David M Green: "Bush's nightmarish experiment in proto-fascism sinks

[understandinglife]

... deeper into the grave to which it so deservedly belongs."

At a time of severe stress from all the evil and inhumane actions of Bush and the neconsters, a statement of hope and genuine gratitude to the troops has appeared.

I urge all of you to take a few moments and read David Michael Green's latest essay.

The 'Good News' from Baghdad

Published on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

By David Michael Green

George Bush says we must honor the sacrifice of those who have given their lives in Iraq. At last we agree on something. Mr. Bush, of course, is famously unable nowadays to articulate just what honorable cause our soldiers have been killing and dying for, despite the hundreds at Camp Casey demanding of him precisely that.

Perhaps I can be of some service to the president. I'd like to offer him an answer he can give to Cindy Sheehan's simple question.

You see, in a sense, Mr. Bush was right to analogize Iraq to World War II. Just as in that horrific war, Americans soldiers have been sacrificing their lives in Iraq to save the world from the scourge of a ravenous imperialist with the power to destroy millions of lives.

No, I'm not talking about Adolf Hitler. And I'm not talking about Saddam Hussein. The menace to world peace these soldiers are saving us from is none other than their commander-in-chief, George W. Bush.

The political present in America is replete with the strangest and most intense ironies, but surely there is no greater one than this. For the truth is that the greatest service being performed by American soldiers in Iraq is the dismantling of the very evil regime which sent them there in the first place.

<clip>

Full essay at the link:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/2430

David Green concludes with a tribute to our brave and honorable soldiers - "It is sad beyond words that it took your lives to stop this juggernaut of greed and violence, but not nearly as sad as what would now be happening had you not given them. We humbly and gratefully thank you."

Yes, we do.


Peace.

[Vogon_Glory]

1. Let's Not Start Singing At The Funeral Until...

Let's not start singing at the funeral of Banana Republicanism until after the major players in this maladministration and Congress of Republican knaves and fools have either left office or have been forced to retire. I won't be satisfied that these--people--are on the outs until they've been out on the streets and the civil and criminal indictments start coming down on them like volleys of avalanches.

We've still got a long way to go.

[mod mom]

5. Let's hope that Fitzgerald delivers indictments soon. It will open the

door for the barrage of criminal activity perpetrated by the Neocons to be explained to the American people.

We are ready in Ohio to bring our election theft evidence into a court of law. W's reign of corruption and death started with the 2000 theft in Florida (and elsewhere), but has gone on for generations through the BFEE.

[FreedomAngel82]

11. Oh yes

Apparently the Bush family has stolen elections for years in smaller democracies. They tested stealing it for the first time in 2000 and then 2002 with the machine's. Hopefully it's the end and they will be getting their justice with karma. Maybe, just maybe, someday after all these years the Bush crime family will get their justice.

[understandinglife]

7. "With each of your lives prematurely ended, you bring closer the end ...

... of the Bush presidency.

No one is suggesting we don't have much remaining to do.

What David Green has done, for the very first time, is provide a respectful and hopeful answer to Cindy Sheehan's question.

It is for us, the living, to accelerate the termination of the Bush neoconster imperialist phase of American history.

Thank you for your comments, though I doubt if I will ever sing at any of these brave soldiers' funerals because I'd find it impossible to do while crying.


Peace.

[seabeyond]

2. your lives to stop this juggernaut of greed and violence,

what this person is saying is simply...... awesome

[indepat]

3. Maybe more Americans, realizing the catastrophe mother nature has wrought,

will began to realize the catastrophes man has wrought.

[understandinglife]

15. David Corn: "My hunch is that—finally—many Americans ...

... are coming to see that Bush produced a terrible predicament that defies an easy (or perhaps any) resolution. He cannot place the apple back on the tree. And for that, many must pay.

