After the Fall
Bush's Day of Reckoning
By Wayne Madsen
23 February 2003
The day of reckoning may be close at hand for Bush's 'Coalition of the Willing.' The worldwide February 15
protests that saw millions of people in the streets protesting the reckless adventurism of the Bush
administration has begun to eat away at the periphery of Bush's 'Dominion of Deception.' Just as the Roman
Empire fell, province-by-province, the 'Coalition of the Willing' also looks set to collapse. The signs that our
global nightmare may soon be over are evident.
When French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin received an unprecedented ovation after his speech at
the UN Security Council and the world witnessed a miffed Colin Powell unceremoniously depart the chamber
with his apparatchiks, those who favor peace over war received a much-needed shot of adrenalin.
And as American city councils -most notably those of Chicago, Philadelphia, and Atlanta- continue to pass
anti-war resolutions, the end of the Bush regime may, thankfully, also be in sight. Bush and his allies, who
dismiss their own peoples' protests as irrelevant and unpersuasive, will eventually face their wrath at the
voting booth. The people will eventually prevail. However, it is now time to decide how to effectively deal with
the purveyors of war and disinformation once they are out of power. The warmongers must never again be
permitted to unjustly threaten other nations with war and military occupation.
In addition, the police who enthusiastically maced and tear-gassed the elderly, the handicapped, and children
should be identified. Textual, photographic and video records of their identities and behavior should be
maintained. After the warmongers and gangsters are run out of the White House, Congress, and state
houses, civilian commissions should be established with the power to indict law enforcement officers who
engaged in motiveless violence. Politicians who oppose these moves should be summarily voted out of office
and replaced with those who will support an ultimate accounting by the civil rights violators.
Similarly, politicians who refuse to repeal the draconian USA Patriot and Homeland Security Acts should be
shown the door. The Teutonic and fascist-sounding "Homeland Security" term must be eliminated from
government and popular usage and replaced by 'Civil Defense.' That term worked during the Cold War with
the very real threat of global thermonuclear warfare. It will also suffice in the War on Terrorism. And no
longer will the US government haphazardly be able to label countries as an 'Axis of Evil' without legitimate
provocation.
News organizations that cooperated with the warmongers' agenda should also be identified and vilified. The
Associated Press (AP) continues to massively undercount the numbers of anti-war demonstrators. Its
dispatches from Paris reported the number of demonstrators there to be in the "thousands" when, in fact, the
number was well over one million. Other AP stories relied exclusively on numbers obtained from police
departments charged with deliberately low balling figures. This is not journalism. It is disinformation, pure
and simple. Readers and viewers should expose the AP, the cable news channels, and newspapers like The
New York Times by writing letters to the editor and sending and posting e-mails.
The rightwing Babelists on the radio airwaves should be constrained by a return to fairness doctrines. Every
minute of broadcast racism, xenophobia, and verbal thuggery should be matched with opposing words of
reason and sanity. Returning the public airwaves to the public itself will eliminate many of the Rush Limbaugh
clones who, on a daily basis, try to outmatch this modern day Father Coughlin's rightwing rhetoric with their
own unacceptable diatribes against "frogs," "krauts," "towel heads," "camel jockeys," and "wet backs." For
the more egregious purveyors of hate, broadcast regulators should impose heavy fines on their radio stations
and syndicators. After all, the United Nations has indicted Rwandans for broadcasting hate-filled messages in
1994. If radio hate broadcasts were an international war crime then, they should be now.
Political sell outs should also be run out of office and embarrassed from ever again seeking elective office.
Tony Blair comes to mind as the primary example of a person willing to sell out his political party and country
for a few photo ops with George W. Bush. Like his predecessor John Major, Blair may have been promised a
lucrative position with The Carlyle Group, an international cabal of corporate manipulators tied to the Bush
family. The Labor Party should hasten its cleansing process with an immediate vote of no confidence in Blair
and his Cabinet supporters.
And, alas, Senator John McCain turns out to be the biggest sell out in modern American political history. Many
of the people who have always questioned the motives of the Bush family were among McCain's most ardent
supporters. I feel betrayed that after voluntarily working for McCain's 2000 presidential primary campaign
-an effort that helped secure a record 61 percent victory over Bush in Arlington County, Virginia- McCain now
chooses to glom onto the xenophobic and nationalistic rhetoric of the rightwing. The so-called straight-talking
McCain now opts for demagoguery, saying that while people have a right to protest they do not have a right
to be "foolish." McCain's shameful duplicity will forever be enshrined in America's political hall of shame.
