So, what would happen if Bush met with Cindy Sheehan and told the truth?

[understandinglife]

Imagine Bush meeting Cindy Sheehan and listening to her question(s).

Imagine Ms Sheehan asking Bush -- what noble cause did Casey give his life to serve?

And, Bush answers -- oil, water, strategic bases.

In other words, he tells Ms Sheehan, and the entire world, THE TRUTH.

I have had discussions with numerous individuals since it became obvious that Bush would succeed, with the able assistance of Scalia on that fateful Saturday in December of 2000, and the SCOTUS the following week, in stealing the election, Those discussions have centered on the neocons agenda in the Middle East and Central Asia. Those discussions have invariably involved oil. They also have involved access to water and strategic base locations. I frequently mention Talill air base as an example in my conversations. Mr Dionisi rightly points to the strategic location of Nasiriyah.

As I read Mr Dionisi's wonderfully terse account of the core issues, I realized that the "bingo" question to ask all of you is simple -- What would you do if Bush told Ms Sheehan, and everyone else on the planet, the truth.

Here's an excerpt from Mr Dionisi's essay:

The courageous stand by Cindy Sheehan and many other anti-war Americans is based on demanding the truth. Consider for a moment why we have not heard the mainstream media or the President mention the role of water in the Iraq war. The Middle East is home to five percent of the world's population and only one percent of the world's renewable water supply. In addition, the population in the Arab world is 280 million people. This population, comparable to the population of the United States, is on track to double in just a few decades. The truth that Cindy Sheehan and others are demanding includes the reality that Iraq is a critical strategic location for both al Qaeda and the United States not just because of Iraq's oil, but because Iraq has the most extensive fresh water system in the Middle East.
A nation without enough water is in a worse position than a nation without enough oil. Understanding the role of water in the Middle East explains why there is no exit strategy from Iraq and why many Middle East experts predict the United States will be in Iraq for decades.

<clip>

From Will Cindy Sheehan Be Protesting in Crawford Until 2017? by David Dionisi on August 17, 2005

Link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/david-dionisi/will-cindy-sheehan-be-pro_5759.html

Sure, those reading DU know that a key reason Bush and the neoconsters launched their war of aggression on Iraq is "oil." And, perhaps many realize the strategic base location and water issues as other core reasons for the invasion and occupation.

That is not the point -- it's not whether we get it.

The point of this post is -- what would happen if Bush answered Ms Sheehan, truthfully.

Hey, Georgie boy, do you have the guts to tell all of us why Casey Sheehan and more than 1800 other American soldiers have died and more than 10000 have suffered wounds?

Do you have the courage to tell all of us the truth as to why torture and murder of Iraqi citizens and others just doesn't matter to you and your neoconster buddies?

Step up to the podium, mister pretender to Christian values, and just say, 'heh, heh, yeah you frigging idiots -- it's the oil, it's the water, it's the bases.'

I dare ya to meet with Ms Sheehan and tell her the truth.

Oh, and all you folk inside the Beltway, Republicans and Democrats, who have been and continue spinning every which way on this issue -- you are just as accountable as Bush on this one.

Thank you Ms Sheehan for your brave persistence in forcing Bush to speak the truth to you and all of us.


Peace.

[Midlodemocrat]

1. He won't meet with her.

If he had met with her earlier in her stand, he would have made himself look really good. Now, he will look as though he is capitulating to a woman who has been vilified by the RW smear machine.

And, if he were to meet with her, he certainly wouldn't tell her the truth. He is incapable of discerning truth from lies.

[understandinglife]

6. My question is to each person who reads this post -- what would ...

... happen if he told the truth?

How would you respond if he spoke the truth - We are in Iraq for three reasons - strategic control of the region's water; strategic control of the oil and strategic location of our strike forces.

What would "you" do?


Peace.

[steve2470]

7. Me ? I'd cuss him out, walk out, and then tell the world !!!!!!! nt

[understandinglife]

10. Thank you -- a direct answer to the question. I hope many, many ...

....others, whether they respond to this thread or not, think about what they would do, and what the consequences would be, if Bush told the truth.


Peace.

