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I suppose that by the time this column hits cyberspace, Baghdad and most of Iraq will be smoking ruins. There won't be any General Colin Powell urging a Bush President to use restraint. Nothing to stop the U.S. military juggernaut from rolling into Baghdad. This time there will be no sparing Saddam…he is pretty crafty, and might even escape the U.S./Brit dragnet…but his days of doing business in Iraq are over. And that is a good thing. I don't think that there will be much resistance from the Iraqis-- Saddam is not exactly Churchill. He is a gangster, a common thief who is richer than god, a murderer, a terrorist, and he deserves to hang …I hope they catch him and send him to the Sebah family…the emirs of Kuwait. They will cut off his head-twice. But wait … wait until those who are supposed to be thrilled with their 'liberation' … wait until they encounter marines reclining on American tanks at every street corner. An American general will be the new sultan, and the U.S. 'liberators' will be about as popular as the 3rd Reich was in Paris or Brussels. The tab for this occupation force will be enormous, but then we will be in control of the oil business …'fill-er-up'…and that will help finance this whole sorry adventure.
'Let them hate us as long as they fear us' … this is the linchpin of Bush's foreign policy, and it is exactly why the world hates us. Napoleon and Hitler also conducted their foreign policy along these lines, and look what happened to them. Bush's Doctrine of Preemption has put the world on notice that 'you may be next.' Venezuela had better put their house in order and get that oil flowing again…or else. The Bush/Cheney diplomatic record is abysmal. Let's see-he pulled out of the Kyoto Accords, a treaty signed by more than 100 nations. Even Tony Blair, W's. comrade-in-arms, ridiculed this treaty because it wasn't nearly radical enough. Bush pulled out of the 30 year old Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia…sorry Putin, we are back in the ballistic missile business…like or lump it. He ran from the World Court plan…hell, some international judicial body might put his ass on trial for invading a sovereign state without provocation And now this dreadful business with Iraq. Bush has pretty much destroyed the post-cold war alliances forged and nurtured by two presidents from opposing parties. Fuck a bunch of diplomacy … who needs it?? Excuse the football metaphor, but we have become the 6'5" linebacker who weighs 260 pounds, bench presses 600 pounds and runs the 40 in 4.5 seconds. Our military technology has become our great art form. The Germans gave us symphonic music, the Russians gave us Dostoevskii and extraordinary dancers and Stolichnaya, the Italians contributed Michelangelo, Verdi, and Puccini … the Greeks threw in democracy, the French gave us Matisse and Monet and Bordeaux wine…what has been our great contribution to world civilization?? … better, more efficient ways to kill an enormous number of human beings. We have become Rome. I cannot take credit for this observation. A good friend, a PhD in political science and a soldier in the Greek army said it. We have become Rome. Military conquest and empire building has become our diplomacy. After the quick, resounding victory in Iraq-France, Germany and probably Russia will have some 'splainin' to do. Count on it. Look for the U.S. Army to relocate its troops in Germany to cheaper, friendlier Budapest or Bucharest…or another one of the faithful few of the 'new Europe'. Paybacks are hell. I have made an observation over the last few weeks-there is a consensus among anti-Governor Bush people with whom I have daily contact that W. is stupid. I totally disagree. This is a serious miscalculation. Look at what he as achieved with his sub-par intellect. He is the President of the United States even though he got fewer votes that his opponent. He wanted the Nazi Ashcroft and got him. He wanted huge tax cuts for the superrich, and the rollover congress gave it to him. He wanted the Patriot Act, and he got it. He wanted the 2002-midterm congressional elections, and he got them. He wanted this military adventure in Iraq…and in spite of huge domestic and international pressure….he got it. In fact, the only setbacks he has experienced are the drilling in ANWR and a few Federal judgeships … but the game is young…and he has plenty of time. Anyone who has such a consistent record getting what he wants is not stupid. He is not a cardboard cutout or marionette whose strings are pulled daily by Cheney or Rove. He is, like Caligula, a mindless megalomaniac (funny, Gil Scot-Heron used the same phrase to describe Nixon) who is smart enough to recognize his limitations…that is why he has Perle, Wolfowitz and the Bush News Network (AKA Fox TV). He has already set the world on its ear with his court intrigue…and he is dangerous. I believe his obsession with empire is fueled by his religious convictions. As New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof observed, Bush cannot be explained or understood outside the context of his faith. He is the religious right on steroids. Finally, one of Rumsfield's undersecretaries of Defense was quoted in the Washington Post-according to him "anybody can do Baghdad, but only real men can do Tehran". Our future, gentle readers…and they have the guns and money to do it. God do I have a headache.
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