and there was W trying not to slooch down in his chair like a bored pouting grade-schooler, looking around, pursing his lips, giving a brief vapid smile, nodding "yeah whatever" as somebody spoke---I just hope that somehow someday the world dope-slaps him in the face with his criminal squandering of life, his own and uncountable others'.
MAXHEMUST: Thank you for posting the "list," and as you know (given certain past references to the cosmic equation), the upcoming T cross, formed among Saturn to Libra, Uranus to Aries, with Pluto Capricorn down the middle and ALL in adverse relationship to the US Cancer sun sign, suggests the lords of karma, operating through the cosmic clockworks, will be impeding the continuation of same. Karmic blowback of some sort is aimed our way.
BeForKids The legislative branch has abdicated its responsibolities because it has been bought out or thretened as well documented by US insiders responsible for the second terrorists attack of 2001 - the anthrax letters sent to Democrats in congress and the news agencies at which point the congress was closed down and the patriot act was passed.
MaxheMust: Thank you for your service.
Note that this is a list that covers ONLY abuses by the US in the second half of the 20th century.
MaxheMust: Do you seriously believe Cheney and Bush will be charged with war crimes?
You should share whatever it is you are smoking so the rest of us can believe this too.
Thanks, canuckchuck, I went to your posted link and read Eisenhower's speech and reflected how different it is from the speeches Bush gives. Polar opposite in fact. A shame what this country has come to. Not that it has been ever well behaved, but it is now out in the open and people accept without protest the oppression and torture we use to control other people's resources and labor for our advantage.
I can't say that on some level they always knew, because I didn't myself; but once I did, I started objecting and protesting. Not that it made any difference.
kathyodat
http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html
"Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system -- ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.
Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.
Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war -- as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years -- I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.
Good Work Maxhemust....The problem is not Bush, he is just the latest puppet of the fascist US State as controlled by the Military/Industrial/CIA complex.
. Hillary Clinton or John McCain will be just as effective puppets for the corporate fascists....Barack Obama might just be different, but if he is, he would likely be shot from a grassy knoll before he can take office.
Pervez must need a Swiss vault to stash his bribe money.
Bush/Cheney Crime family only like elections they run. Witness the poor Palestinians who voted out the corrupt PLO in favor of Hamas. Oops! wrong choice - now we attack them and try to destory them for thinking we actually meant that democracy was a good idea. Same thing in Pakistan. Bush has not ever met a dictator he doesn't like, nor seen a true democracy that he did like.
If Christian Americans' cannot see that Bush is evil then Christianity is evil too, something American Indians have known since Columbus.
annabelle, the checks and balances don't exist because the legislative branch has fallen flat on it's face. It abdicated it's responsibilities.
kathyodat
Democracy got stuffed into the deep pockets of Bush/
Cheney right behind the Supreme Court. It is now the
Executive/Judicial versus the Legislative, the checks and balances of a democracy no longer exist.
Bush is just another puppet for the forces of greed, violence, & deception. He's not much different from the others...
-------------------
A Brief History of U.S. Interventions: 1945 to 1999 by William Blum
The engine of American foreign policy has been fueled not by a devotion to any kind of morality, but rather by the necessity to serve other imperatives, which can be summarized as follows:
* making the world safe for American corporations; * enhancing the financial statements of defense contractors at home who have contributed generously to members of congress; * preventing the rise of any society that might serve as a successful example of an alternative to the capitalist model; * extending political and economic hegemony over as wide an area as possible, as befits a "great power."
This in the name of fighting a supposed moral crusade against what cold warriors convinced themselves, and the American people, was the existence of an evil International Communist Conspiracy, which in fact never existed, evil or not. The United States carried out extremely serious interventions into more than 70 nations in this period.
China, 1945-49:
Intervened in a civil war, taking the side of Chiang Kai-shek against the Communists, even though the latter had been a much closer ally of the United States in the world war. The U.S. used defeated Japanese soldiers to fight for its side. The Communists forced Chiang to flee to Taiwan in 1949.
Italy, 1947-48:
Using every trick in the book, the U.S. interfered in the elections to prevent the Communist Party from coming to power legally and fairly. This perversion of democracy was done in the name of "saving democracy" in Italy. The Communists lost. For the next few decades, the CIA, along with American corporations, continued to intervene in Italian elections, pouring in hundreds of millions of dollars and much psychological warfare to block the specter that was haunting Europe.
..........
Excerpted/copied from:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/US_Interventions_WBlumZ.html
A collection of Mr. Blum's work including more recent material can be found at:
http://www.killinghope.org/
***
William Blum is the author of Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. China - 1945 to 1960s: Was Mao Tse-tung just paranoid?