[Midlodemocrat]

13. I honestly don't know.

I have such loathing for him, I am not sure I could hear what he had to say without cursing him out.

[understandinglife]

19. Thank you. I appreciate your honesty. I hope that as people think ...

.... about the question, they will begin to consider the consequences of Bush telling the truth.

If suddenly all the spin stopped and he just said what he and the neocons are actually doing -- controlling access to oil; controlling access to the one substance we all need way, way more than oil; and firmly grounding that control by the location of rapid strike bases.

What would folk do if they had to face the hard reality that they have been told by the President that by paying taxes they are directly supporting the imperial quests of a few ultra-rich and remorseless killers.


Peace.

[matt819]

2. Like all Republicans,

he's congenitally unable to tell the truth.

Let him keep telling his lies. Slowly, people are beginning to realize that he is a liar and that those surrounding him are liars and thugs, no better than gang members kissing up to the gang leader. Pathetic.

[rateyes]

3. Their would be a snowball fight...

in hell.

[Career Prole]

4. What would happen if shrub up and told the truth?

Take five pounds of popping corn.
Pour it out on a big upside-down metal trashcan lid.
Set it down on the ol' campfire and step back.

Soon there will be a scaled-down representation of the exploding freeper heads across the country should shrub just up and tell the truth one day. :D

:popcorn:

[understandinglife]

11. I like that imagery!!

I think a few non-freepers' heads would be exploding, as well ;)

So, what would you do? What do you think the consequences would be, beyond 'exploding heads'?

Thank you.

Peace.

[steve2470]

5. George might incur serious bodily damage before the end of that meeting

Lurkers, I'm NOT advocating violence, ok ?

[cliss]

8. Here's why it won't happen.

Cindy Sheehan has publicly stated that she'll debate him. Note the word Debate. She's prepared to ask him some questions. He'll answer - or he'll try to answer. She'll lose not a moment and she'll have 10 more. That's the problem. Bush is incapable of thinking that fast, or to have his arguments hold water.

Here's an example:

They finally get to meet.

Cindy: Mr. Bush, why did my son die? You said it was for a noble cause. What is that noble cause?

Bush: Why -uh, well - you know that noble cause is for freedom, for democracy. We're spreading a new way down there in that Middle -uh East, hm.

Cindy: Really? And how's that coming? What about the 100,000 dead Iraqis? Was that really necessary? Do the Iraqi people feel it was worth it?

Bush: -uh, (stalls) you're asking too many questions at once. (smiles) Yes, it was worth it. The sacrifice was worth

Cindy: (cuts him off) So why are we not seeing any progress? Why are the troop deaths going up?

Bush: starting to get confused. Trying to focus on her last question and give her the "canned" answer I - the the the United - Iraq is about to -

Cindy: What about my son?

Bush: Looks around for a way to exit - doesn't answer

[understandinglife]

9. Yes, I understand that scenario. However, it is not what I am asking.

I am asking each of you, each person who reads this thread, what woud YOU do if he told the truth.

I'm not asking will he meet with her. I'm asking what would you, cliss, do if he spoke the truth.

By the way, I like your script and have no disagreement with it being a likely representation of how Bush would behave. I'm just probing something else.


Peace.

[cliss]

15. If he spoke the truth?

I would just sit there, with a blank stare on my face. It would take a little bit of time to absorb it, because he's such a liar.

After about an hour or so, I'd make a beeline to every news outlet I could get my hands on.

[understandinglife]

22. Thank you.

I'll be interested in any further thoughts you have regarding your response(s) to being told the truth by the President.


Peace.

[Just Me]

12. I'd demand justice.

Every single member of congress (D, R, I) would receive a personal letter from me demanding impeachment and conviction of the criminal-in-chief and appointment additional asst. prosecutors to seek GJ indictments against every single one of his co-conspirators.

[Swamp Rat]

14. "You Are Under Citizen's Arrest!"

:patriot: Book'em Danno! :patriot:

[Misskittycat]

16. I'd be too distracted by pigs flying and hell freezing over. n/t

[Ravy]

17. I don't know about meeting with Cindy, BUT...

... if Bush ever told the truth about ANYTHING to ANYONE, I would consider it a sure sign of the apocalypse.