<clip>

A few days ago, I was one on of those TV pundit shows, and the host of this gabfest—Derek McGinty—asked all the panelists whether George W. Bush's recent rah-rah speeches about the war in Iraq had done anything to rally popular support for Bush's mess in Mesopotamia. I did not surprise anyone by saying no and arguing that Bush had dished out warmed-over rhetoric that had previously failed to boost public sentiment toward the war. USA Today's Susan Page said much the same. But then the two conservative chatters — columnist Linda Chavez and the Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes — also gave Bush an F. They maintained that he had not made a strong case that the war in Iraq is central to the effort against terrorism. (They did not pause to consider this failure might be due to the fact that the connection between Bush's folly in Iraq and the effort against jihadist terrorism is tenuous.) When right, middle and left agree that the White House is flailing, Bush might have a problem. And now — a week later — Bush's pro-war speeches resonate not at all. Bush could have achieved the same results by staying home and clearing brush on his ranch.

Bush is stuck. There is little he can say to affect public opinion. It's been two years since "shock and awe" led to morass and misadventure. The problem these days is not the rhetoric, but the policy. And no matter what Bush says before a hand-picked audience, he cannot escape the original sin.

<clip>

So Bush cannot do more. He cannot do less. As war skeptics (such as yours truly) predicted would happen before the war, Bush has produced a dilemma with no good solutions. (Adam Garfinkle, a former speechwriter for secretary of state Colin Powell and now editor of The American Interest , notes in the premiere issue that before the war foreign policy experts did foresee the many problems and challenges that would confound the Bush administration following the invasion.) With his limited gifts, Bush cannot talk himself out of the hole he has dug.

From George Bush's Original Sin by David Corn on August 31, 2005

Link:

http://www.tompaine.com/print/george_bushs_original_sin.php

David Corn offers a rather terse warning to all those Democrats who seem to not have a clue what the word 'leadership' means.

Oh, and Georgie boy, one of the things I will do everything I can to make certain happens -- each and every day you are in prison, you will be served FRENCH fries.


Peace.

[hiley]

16. The Democrats better

start getting a clue it is long sense past due.

[MadeinOhio]

22. The Elected Democrats are who could blow this sadly.

If these democrats don't get a Howard Dean spine transplant, especially in the Senate the people are going to get unrestful.

I mean really, there is hundreds of scandals. There is definitely enough Democrats to jump on them hard and also fight tooth and nail for impeachment proceedings.

[1democracy]

25. Folks, this is dangerous if the Democrats don't come to life..

If now the Repugs disown Bush,and his Iraq policy, those Repugs could actually get re-elected as anti- war

AND with all of the rest of the horrific policies still in place-- anti science, anti environmentalism, anti- woman's right to privacy, anti- gay, pro corporation,pro- creationism, etc!!!

Wake up the Dems! Get on this bandwagon and ride!

[understandinglife]

27. A very wise bit of advice, "1democracy." Arianna Huffington, today, ...

.... notes something about Senator Hagel that everyone needs to be quite concerned. To wit:

Now she (Cindy Sheehan) is taking her protest to the next level, helping to organize a bus tour of key congressional districts and sending letters to every member of Congress, asking them to meet with her and her fellow grieving parents -- and to hold the president accountable for his disastrous policies in Iraq. As she puts it in her letter: "The President has not been willing to meet with me, but he must meet and listen to you."

<clip>

So who will be the Fulbright of Iraq? Warner? Not likely, given that he's still dismissing parallels between Vietnam and Iraq. John McCain? Sadly not, since he wants to send 15,000 to 20,000 more troops to Iraq.

The Boston Globe's Derrick Jackson makes a strong case that it could be Sen. Chuck Hagel, whom Jackson calls "the principled face of revulsion from within." It's a comparison that Hagel himself seems to be embracing, quoting Fulbright about the hearings in a speech earlier this year. And unlike Warner, Hagel, a Purple Heart Vietnam vet, sees the parallels between the two wars. "I watched 58,000 Americans get chewed up," he said on Meet the Press last month, "during a time when in fact we had a policy that was losing. And the members of Congress were interestingly silent and absent in asking tough questions. As long as I'm a United States senator, I will do everything I can to ensure that we have a policy worthy of these brave young men and women who are sacrificing their lives and doing the things that they do for this country. I don't think that policy is there today."

