a very well written anti-Bush column . . .
From now on, I'll just believe the opposite
By Don Negus
A lie can travel half way around the world while Truth is still putting on its shoes.
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- Mark Twain
Truth, like gold, is to be obtained, not by its growth, but by washing away from it, all that is not gold.
- Leo Tolstoy
FROM THE HARDWAY BALING CO. — My conservative friends (yes, I have several who remain dear to me despite their unfortunate condition) occasionally get on my case about my seemingly constant criticism of the Bush administration.
To which I reply, "I get tired of it too but somebody needs to hold our Boy President's boots to the fire.“
If he would start telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, maybe I could go back to writing bucolic paeans to trout- fishing and motorcycles.
Of course it's not just Junior Bush. In addition to their penchant for taking secrecy to unprecedented levels (which started way before the 9/11 calamity) this entire administration has shown an almost Orwellian facility for stretching the truth to fit its own neocon ideologies.
When it comes to defining the mendacity of George W. Bush, I am reminded of something the George Armstrong Custer character said in "Little Big Man,“ Arthur Penn's brilliant revisionist-western from 1971.
Referring to the protagonist, Jack Crabbe's desire to secure the vainglorious Indian-fighter's demise, Custer says to his skeptical aide-de-camp: "Everything that man (Crabbe) tells me will be a lie. He will therefore, be a perfect reverse barometer.“
Bingo. If we automatically reinterpret everything that comes out of Bush's mouth to be the exact reverse of what he tells us, we'll be in a much better position to ferret out what's really going on in any given situation.
One of the most potentially dangerous misconceptions foisted on the American populace by this administration, has been the notion that our Islamic fundamentalist enemies, don't hate us for what we do, but for what we are.
"They hate us for our freedom.“
This is absurd. And patently untrue. Look, kids, Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda s**t-weasels don't give the tiniest rat's ass if my wife wears a mini-skirt to the mall.
His hatred stems largely from America's 50-year hegemony in the Middle East in general, and our support for the House of Saud in particular.
Am I trying to say that the attack on the World Trade Center was our fault — that the victims of that tragedy were in fact "little Eichmanns“ — as controversial Colorado University History professor Ward Churchill recently claimed?
HELL NO. Absolutely not. The bombing of the Twin Towers was a heinous, irredeemably evil act and the remaining perpetrators need to be hunted down and stomped like poison rats (something the Bush administration has thus far been unable to accomplish).
What I am saying is, unless we understand our enemies' mind-set and explore the real reasons behind their virulent antipathy, we'll be ill-equipped to protect ourselves from future attacks.
I'm saying that the truth of the situation is nowhere near as simplistic as George Bush and his band of neocon cowboys would have us believe. Complex problems require complex solutions.
All of which leads us to the administration's most recently uncovered prevarication, namely, making intentionally misleading statements to our Asian allies concerning North Korea's export of nuclear materials.
In briefings earlier this year, the Bush administration told our other partners in the six-nation talks, that North Korea had sold nuclear material to Libya and was, therefore, helping to create a new nuclear weapons state.
But according to a recent story in the Washington Post, it has come out that this is not what happened at all.
Instead, supplies of uranium hexaflouride — which can be used to enrich weapons-grade uranium — were sent to Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the "War Against Terror“ and a nation that already owns a nuclear arsenal.
It was Pakistan that later sold the material to Libya and there isn't a shred of evidence that North Korea knew anything about the second transaction.
The Bush administration's intentions were, no doubt, to isolate Pyongyang (and to cover up Pakistan's role in the deal) but instead left our allies increasingly doubtful of our credibility.
In response, the North Koreans withdrew from talks and have become increasingly bellicose (that is, more than usual) and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is attempting to repair the damage as she travels through East Asia — trying to get the six-nation talks back on track.
Since Pakistan became a key U.S. ally in the, thus far, fruitless hunt for al Queda leaders, the administration has refrained from holding President Musharraf accountable for the illicit nuclear shopping network operated by Pakistan's top nuclear scientist, Abdel Qadeer Khan, while he was a member of Musharraf's cabinet.
Meanwhile, the U. S. will be hard-pressed to put "more boots on the ground“ in the Korean peninsula should an emergency situation arise there, due to the severe over-extension of our armed forces in what has turned out to be a prolonged guerilla war with insurgents in Iraq.
Yet Bush still promises "no Draft.“
Our perfect reverse barometer.
Don Negus is a Morning Sun columnist. His column appears on Wednesdays.
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