[tom_paine]

18. Would Hitler meet with families of Jewish Victims?

So, it won't happen. If it did? Perhaps he'd have his SS goons bludgeon her into submission by the side of the road.

[Javaman]

20. basically, hell would freeze over. Any questions?

[understandinglife]

21. Yes. See comment # 19, and ...

I'm interested in what would happen here on earth; in America.

I'm interested in what you would do if all pretense to noble causes, spreading democracy, and the like were discarded, and, you had a President tell you up close and personal:

-- we are occupying Iraq for control of oil,

-- for control of the drinking water that 100s of millions of people need to survive

-- and we exert that control through the location of bases that allow our drones and super-sonic aircraft immediate strike capability anywhere in the Middle East and Central Asia.

No pretenses remain.

We get that which we are demanding -- the truth.

What would you do?


Peace.

[Javaman]

23. After picking myself up off the floor from fainting you mean?

I would say, that's fine and dandy, now let the investigations proceed so we can put him in jail.

[understandinglife]

24. Thank you.

And, yes, it would be quite a shock!

I am simply trying to have folk realize that if they got what they request, that Bush actually tell the truth about Iraq, they might want to think really hard about how they would respond to the stark, unambiguous reality of being a citizen of an evil empire.


Peace.

[Generator]

25. The truth?

First, no one on DU though they think they do-actually knows what Bush thinks. You speculate, you might be correct. But you don't know. You aren't >shudder< inside his brain.

Maybe it's not so black and white. Maybe it can be two things at once! This is my main point in almost every debate.

Maybe they want the oil and maybe the also think what they are doing could be for the greater good. People are not cartoon characters of evil. They don't think-"Hey let's kill everyone and not give a shit because all we want is to be rich". That's really not how MOST people are. Bush probably BELIEVES that they can do some good. He doesn't in actuality care about the sacrifice of the troops lives or the Iraqi's because I bet he's rationalized that it would be less than whatever damage Saddam would do-or could have done-or would have done or the "terrorists" might have done. Whatever. It's crap logic but it doesn't mean he thinks heh heh I just care about the resources. Now-I think Cheney probably does only care about profit...but Bush..I'm not so sure. But again, I DON'T KNOW. But I damn sure that if Bush told the truth-it would be a combination of the two-to protect America-hell I think he really believes that-and I 'm sure he is a dim bulb-and to secure the gas. But you know what? Americans are guilty too. I see thread after thread here bitching about high gas prices. Like that's the real worry in the world today? Fuck the cars. We need to change our whole way of life. We need vision. We need a way out of war-and to not care what government Iraq or Iran or Saudia Arabia has. But if Americans had any vision they would realize they must reject the whole oil deal-because plenty of Americans I can bet you are just as "evil" as the whole Bush gang-and put their way of life as reasonable to sacrifice all these deaths.

I just don't find anybody so innocent in all of this. And frankly, somehow (yeah I'm getting metaphyisical) I think this government is some deep shadow of our own selves. It's not unconnected. And it's not all about George Bush. Many books have been written about the appeal of Hitler to the German people,and I think there is more to any story than greed or resources. The very idea of ourselves is at stake. So the scarier proposition is what if he told the truth and no one really cared-just find the cheap gas George!

I'm starting to believe the peak oil thing more as time goes on. The water thing? Mmmm..but if he told the truth and said we need the oil..otherwise-$10 a gallon-or change your whole way of life-how many Americans would choose the war?

[understandinglife]

29. Most excellent. Truly appreciate this response!! And, 'bingo' ...

.... "So the scarier proposition is what if he told the truth and no one really cared" ...

I am being provocative for the simple reason that I wonder what would happen if Bush provided to the American public the type of accounting that robust Boards of Directors require of CEOs. Are we really prepared for the consequences of him meeting with Cindy Sheehan and telling her the truth?

We know she is an articulate, informed member of the Board of Directors (aka an American citizen).

We know she will demand a specific accounting of the reasons we are in Iraq.

What I do not think many have been willing to confront, or even consider, is what would happen if Bush leveled with her - if he opened the spreadsheet and said here are the facts.