Sounds like a man ready for his close-up -- and fed up with an administration that has treated Congress "like a nuisance." He's already said that President Bush should have met with Cindy Sheehan. Maybe he, like Cindy, will now take it to the next level.

From Cindy Sheehan to Congress: It's Time to Do Your Job by Arianna Huffington on August 31, 2005

Link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/cindy-sheehan-to-congress_b_6475.html

Ms Huffington doesn't even bother to mention a Democratic Senator.

I have zero regard for Senator Hagel, by the way.

Perhaps its time for Howard Dean and the DNC to begin considering Cindy Sheehan for a major role in American politics -- at least we know she is willing to lead, she has proven to be an effective leader, and what she has to say makes sense.

p.s. And, Welcome To DU!!


Peace.

[MadeinOhio]

28. I have seen only Conyers and most congress democrats anti-war.

Everyone else from the senate onwards, seems to be pro-Iraq war which makes absolutely NO sense.

The only sense it makes is they are all the DLC, but even then...

Landrieu of Louisiana is DLC, and after seeing Louisiana and Alabama almost virtually wiped out due to us having no national guard because they were in Iraq, she should be ALL the way against the war.

There is no exscuse there, there is NONE. They want to go raping other countries for oil, do it on someone else's watch!!! And the oil refineries are GONE, so why don't we BUY our oil INSTEAD like Wes Clark has said!???

Bring ALL the national guard out of Iraq and start getting people out!!!!!

[hiley]

26. so far many elected Dems have blown it

hopefully they will get their head out of their asses NOW!

[understandinglife]

24. "Americans are looking for someone to emerge from her cowering party"

Ms Dowd joins in offering some comments on one particular Democratic Senator and thereby efficiently skewers many others.

But Hillary's not playing the vocal peacenik this time - she's the cagey hawk. She knows if she wants to be the first woman president, she can't have love beads in her jewelry box.

She has defended her vote to authorize the president to wage war, even though it was apparent then that the administration was snookering the country. And she has argued for more troops in Iraq, knowing it sounds muscular but there's no support for it from the public - or Rummy.

She figures the liberals will stay with her while she scuttles to the center, even if they get angry when she's not out front on stopping the war or preserving abortion rights. No one knows how she'll vote on John Roberts, so this could be her own Sister Souljah moment - will she break with the hard-line left on Judge Roberts?

<clip>

But by hanging back and trimming her positions, by keeping her powder dry until a more politically advantageous time, she may miss the moment when Americans are looking for someone to emerge from her cowering party to articulate their anger about Iraq or their fear about a Supreme Court that will scale back women's rights and civil rights here, as Islamic courts do the same in Iraq.

From A Lipstick President by Maureen Dowd on August 31, 2005

Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/31/opinion/31dowd.html

Once skewered, Ms Dowd applies the flame -- "Hillary may get caught flat-footed. Or she may be right in betting that there's no need to do anything rash now, like leading."

By the way, Senator Clinton, while you have NOT BEEN DOING YOUR JOB, another American woman has achieved name recognition to rival yours. Her name is Cindy Sheehan and she actually knows how to lead -- with intelligence, ethics and passion. A bit of advice -- you want to be sure that if Oprah invites her to appear on her show, she invites you, as well.


Peace.


Peace.

[Cha]

4. That is just so sad..because

of its intense veracity. The bushwa needed more Oil and they needed a "war president" and they needed strategy in the Middle East..there was no way they were going to listen to "The Fringe Group" "When The World Said No To War" on Feb 15, 2003.

bush's numbers were in the tank on September 10, 2001 and then they rose again after 9/11/01..leave it to bush to totally Screw all the goodwill that was given following the bushwa's mangling of defending our Nation on 9/11 and turn it to shit.

[MadeinOhio]

6. The experiment not only fell apart, it collapsed to pieces.

It is over. Time to impeach them all and force accountability for all GOP or other lying traitors.

