Eagle Column 5-9-04
Berkshire Eagle
I, Publius
Bush's appeal mind-boggling
By Alan Chartock
Special to the Eagle


Saturday, May 15, 2004 - The question that seems to be on everyone's mind is why George Bush is competitive in the race for president. No one can make sense of the fact that the quagmire keeps getting deeper and, as in Pete Seeger's song "The Big Muddy," "... the big fool says to push on." Before it all began, we heard former U.N. weapons inspector and Marine Scott Ritter tell us there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

We've heard Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism chief, and former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill say that George W. Bush was irrevocably committed to his war in Iraq. Some have theorized that his motives had to do with oil, some that he was seeking to create a U.S.-style democracy in the Middle East, or that he was getting even for Saddam Hussein's attempted assassination of his father, or that the war was his attempt to compete with his own father, George H.W. Bush, who failed to finish off Saddam when he had the chance.

It doesn't really matter. As predicted, the body bags are coming home, and it doesn't look as if there is any real way out. It appears that most Iraqis don't want us there and may not want the United Nations there, either. If we learned anything from the American Revolution or Vietnam, it should be that nationalism is a powerful force. It gives little people the strength and will to fight wars that look unwinnable on paper.

The Shiite Muslims hold the majority, and if left to their own devices in a supposedly democratic election, they will establish a theocracy reminiscent of Iran. If that were to happen, woe be to those who are Sunni Muslims or Kurds. We can't argue that we are imposing a democracy when we are not.

In the meantime, it turns out that representatives of this government have added fuel to the fire by committing reprehensible acts of humiliation and torture in Iraqi prisons that rival the degradations committed by the evil Saddam in those very dungeons. We see incredible images of naked Iraqi prisoners being bitten by dogs. We hear of murders of prisoners during interrogation. We see the real terrorists and opponents of this country emboldened, coming to Iraq to exploit our mistakes when there is substantial proof that they weren't there before we entered into our ill-conceived policy of intervention in Iraq.

For the first time, bills are being introduced in Congress that could lead to a reinstatement of the draft, a move that will only serve to mobilize middle-class students when it is their own bodies that will be on the line.

Throughout the ages, every war has its big brass bands and national pride until that moment when the body bags come home. Now there aren't enough troops on the ground to conduct the war and ensure security, and there never will be. Our troops are walking targets. Every day, several more are picked off at will, and the more than two-thirds of the Congress who voted in favor of the war can only look down at their toes.

In the so-called "red states" that voted for George Bush last time, support is still high. Cries of "Our country right or wrong," and the ludicrous "They bombed the World Trade Center -- get even," are still heard.

Incredibly, the polls show that Bush is in a tight race, and in most polls, is slightly ahead. Ralph Nader stays in with his 5 or 6 percent, most of whom would have voted Democratic. The national debt is at a level that would have been the talking point of the bond raters, and the Republicans had this taken place during a Democratic administration's watch.

These people want to privatize Social Security, prevent stem cell research, repeal a woman's right to choose and deprive Americans of some of their most important civil rights, including habeas corpus, and the country remains silent. A few soldiers will take the rap for the obvious widespread policy of human rights abuses in Iraqi prisons.

The ambitious John Kerry and his advisers will play it safe and keep pretty quiet. I'm sure the plan is to let George keep digging himself in. But half the country is wrapping itself in a know-nothing patriotic blanket, and it doesn't look as if anyone really wants to admit what everyone already knows -- that this country is in big trouble. Our allies are gone, our kids are in grave danger, and we face terrible times unless our politicians start to pay less attention to keeping their jobs and more attention to telling the truth.



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Alan Chartock, a Great Barrington resident, is chairman and executive director of WAMC Northeast Public Radio and a professor of communications at SUNY-Albany. His web site is www.alanchartock.com
- posted by Alan @ 5/16/2004 06:26:00 AM