Thank you for the effort and thought evidenced by your comments. I look forward to continuing the dialogue.


Peace.

[hiley]

26. I have been looking

at this post and then pacing back and forth across my house trying to come up with an answer.

After getting up off the floor I would start demanding his arrest and the arrest of his administration.
After that I really do not know what to do...

SO many of OUR leaders are corrupt.
It would be far from over if he did tell the truth, seems to me it would just be a beginning of another battle.

[understandinglife]

30. Thank you for taking the time to think about the question and ...

... I agree, it would just be the beginning.

It is the beginning of what must happen no matter if Bush ever meets with Cindy or ever tells the truth.

One way or another our fellow Americans need to confront the realities of this administrations strategic objectives in Iraq and the fact that Bush and the neoconsters demonstrate zero intention of changing course, and Congress has not demonstrated any effective leadership in stopping them.

Remarkably, Cindy Sheehan is forcing the issue.

We now have more and more people demanding that Bush meet with her.

What I've not seen anyone consider is what happens if he does and he tells her the hard bloody facts - America now has rapid strike bases smack dab in the heartland of the Middle East, America needs and now controls access to the oil, and America can make everyone in that part of the world do what it wants because America also controls the water supply.

Suddenly, none of our fellow Americans would have an excuse. They would have to confront American imperialism up close and personal.


Peace.

[hiley]

32. A Cancerous Tumor in the Body Politic

Time for Surgery

By Bernard Weiner, Co-Editor
The Crisis Papers

August 16, 2005

snip--
When a malignant tumor shows up in the polity, you follow the same protocol. When the costs of denial become too great, when so much damage and death and destruction is done in your name, then the cancer finally has to be faced and dealt with. Society must mobilize itself for radical surgery, and then through symbolic chemo/radiation -- reforms, re-asserting the primacy of the rule of law and Constitutional protections, re-establishing the checks-and-balances established by our Founding Fathers -- try to ensure that one-party rule, authoritarian leadership, police-state measures, "pre-emptive" wars, torture as state policy, incipient native fascism, etc., do not have an easy chance to re-assert themselves again.

But in order to reach this Restoration-of-Constitutional-Rule era, there first must be a general consensus on the nature of the disease, indeed on the fact that there is a malignancy on the loose, and thus a willingness to combat it. In the past two Presidential elections, it would appear that more than half the population voted for someone other than the cancer-party candidate, but the "official" election results (counted by corporations in lockstep with those in power) said otherwise.

snip--
http://www.crisispapers.org/essays-w/tumor.htm

[understandinglife]

33. "Society must mobilize itself for radical surgery...." -- yes, Weiner ...

...definitely gets it.

As he notes, "... there first must be a general consensus on the nature of the disease, indeed on the fact that there is a malignancy on the loose, and thus a willingness to combat it."

The metastatic malignancy is American imperialism and the consumerism it nurtures.

It is so much more comfortable for many to hope that Bush not only never meets with Cindy, but way more importantly that he never speak the truth.

If he did, then no American could avoid the reality of American imperialism. If Bush spoke the truth about oil; the truth about the exceptional strategic advantage of controlling Iraq's water system; and, the intentional installation of strategic rapid strike capabilities he and the neoconsters now have operational in Iraq, the American public 'would have no clothes.'

Thank you for posting this excellent article.


Peace.

[hiley]

34. UL, you might like this one as well..

The flag won't protect you; it's in the wrong hands

By Luciana Bohne

08/13/05 "ICH" -- -- Across my lawn, I can see an American flag waving in my neighbor's backyard. Mr. Smith (not his name, of course) is a nice man but he's 95 years old, and I can't take issue with him. I can't tell him that the sporting of the flag, at this time, is tantamount to saying, "I am a fool. Traitors run the country in our name. They are taking our money from the treasury and spending it on a shortcut to world domination through war.

The one in Iraq costs something like $200 million a day. Our troops come back in coffins no one is allowed to see. The president does not attend their funerals. He mocks their death with a jest, amusing the press by pretending to look for elusive weapons of mass destruction (WMD) under his Oval Office desk. The vice president is planning to nuke Iran should there be another 9/11. Meanwhile, Iraqis, living and dead, swim in a river of boiling blood. If I fly the flag, I'm saying all this is all right by me. Poor flag, to be raised in a time like this! Wouldn't it be more respectful to tuck it away for more honorable service in better times?

