George Bush's delusion : Tragedy does not give America a free hand
Leader
Thursday January 31, 2002
The Guardian
A tendency among politicians to exploit the September 11
tragedy has been apparent from the very first. In Israel, Russia
and China, governments were quick to use America's agony to
justify the unjustifiable in Palestine, Chechnya and in Xinjiang.
Pakistan's ostracised regime found in September 11 a return
route to international acceptance. Its arch rival India, in its turn,
used one crisis to dramatise another, in Kashmir. From Tehran
to Khartoum to Harare, political leaders climbed aboard the
anti-terrorism bandwagon with a view to domestic advantage as
well as Washington's aid and approbation. Even Tony Blair's
post-September 11 empathy offensive was not totally devoid of
similar calculations.
Such is the inevitable way, perhaps, of a hard-hearted, cynical
world. But when George Bush, president of the very nation that
was targeted, follows suit and begins to exploit and manipulate
the September 11 tragedy for political advantage, alarm bells
must ring out loud. Yet this is exactly what Mr Bush's first state
of the union address unabashedly set out to do. All US policy,
both international and domestic, is now framed in terms of last
autumn's emergency; all measures, however partisan and
divisive, are justified in the name of patriotic unity and solidarity;
all misgiving and dissent must be overridden for the sake of
America's "just cause". Mr Bush, in his black-and-white way,
has clearly convinced himself that in what he calls the "decisive
decade in the history of liberty", his duty, mission and calling is
to direct the triumph of good over evil at home and abroad.
"America will lead by defending liberty and justice because they
are right and true and unchanging for all people everywhere," he
declared.
This is a premise fortified by falsehoods and underpinned by a
delusion. The principal falsehood is that the policies Mr Bush
now advocates are dictated by an ongoing terrorist menace.
They are not. Primarily they are the products of conservative
Republicanism, set dangerously loose in September 11's
aftermath. There is nothing new, after all, in the idea of Iran, Iraq
and North Korea representing an "axis of evil"; the American
right has been gunning for them for years. There is nothing new
about the ballistic threat. Mr Bush has long wanted missile
defences ; now he uses September 11 to justify his plan. When
Mr Bush speaks of "tens of thousands of dangerous killers
schooled in the methods of murder... spread throughout the
world like ticking bombs, set to go off without warning", he is not
only being irresponsibly alarmist; he is also disingenuously
justifying the whopping $48bn defence budget increase he
always dreamed of.
These exploitative falsehoods extend into the domestic arena.
The "economic security" of Americans is not best served by yet
more tax cuts, as Mr Bush proposes; he has already
squandered the Clinton surplus. Big business cannot be trusted
to lead the fight out of recession; just look at Enron. A new
"culture of responsibility" will not derive from the same old
trickle-down economics, unregulated corporate greed, wasteful
and destructive energy and environmental policies and bent
campaign financing.
September 11 undoubtedly bound the American nation. But it
did not blind it. Sooner or later, Mr Bush, self-styled universal
soldier for truth, will have to stop pretending that tragedy gave
him a free hand to remake America and the world to fit his
simplistic, narrow vision - or risk having voters and US allies end
the pretence for him. For this is the delusion under which he
labours. And a very dangerous delusion it is too.
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