[understandinglife]

8. "A war and a deluge stretch resources -- and nerves -- thin"

For years the Pentagon’s standing readiness plans required the country to be able to fight two major wars simultaneously. But no one anticipated what we face now: a war in Mesopotamia and another along the Mississippi.

We have journalist Malcolm Gladwell to thank for the idea that every social phenomenon has a dramatic “tipping point.” It doesn’t always work that way. And yet Hurricane Katrina is just such a moment. We are a big, strong country — and New Orleans will, somehow, survive — but you do get the sense, as President Bush finally arrived here after a month-long vacation, that a political hurricane is gathering force, and it’s going to hit the capital any day.

From A political hurricane is gathering force by Howard Fineman on August 31, 2005

Link:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9143849

Yes, that 'political storm' will be something seen only at the formation of the Republic and at the start of the Civil War. Way bigger than the civil rights movement, bigger than the Vietnam protests and, hopefully, not a second civil war, but, a massive sweeping clean of the corporatist control of our government and the brutal imperialism it has spawned in supporting the Bush neoconster regime.


Peace.

[FreedomAngel82]

12. I really hope that's true

I would love to get corporations out of our government. I think with the help of people like Howard Dean it can be done. I think once people know the whole truth about the GOP's officials and all the Bush administration etc. have done they will be angry at the republican party for a long time.

[hiley]

9. David M. Green speaks the truth

everyone needs to see this article.

"This is no exaggeration. Empire is precisely what is detailed in the Project for a New American Century playbook. As if one was even necessary. As if the organization's very name didn't scream imperialism from the get-go. These are the same people who brought us the Iraq debacle. The same people who have been agitating for this war for a decade"

snip--

What their sacrifices mean, ultimately and crucially, is that Iranians and Syrians and North Koreans and Cubans and Venezuelans (and Americans) don't have to die in the future, as Iraqis and Americans have died in the past.

Because, above all, the sacrifices of these soldiers mean that Americans will no longer follow this infantile Caligula of the New World off on his dress-up soldier's Fun Adventures in (Other People's) Death and Destruction.

Even Americans - so indolent and insolent, so self-reverential, so clueless about the destructive side of their impact in the world - even Americans have now had enough.

The era of George Bush is over. The emperor has no clothes, and everyone can now see it.
snip--
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/2430

[understandinglife]

10. Cindy Sheehan: "It Was the Oil, Stupid"

It Was the Oil, Stupid

By Cindy Sheehan

August 31, 2005

Day 25
The Peaceful Occupation of Crawford

"If Zarqawi and bin Laden gain control of Iraq, they would create a new training ground for future terrorist attacks," Bush said. "They'd seize oil fields to fund their ambitions. They could recruit more terrorists by claiming a historic victory over the United States and our coalition."(George Bush, August 30, 2005 in San Diego.)

So it is official, Casey had his blood shed in Iraq for OIL. He died so we could pay over 3.00/gallon for gas. Like I suspected all along, my dear, sweet son: almost 1900 others; and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis died so the oil fields wouldn't "fall into the hands of terrorists" and so George and his immoral band of greedy robber barons could become wealthier. Like I have said all along: how can these people sleep at night and how can they choke down their food knowing it is purchased off of the flesh and blood of others? We have found our "Noble Cause." And it is OIL. This man and his handlers need to be stopped.

Well, George and I are leaving Crawford today. George is finished playing golf and telling his fables in San Diego , so he will be heading to Louisiana to see the devastation that his environmental policies and his killing policies have caused. Recovery would be easier and much quicker if almost half of the three states involved National Guard were not in Iraq. All of the National Guard's equipment is in Iraq also. Plus, with the 2 billion dollars a week that the private contractors are siphoning from our treasury, how are we going to pay for helping our own citizens in Louisiana , Mississippi, and Alabama? And, should I dare say "global warming?" and be branded as a "conspiracy theorist" on top of everything else the reich-wingers say about me.