2. Italy - 1947-1948: Free elections, Hollywood style
3. Greece - 1947 to early 1950s: From cradle of democracy to client state
4. The Philippines - 1940s and 1950s: America's oldest colony
5. Korea - 1945-1953: Was it all that it appeared to be?
6. Albania - 1949-1953: The proper English spy
7. Eastern Europe - 1948-1956: Operation Splinter Factor
8. Germany - 1950s: Everything from juvenile delinquency to terrorism
9. Iran - 1953: Making it safe for the King of Kings
10. Guatemala - 1953-1954: While the world watched
11. Costa Rica - Mid-1950s: Trying to topple an ally - Part 1
12. Syria - 1956-1957: Purchasing a new government
13. Middle East - 1957-1958: The Eisenhower Doctrine claims another backyard for America
14. Indonesia - 1957-1958: War and pornography
15. Western Europe - 1950s and 1960s: Fronts within fronts within fronts
16. British Guiana - 1953-1964: The CIA's international labor mafia
17. Soviet Union - Late 1940s to 1960s: From spy planes to book publishing
18. Italy - 1950s to 1970s: Supporting the Cardinal's orphans and techno-fascism
19. Vietnam - 1950-1973: The Hearts and Minds Circus
20. Cambodia - 1955-1973: Prince Sihanouk walks the high-wire of neutralism
21. Laos - 1957-1973: L'Armée Clandestine
22. Haiti - 1959-1963: The Marines land, again
23. Guatemala - 1960: One good coup deserves another
24. France/Algeria - 1960s: L'état, c'est la CIA
25. Ecuador - 1960-1963: A text book of dirty tricks
26. The Congo - 1960-1964: The assassination of Patrice Lumumba
27. Brazil - 1961-1964: Introducing the marvelous new world of death squads
28. Peru - 1960-1965: Fort Bragg moves to the jungle
29. Dominican Republic - 1960-1966: Saving democracy from communism by getting rid of democracy
30. Cuba - 1959 to 1980s: The unforgivable revolution
31. Indonesia - 1965: Liquidating President Sukarno ... and 500,000 others
East Timor - 1975: And 200,000 more
32. Ghana - 1966: Kwame Nkrumah steps out of line
33. Uruguay - 1964-1970: Torture -- as American as apple pie
34. Chile - 1964-1973: A hammer and sickle stamped on your child's forehead
35. Greece - 1964-1974: "Fuck your Parliament and your Constitution," said
the President of the United States
36. Bolivia - 1964-1975: Tracking down Che Guevara in the land of coup d'etat
37. Guatemala - 1962 to 1980s: A less publicized "final solution"
38. Costa Rica - 1970-1971: Trying to topple an ally -- Part 2
39. Iraq - 1972-1975: Covert action should not be confused with missionary work
40. Australia - 1973-1975: Another free election bites the dust
41. Angola - 1975 to 1980s: The Great Powers Poker Game
42. Zaire - 1975-1978: Mobutu and the CIA, a marriage made in heaven
43. Jamaica - 1976-1980: Kissinger's ultimatum
44. Seychelles - 1979-1981: Yet another area of great strategic importance
45. Grenada - 1979-1984: Lying -- one of the few growth industries in Washington
46. Morocco - 1983: A video nasty
47. Suriname - 1982-1984: Once again, the Cuban bogeyman
48. Libya - 1981-1989: Ronald Reagan meets his match
49. Nicaragua - 1981-1990: Destabilization in slow motion
50. Panama - 1969-1991: Double-crossing our drug supplier
51. Bulgaria 1990/Albania 1991: Teaching communists what democracy is all about
52. Iraq - 1990-1991: Desert holocaust
53. Afghanistan - 1979-1992: America's Jihad
54. El Salvador - 1980-1994: Human rights, Washington style
55. Haiti - 1986-1994: Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?
56. The American Empire - 1992 to present
56. The American Empire - 1992 to present
Notes
Appendix I: This is How the Money Goes Round
Appendix II: Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-1945
Appendix III: U. S. Government Assassination Plots
Index
_____
http://www.killinghope.org/
skippyagogo, it started out at 26 million, but Clinton killed off a million, Bush another 1.5 million, and 2 million have fled the country. 2 million more are internally displaced, but still count, at least as long as they are alive.
kathyodat
My god. Is this a democracy? Our last four Presidents have been a man with Alzheimers, a CIA spook, a flim flam man, and now a sociopath. Makes me think of that Twilight story about an alien invasion "To serve mankind". Someone finally figured out the book they brought was a cookbook.
I understand the problem, keep us ignorant and distracted while they work the crowd like pickpockets. Of course, there always comes a tipping point when the money runs out. And finally along comes a man with character and integrity but people have forgotten what it looks like. Fortunately our young people haven't totally lost their senses yet and recognize something many others can't.
kathyodat
There's not a chance that the usa would try to invade or occupy Pakistan. Their armies can't occupy Iraq, which has a population of 30 (or is it down to 25) million people. And this article suggests that the usa attack and conquer a nation of 170 million? Nukes, perhaps. But I should hope that the Russians have told the bushies that the use of nukes against another nation will be seen as use of nukes against them. Otherwise we'll not make it to the supposed end of history in 2012.
The achievement here is not that Bush managed to befriend yet another dictator; it is that he can now remember Mr Musharref's name ~ something he couldn't manage in 1999 in the run up to the US presidential election.
Next he will be counting to 4 on his own. (4, coincidentally being the number of billion times I would like to kick him in the head for being such an enemy of democracy)
Mr. Brauchli. Bush himself is incapable of making a distinction between an oath to defend the Constitution and lies of convenience. Bush's handlers and the corporate corruptors of the Anerican government know precisely the difference.
Our government has been usurped and corrupted by corporate looters who know exactly how to steal and how they might murder to their own best advantage.
At some point in the next year or two, Bush and Cheney will be impeached and charged with war crimes.
Mr. Bush proved in 2000 what he really thought about democracy. He is most comfortable with properly managed elections, those that come out with the right result regardless of the actual balloting.