The logic of the irrational: Bush’s inaugural address

[RBHam]

By David North, wsws.org
22 January 2005
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jan2005/inau-j22.shtml
Excerpt:
The lesson drawn by the Bush administration from the world-wide exposure of its criminal deceit was that the United States should not justify the next round of military actions by claiming it faces any specific, concrete, physical threat from Iran or any other country targeted for military attack. Such claims of imminent or even potential physical danger to the security of the United States lead only, as far as the Bush administration is concerned, to annoying and time-wasting demands for verification.

It is for this reason the inaugural address dropped all reference to “terror” and “terrorism,” and invoked as the new justification for war something far more abstract and ethereal: the struggle against “tyranny” and for “liberty” and “freedom.”

In the key passage of his address, Bush declared: “We have seen our vulnerability—and we have seen its deepest source. For as long as whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny—prone to ideologies that feed hatred and excuse murder—violence will gather, and multiply in destructive power, and cross the most defended borders, and raise a mortal threat.”

It is this “mortal threat” posed by “tyranny” that the United States must now fight “by force of arms when necessary.”

Of course, this rationale for war rests on a glaring political and psychological absurdity. Bush made no attempt to explain why people living in “whole regions of the world” which “simmer in resentment and tyranny” should despise the United States and pose a threat to Americans. The only rational explanation for this phenomenon is that they see the United States as an oppressor and enemy. Thus, the claim that the United States is engaged in a global crusade against tyranny is contradicted by Bush’s own description of the conditions which he invokes as a justification for war.

[papau]

1. Well said! :-) and a fact and thought that the media needs to understan

:toast:

:-)

[ixion]

2. “We have seen our vulnerability"

which would be the truth and reality, of course. :grr:

[atommom]

3. Maybe they're simmering in resentment of OUR tyranny?

It's all just rhetoric, anyway. He's trying to stir up the faithful with "freedom" "liberty" and "tyranny," just to weasel out of having to provide (trumped-up) proof next time.

I still can't figure out why the hell anyone still believes him.