Here We Are Again

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If Bush has learned one thing from history (and that would seem about the extent of it) it seems he has a willingness to do quite a bit of "saber rattling" to accomplish militarly what he has failed at politically, and to cover-up his utter lack of statesmanship. In this regard he has managed to win the hearts and minds of a slim majority of Americans, while alienating the other half of America and the rest of the free world.

Historically, the Americans tend to "rally around" the president under the national "threat of arms." Bush seems to have taken this axiom as the main engine driving the Bush train into new greener, political pastures. The conventional wisdom is that these "military adventures" are a huge distraction from the domestic agenda. And indeed it is, but in a surprising manner. For it is the American public who is really distracted from the domestic agenda, while Bush and his minions are quietly at work with domestic policy. Let me illusrtate:

While the public and the media were preoccupied with the Iraq effort, Bush managed to push through congress a comprehensive "reform" of medicare. In the process he paid off the big drug companies, while handing a huge bill to the American people (and some think welfare is really dead - really). It is regarded as one of the worst pieces of legislation in recent history by both conservatives and liberals. All this happened while the Patient's Bill of Rights, which really would have reformed the system, died a quiet death. But hardly anyone paid much attention.

Now Bush wishes to pay off his friends on Wall Street while handing American seniors a cut in benefits, and tranferring literally a trillion dollars out of Social Security and into "private accounts." Another round of poor policy, designed to pay off corporate America for helping give Bush his most sought after "four more years."

The recipient of all this saber rattling may be Iran. In the midst of the flap over Social Security, suddenly Bush has hinted that Iran may be in his sights:

What exactly does he mean by protecting America? It can be argued, and is, that Iraq never was the threat to America that everyone was led to believe. So, how is he protecting America with all this Iraq nonsense? But here we are again, this time with a new boogey man - Iran. But the real target is Social Security. He may never really attack Iran, but if he can make it appear that there is a real and present danger with Iran, he will draw the intense focus away from his schemes with Social Security, and with it all the media attention that such a historical policy of reform would require. The media loves nothing better than a war to drive ratings. And that's all these guys really care about. Oh, but it's a "liberal media" with a liberal agenda. Yes - and Iraq really has WMD, somewhere - don't cha know. Here's more:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/17/hersh.iran/index.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6836247/

[ January 18, 2005, 16:02: Message edited by: Chandos the Red ]

 

Good article Chandos- factually correct and well written.

You see, Bush doesn't see this as multiple wars on different countries: He sees it as one big War On Terror which means anyone he doesn't like much.

I predicted this stuff in '01, that as terrorists can use civil rights to attack our society, we would lose, or take rights away from ourselves. And look what happened next. Thing is, when the terrorists are defeated, we won't give ourselves the rights back. The media means we'll never stop being scared. It will take many years and gigantic upheavals to break THAT hold on society, especially when it controls our media, which we implicitly trust. Hopefully, said upheavals don't include nuclear usage. The Patriot Act is the most blatant abuse so far... Behind a preschooler-grade manipulation (the name.. If you vote against the Patriot Act, you must be un-patriotic!) it undos almost every major part of the Bill of Rights. Read http://www.sorcerers.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/20/1092.html for a great example.