Truth Or Consequences - No To Dictatorship

In time, the Bush administration's greed, arrogance, egotism, self centered, righteous, racist policies will be judged by Americans, Canadians and the UK as pure evil. The balance of the world already has unveiled the empty hubris. The whole lot - Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and their The Project for the New American Century - will be unveilled as unlawfull and criminal. I hope Canada stands for justice and peace throughout the remainder of Bush reign of Terror. Furthermore, the Bush administration's pro military-industrialist "war is peace" policies have invaded all political, economic, enironmental and social spheres of life in the United States. It is being exported around the world, with battle lines forming in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. And, I would argue, to the detriment of the greater good of the people, countries and the planet. Moreover, Bush's PNAC is causing the people and countries of the world to react in extremes mode of conduct. This is true in the realm of all human endeavor such as political (Israel or Syria, or Iran), business (Enron), military (Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebonon) religion (Christian evangelicalism, Muslim fundamentalism), environmental (oil spills in the Phillipines, Canada), sport (Landis, Barry Bonds) and social (poverty, slavery, racism). For example, the Iraq invasion reveals our civilian militarists (Bush & Cheney) instigation of war in pursuit of economic and geopolitical gains. Documents reveal that civilian militarists represented powerful business and geopolitical interests and advocated a prolonged occupation of that country. They wanted to overhaul Iraq's economy according to a restructuring plan, drawn up before the invasion. Clearly business profitability overrides chances of victory and military honor and pride. For the military - fiasco, for the powerful beneficiaries of the Pentagon budget - a huge windfall. A recipe for disaster; for empeachment; military coup d'etat. Earlier this year, some influential retired generals called for Rumsfeld to resign his post as Secretary of Defense because of his abusive leadership style and strategic failures in the war in Iraq. Rumsfeld has been described as "incompetent strategically, operationally, and tactically". As per Lieut. General Greg Newbold some of the missteps include: the distortion of intelligence in the buildup to the war; McNamara-like micromanagement that kept our forces from having enough resources to do the job; the failure to retain and reconstitute the Iraqi military in time to help quell civil disorder; the initial denial that an insurgency was the heart of the opposition to occupation; alienation of allies who could have helped in a more robust way to rebuild Iraq; and the continuing failure of the other agencies of our government to commit assets to the same degree as the Defense Department. The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners. The US Congress SHOULD NOT agree to any legal "clarification" of the War Crimes Act . Government officials CANNOT be allowed to commit or authorize crimes and then propose legislation to decriminalize their actions. To allow that would not just make a mockery of the Supreme Court's ruling in Hamdan. It would make a mockery of the rule of law. Another example is Israel's bombing of Lebanon. The hypocracy is overwhelming. President George W Bush joined the Texas Air Guard to avoid being drafted for Vietnam, and has limited experience and little knowledge of the potential capability air power in warfare. Vice President Dick Cheney used a variety of legal loopholes to avoid being drafted and being shipped to South Vietnam in the 1960s. And yet, According to Seymour Hersh, our civilian militarists (Bush & Cheney) believed that "a successful Israeli Air Force bombing campaign against Hezbollah's heavily fortified underground missile and command and control complexes in Lebanon could ease Israel's security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American preemptive attack to destroy Iran's nuclear installations, some of which are also buried deep underground." Are we really surprised that after: 40 years after Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip; 40 years after Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights; 6 years after Israel’s occupation of the Shebaa Farms in Lebanon; 5 years after the US invasion and destruction of Afghanistan; 3.5 years into the US occupation and devastation of Iraq and decades of killings, abductions, assassinations, economic sanctions, and exploitation of the Middle East that the US ambitions of empire should be meet by Herzbollah? The lesson of the war: there exists no military solution to either the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the Israel-Arab conflict in Lebanon. Moreover a strong Israeli army can not defeat a guerilla organization. Herzbollah is a political phenomenon. Nor can the Israeli army can not defeat the Palestinian militants. Hamas is a political phenomenon. It's time for just political solutions. The Bush White are fighting a media war too. New York Times columnist David Brook in an August 10, 2006 opinion piece wrote that “Polarized primary voters shouldn’t be allowed to define the choices in American politics.” It is a shocking display of the American establishment’s disdain for ordinary citizens. Columnist David Brook is advocating that the United States of America should be a dictatorship, not a democracy. The media war is rampant throughout US Media. Why is it that: the Jewish state is democratic but Muslim state are evil; Palestinians living in Palestine have no rights and no state but Jews can ‘return’; the United States, UK or Israel can produce nuclear weapons but Iran's nuclear ambitions are a global threat; legitimate resistance is terrorism but state terrorism is “self-defense”; Syria is Nasrallah’s courier and puppeteer but the United States is an honest broker and a partner for peace; Iran is a rogue state for arming Hizbullah but that America is freedom-loving for arming Israel; we no diplomatice relations worth Syria and Iran; expansionism and regime change are necessary for American and Israeli national security but that the Arab and Muslim winners of free and fair democratic elections should be arrested; 3 soldiers captured by Hamas and Hizbullah are worth the destruction of Palestine and Lebanon but that civilians kidnapped by Israel are not worth anything. Finally, the neoconservatives fundamental assumption that the natural resources of the planet, such as oil, belong to them is morally wrong. Hence the global backlash. It is getting stronger in the Middle East. Jean Chretien's Canada and France said NO to Bush's illegal war in Iraq. The American public will not stand for it either...just ask Joe Leiberman. Concurrently, individual Americans are increasingly fretting about whether the US budget deficit, current account deficit, low saving rates, high levels of household debt, soaring oil prices, rising interest rates and slowing earnings growth will converge to undermine the US economy. A boom in assets, rising profits, favourable treatment by market-friendly governments, and improved productivity have allowed the wealthy to prosper at the expense of the working class. Clearly class not race will emerge as the great divider. Rich versus poor. We are all losers in the end. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch, UNICEF, OXFAM, WADA and ICRC have the proof. Blind, monkey see monkey do, attitude and decisions will be remembered at election time. Stephen Harper must put Canada first. The people of the United States must say "NO TO DICTATORSHIP" via the ballot box. Paul Malouf Montreal,Canada