AMERICA, PLEASE!

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE, SR.

AMERICA, PLEASE!

HOW CAN WE HAVE SO MANY SCHOLARS, AND NOT RECOGNIZE A FOOL WHEN WE SEE ONE?

It's amazing that the American people can't see what's going on right under their noses. We were smart enough to put a man on the Moon, yet we're too dumb to realize that we're letting an absolute fool lead us over the side of a cliff. How can we have so many so-called experts and scholars in this country and not see that?

I hate to base an article on a personal attack, but how can I not when dealing with a situation like this? George Bush has been a failure at everything he's ever done--it's a matter of public record. Every business venture he's ever been involved in has been a disaster. Bush's father has had to make coming to his rescue a way of life--in fact, George Senior tried to send Howard Baker in to rescue his presidency from the Iraq disaster, but George wouldn't listen.

George W. Bush has never earned anything in his life. His father has given him everything he's ever wanted on a silver platter--from the opportunity to play CEO, to an easy way out of fulfilling his military obligation during the Vietnam War. Even his presidency was a gift that he didn't deserve, and that has been the story of his life.

In 1974 Bush went to a Super Bowl party hosted by writer, Hunter S. Thompson. When Thompson was asked if he recalls whether or not Bush used drugs at the party, Thompson was quoted as saying, "I can't be expected to remember what every drug-addled yuppie hanger-oner who wanted to get close to me during a football game twenty-five years ago digested. There were so many dope fiends milling about, I don't remember what some Yalie named Bush, whose father was a factotum in the Nixon Administration, was doing. But he strikes me as the sort of person I would have thrown out of the room. A rich, beer-drunk yahoo with a big allowance who passes out in your bathtub. ... I don't want to become the Deep Drug Throat. ... I won't do it." Yet, now we trust this guy, who ducked out on his own military obligation, with the lives of young Americans troops. We've got to be out of our minds.

This time, Junior's not just playing CEO with other people's money--this time he's playing with the lives of young Americans. He's treating the lives of our sons and daughters like their toy soldiers. He's playing with the very future of the United States, and quite possibly, the world. It is beyond incredible that the future of the entire world hangs on the whim of this overindulged, pouty little brat, but that's exactly where we find ourselves.

This man was warned that the invasion of Iraq would destabilize the Middle-East. He was told that Saddam Hussein didn't have any weapons of mass destruction, and while he was far from a nice guy, he was necessary to maintain order in Iraq. They told him that Saddam saw al-Qaeda as a threat, so he kept them out of Iraq, and he was also warned that it was Saddam that kept the ambitions of Iran in check. But what did he do with all of that information? Instead of going East into Afghanistan after Osama, he went North into Iraq like a bad out of hell after the oil--and he was in such a hurry to get there that he wasted the lives American troops by leaving their protective equipment behind. That's not a leader-that's a fool.

But maybe that's what we deserve, because even as our troops continue to die--and our military is being destroyed, and our treasury is being looted, and our grandchildren are being saddled with debt--we still listen to those who tell us that we must trust the judgement of our commander in chief--this man who has already demonstrated the worst judgement of anyone who's ever even walked past the White House. And worse yet, we're even considering electing other fools who continue to support his policies. If we don't become realistic and get away from this Hollywood screenwriter's vision of the world, in the rosiest scenario we're going to end up goose-stepping and speaking Chinese, or at worse, blowing up the entire planet, because blowing up the planet will be our only option.

Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, Bush's former top commander in Iraq, has pointed out that it's going to take, at least, a decade to reconstitute our military even now, and the situation is getting worse every day that we spend in Iraq. We've already ravaged out treasury, so where are we going to get the money to do that? And in the meantime, much of the money we do have is going to China, and China is spending that money, according to our Pentagon, in an "unprecedented military buildup." In addition, they've involved Russia in war games, learning to work as a team.

And beyond that, when you consider the anger that was generated in this country when three thousand of our citizens were killed during 9-11, can you imagine the animosity that we've generated in the Middle-East as a result of the hundreds of thousands of deaths that we're responsible for in Iraq? We're also making the very same mistake in Pakistan with Musharraf that we made with the Shah of Iran. In spite of our shallow claims of supporting democracy, we're clearly trying to stuff our puppets down other people's throats--but it didn't work in Iran, and it's not going to work in Pakistan. All we're doing is creating, yet, another enemy--but this enemy has nuclear arms.

Thus, our entire world strategy is arrogant, foolhardy, and completely wrong-headed. Instead of strutting around threatening people like a clumsy idiot, we need to be doing some fence-mending--because I hate to tell you, America, but if we have to become involved in another conventional war, anywhere in the world, we're going to be in a world of trouble. The rest of the world knows that--we're the only ones that still seem to be in the dark about it.

Rome once ruled the World, but now they're just that place next to the Vatican. The very same thing can happen to the United States--and will, if we don't wake up. So as I pointed out in my last column, we need to cut our losses--and now. Bush and Cheney got us into this mess with their selfishness and unmitigated greed, so we must not only distance ourselves from their crimes, but we should also impeach them, arrest them, and then offer them up to the world community for war crimes. Thereafter, we should extend our most sincere apology to the people of the world for all of the destruction we've allowed them to commit in our name. Then once that's done, we should attempt to find a resolution to the Israeli/Palestinian issue in an evenhanded manner.

I realize that sounds unthinkable to many Americans, but that's only due to the arrogance of believing we're above the law--but that's what we're trying to get away from, aren't we?

Eric L. Wattree, Sr.