<clip>

We will take our country back. And it will be a country that we want back.

God Bless America!!!!

Link:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/2438

Yes, We The People ... Will.


Peace.

[hiley]

18. Oil and Water

greedy bastards of PNAC.

[MadeinOhio]

20. God Cindy boy do I hate it, and I feel for you.......

Casey and the others did die in vain, total vain.... :cry: :argh: :argh:

But wait....Just because they died in vain, does not mean that their sacrafice must be in vain. These crooks sent our people to die for OIL and that has been revealed, as has the AIPAC scandal and their spies harvesting the oil fields.

They died so these crooks could take over the caspian sea, and we now have that proof which means these arrogant bastards can be impeached. Casey's blood, their blood will not be in vain because we can now go forth, awaken the country, and impeach them all and incarcerate the traitors to our democracy.

Casey Sheehan did a brave thing, he died, so that we may learn the truth of how we wrecked another world country and did it for greed.

[understandinglife]

13. Phyllis Bennis: The Bush administration has declared war on the world.

The Bush administration has declared war on the world.

The 450 changes that Washington is demanding to the action agenda that will culminate at the September 2005 United Nations summit don’t represent U.N. reform. They are a clear onslaught against any move that could strengthen the United Nations or international law.

The upcoming summit was supposed to focus on strengthening and reforming the U.N. and address issues of aid and development, with a particular emphasis on implementing the U.N.'s five-year-old Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Most assumed this would be a forum for dialogue and debate, involving civil society activists from around the world challenging governments from the impoverished South and the wealthy North and the United Nations to create a viable global campaign against poverty and for internationalism.

But now, there’s a different and even greater challenge. This is a declaration of U.S. unilateralism, uncompromising and ascendant. The United States has issued an open threat to the 190 other U.N. member states, the social movements and peoples of the entire world, and the United Nations itself. And it will take a quick and unofficially collaborative effort between all three of those elements to challenge the Bush administration juggernaut.

<clip>

Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies , is the author of the forthcoming Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the U.N. Defy U.S. Power (Interlink Publishing, Northampton MA, October 2005

Link:

http://www.tompaine.com/print/a_declaration_of_war.php

Ms Bennis concludes with "This time, as before, the United States has threatened and declared war on the United Nations and the world. As before, it's time for that three-part superpower to rise again, to defend the U.N., and to say no to empire.

It is essential that every one of us bring our voice to the sustained statement of NO to the evil un-American empire of Bush and the neoconsters.


Peace.

[hiley]

21. Phyllis Bennis hits the nail on the head!

The Bush administration has given the United Nations what it believes to be a stark choice: adopt the U.S. changes and acquiesce to becoming an adjunct of Washington and a tool of empire, or reject the changes and be consigned to insignificance.

But the United Nations could choose a third option. It should not be forgotten that the U.N. itself has some practice in dealing with U.S. threats. President George W. Bush gave the U.N. these same two choices once before—in September 2002, when he threatened the global body with "irrelevance" if the U.N. did not embrace his call for war in Iraq. On that occasion, the United Nations made the third choice—the choice to grow a backbone, to reclaim its charter, and to join with people and governments around the world who were mobilized to say no to war. It was the beginning of eight months of triumph, in which governments and peoples and the U.N. stood together to defy the U.S. drive toward war and empire, and in doing so created what The New York Times called "the second super-power."


This time, as before, the United States has threatened and declared war on the United Nations and the world. As before, it's time for that three-part superpower to rise again, to defend the U.N., and to say no to empire.

snip--
http://www.tompaine.com/print/a_declaration_of_war.php

Check out Chris Floyd
Empire Burlesque
High Crimes and Low Comedy in the Bush Imperium
http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

[bleever]

14. What a great essay. Very powerful.

Nominated.

:thumbsup:

[DemReadingDU]

17. Thank you, U.L.

[Arkana]

19. That's quite a powerful title.

I don't quite understand his logic, though.

[MsAnthropy]

23. Very powerful

Thanks for posting.