Better times? Time to stop fooling myself. The idiocy is contagious.

When were there better times? Since the birth of this nation, it has engaged in more than 200 armed interventions around the globe.

Since 1945, a conservative death count for US adventures abroad can easily tally up to 6 million. Easily! Circa 3 million in Vietnam alone; then there's Indonesia, Haiti, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Chile, just off the top of my head. Plenty of torture, too: Argentina, Brazil, Egypt. Oh, you know the sad litany.

And not just abroad. There was slavery, reputed to have cost forty million lives and the bloodiest conflict in history up until then, although freeing slaves was merely the hypocritical pretext for one industrial power block to crush the inefficient slave-agrarian one. A different slave system was born—imitated throughout the world, and now in its imperialist, full-spectrum, warpath phase. There was one of the most brutal and cynical genocides in history—against the native population—to reckon with. There was the crime of being the first and only nation to have used the atomic bomb . . . TWICE—without many scruples or visible residual guilt. In fact, today 50 percent of Americans say they would have no trouble using it again.
snip---
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9754.htm

Luciana Bohne teaches film and literature at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at [e-mail].

[bluedog]

27. Truth in a sentence with bush?

it doesn't fit well.......he don't speak truth!

[understandinglife]

28. Here is what I posted to Congressman Conyers' call for letters:

To whom it may concern:

What would happen if Mr Bush answered Cindy Sheehan honestly.

What would happen if in response to her question - "What noble cause did Casey give his life to serve?" Mr Bush spoke of the three strategic reasons he launched a war of aggression and subsequent occupation of Iraq.

How would each American respond to Mr Bush informing them, honestly, that Iraq's oil reserves must be controlled by America?

How would each American respond to the reality that Iraq has the largest fresh water system in the Middle East and that America now controls access to that life essential resource?

How would each American respond to the reality that the air bases America now controls in Iraq provide rapid strike capability anywhere in the Middle East and Central Asia?

Are we all prepared to receive from Mr Bush what we are requesting -- that he meet with Cindy Sheehan and speak the truth about why Casey died in Iraq?

Are you, my fellow Americans, prepared for the truth or would you prefer to not have Mr Bush stop the flowery rhetoric of 'noble cause' and 'spreading democracy'?

Be sure you really want the truth about the critical strategic reasons Mr Bush and his neoconster buddies entered the White House in January, 2001 knowing that they intended to achieve in Iraq, shortly thereafter.

The burden of that truth is profound, as some now realize.

He posted the call for letters in a blog at HuffPo. The link is:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/john-conyers/join-me-in-writing-1000-_5802.html

It's always wise to reflect on what one would do in the event of getting that for which you ask.


Peace.

[Fleshdancer]

31. If Bush started acting like an honest leader, my head would explode.

Seriously, I can't even wrap my head around your hypothetical situation. How sad is that?

[hiley]

35. Unacceptable regimes in Iraq and the United states

Unacceptable regimes in Iraq and the United states
Occupied zones

There are killings every day in Iraq. Occupying troops, diplomats, aid workers and media people are killed, as are Iraqis, in far greater numbers. But President George Bush’s war is not only against opponents in Iraq and the Middle East: it is a war against his fellow Americans.

By Howard Zinn
snip---


What is our job? To point all this out. Our faith is that human beings only support violence and terror when they have been lied to. And when they learn the truth, as happened in the course of the Vietnam war, they will turn against the government. We have the support of the rest of the world. The US cannot indefinitely ignore the 10 million people who protested around the world on 15 February 2003.

The power of government, whatever weapons it possesses, whatever money it has at its disposal, is fragile. When it loses its legitimacy in the eyes of its people, its days are numbered. We need to engage in whatever actions appeal to us. There is no act too small, no act too bold. The history of social change is the history of millions of actions, small and large, coming together at points in history and creating a power that governments cannot suppress.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9802.htm

[DawgHouse]

36. Hell would freeze over n/t