Pseudo-Democrats like Joseph Lieberman, who owes his Senate seat to rightwing paragon William F. Buckley,
should be pounded into irrelevancy in the early Democratic primaries. Likewise, pretty boy politicians like
John Edwards, who recently sponsored a bill to create yet another spy outfit -the Homeland Security
Intelligence Agency- should not only be sent packing from the presidential primary but also from his next
North Carolina senatorial primary run.
But take heart! The reaction to the Bush agenda is already having positive effects. The so-called 'willing
coalition' is collapsing. Bush's chicken hawks who drone on about some 30 countries supporting the war will
soon have to face the fact that many of these nations will soon join France, Germany, Russia, Canada, and
Mexico in opposition. One country often cited is Bulgaria. Bulgaria's monarchist-based conservative
government is on the verge of collapse and will be replaced by one opposed to Bush's war plans. A newly
resurgent Dutch Labor Party is now within striking distance of the conservatives after surging ahead of a
xenophobic anti-immigrant party in January's elections. In a recent poll, 43 percent of Dutch said they had
"zero confidence" in Bush.
Spain's pro-war conservative government has united the opposition against it with 65 percent of Spaniards
opposed to a war with or without UN approval. Public opinion polls in Donald Rumsfeld's "New Europe" are
running heavily against Bush's war aims. Only 24 percent of Czechs favor Bush's war, while 62 percent of
Slovenians and Poles are against their governments' support for Bush. Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan
quickly did an about face after signing a pledge of support for Bush. The reason: a poll showed 81 percent of
Croatians oppose the war. Similar results are repeated across Eastern Europe with 66 per cent of Estonians
and 76 percent of Hungarians opposed to the war.
Italy's scandal-plagued Prime Minister and Bush ally Silvio Berlusconi is once again under a cloud of suspicion
for questionable financial deals. He may soon be voicing his support for Bush from an Italian prison.
Denmark's conservative Prime Minister is under fire from Danish opposition parties for unconstitutionally
backing Bush without consulting with the Danish Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee. Bush's favorite
organ grinder monkey, Tony Blair, was sweating before a Labor Party conference in Glasgow while the ever
more popular Liberal Democratic leader, Charles Kennedy, had an anti-war audience of 1.5 million in the
streets of London.
Bush's 'Coalition of the Willing' is a mere paper tiger. No wonder a senior US intelligence official recently
scoffed at the term, calling it an "overused phrase." The real coalition of the willing are the millions who
protested against the Bush regime. Croats and Muslims, once at war with one another, protested together in
Bosnia, Greek and Turkish Cypriots united at a protest at a British airbase on their divided island and Israelis
and Palestinians jointly staged an anti-war protest in Tel Aviv. Hundreds of Americans joined in the Paris
anti-war protest, receiving thunderous cheers from the French protestors who jammed the streets with them.
Judging from the body language of the Bush shills who hit the television talking head shows the day after the
global protests, they are absolutely shell shocked after a week of the world saying in unison to the Bush
regime, "Enough!" National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice appeared to be on the verge of tears and/or a
nervous breakdown. Colin Powell was visibly boiling after he received a drubbing from the Security Council.
The maniacal Rumsfeld continued to lash out against Europeans, the latest target being Austria for its
insistence on maintaining its constitutional obligation of neutrality. Tom Ridge, the dullard in charge of
"homeland security," had to tell people not to wrap their homes in plastic sheeting and duct tape after telling
them they should be prepared to do exactly that. John Ashcroft, the "Singing Nazi," announced, with Ridge
behind him playing second fiddle, that the nation was at Code Orange. It was later revealed that the alert was
based on bogus information. And Bush Junior appeared more and more mentally challenged, uttering juvenile
words like "gooder" in war rally speeches.
Fortunately, for the people of the world, once these pathetic fools are finally run out of office, the political
futures for them and their ilk will be relegated to oblivion. The People must firmly pledge to ensure that never
again will the seats of power be handed over to such a cabal of crooks and gangsters.
The good news for the millions of people who have braved the elements and the kilometers to demonstrate in
the streets against the Bush war machine is that The People will soon regain the reins of political power. The
bad news for the mindless warmongers is that The People of the world have long memories and, ultimately,
The People will have their day in court.
Copyright © 2003 by the News Insider and Wayne Madsen |
