The Creators of Nightmares - Democratic Underground

NanceGreggs

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Mon Jan-01-07 09:32 PM
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The Creators of Nightmares

Edited on Mon Jan-01-07 09:40 PM by NanceGreggs

"The Creators of Nightmares"
By Nancy Greggs

As you awoke this morning, the last effects of champagne and merry-making gone, you were faced with the sobering fact that we begin a new year still entangled in the problems of the old: an out-of-control situation in Iraq, and a delusional president still pondering what to do about it – as more people die.

Surely you, the Republican powers-that-be, would agree that the time is long past due: now is the hour to put an end to the joke that is this presidency, and take responsibility for the insanity you have not simply contributed to, but created.

And yes, the fact is that George W. Bush is your creation.

You trotted him out in front of handpicked crowds, and told him he was adored by the masses. You applauded his intelligence, as the world laughed at his obvious stupidity. You praised his grasp of domestic and world affairs, even as he displayed his ignorance.

You were the cheerleaders who encouraged his wrongdoing, the indulgent parents who kowtowed to every whim. You told him that he was not stubborn but resolute, not dismissive of advice but introspective, not inhumane but God-like in his determination to wage war, to kill innocents, to torture, to destroy – all for some Noble Cause that has yet to be defined.

You fed his arrogance, his sense of entitlement, his delusion that there would never be any accountability for his actions, no matter how disastrous their consequences.

You stood by idly as he plunged the country into debt, and funneled taxpayers’ dollars into a war you’ve long known to be unwinnable. You supported his policies regardless of how detrimental they were to your constituents, or to the nation as a whole. You sat in silence as he dismantled the Constitution, ignored the rule of law, and circumvented the checks and balances meant to ensure that unfettered power would never be placed in the hands of any one man.

You fawned over your political masterpiece, and openly berated those who doubted his ability to lead. You paraded yourselves as Christians, as you encouraged the populace to kneel at the feet of the false idol you had created. You questioned the patriotism of those who disagreed with your wrecklessness, and encouraged the bloodthirsty to silence those who desired peace.

But worst of all, you wrapped yourselves in the flag, publicly flaunted the moral values you knew yourselves to be bereft of, and sent our soldiers to die – not for a mistake, or out of a misguided sense of what was right, but for a lie which you not only covered up, but embellished and passed off as the truth.

And now your Great Decider sits alone, no doubt wondering why he – a man of such great intellect and determination, a man who has such a keen perception of what needs to be done, a man so imbued with an unwavering sense of purpose – cannot come up with a solution to the very problems he created, albeit with your encouragement and your blessing.

Don’t you think it’s time, folks, to let him in on your cruel joke? Shouldn’t one of you sit him down and explain to him that the person he thinks he is does not exist in reality, but was simply a figment of your collective political imagination?

Make no mistake; I feel no sympathy for this monster you have foisted upon my country, and the world. He allowed himself to be deluded – out of a sense of self-importance, out of greed for power, out of a desire to act out his fantasy of omnipotence. He eagerly assumed the role you so carefully crafted and, as we head into a new year of shifting political power, he and his puppet-masters will be held accountable at long last.

My concern is not for the lonely man left to ponder why his decision-making skills seemed to have suddenly fled – along with the support of his adoring public, and his onetime friends now focused on the political expediency of distancing themselves from the failures they made inevitable, and the crimes they once so enthusiastically aided and abetted.

My concern lies with those who can still be saved.

So now is the time to go to the King and tell him the truth: The throne was never rightfully his, and he is nothing more than a court jester whose mindless buffoonery has cost tens of thousands of lives – a number that will continue to rise as long as he is allowed to believe in the illusion of his own competence, the fairytale of victory, the happily-ever-after ending that will never be.