We’re at War All Right – Right Here at Home

By W. David Jenkins III

“There never has been a state that has benefited from an extended war."  From Master Sun-Tzu’s “The Art of War.”

            John Walsh’s recent article, “Flunking the Art of War,” contained the above quote and I couldn’t help but see it in a completely different context from what Walsh had intended. Walsh was obviously and appropriately applying the ancient wisdom of Sun-Tzu in comparison to our modern day U.S. President of War- and his complete failure in Iraq- and the results of our leaving Israel and Lebanon to “duke it out” amongst themselves since nobody ever really read his “Roadmap to Peace.”   As I read  passages from the sixth century B.C., while at the same time wishing that Bush could have mastered literacy beyond the likes of “My Pet Goat,” a stark and disturbing thought came forth– America may not survive the war within its own borders let alone the international blunders Bush has duct-taped to his legacy.

            Here we are in a situation where we should admire and support a leader in a time of true crisis: said leader was caught with a mouthful of muffin blurting his potty mouth simply because he thought the microphone was off. As snarky as that may sound to some, I think it’s important to look beyond the words that came from Lord W’s mouth, and recognize what those words really signify.

            I don’t believe that America has ever been held in such a low regard as it is now.  America ’s image is no longer that   “shining city on the hill” that Reagan described. In its place, we have the Bush regime that is circumventing the judicial system (and the Supreme Court, the folks responsible for this whole mess in the first place) in order to decriminalize torture, endless imprisonment without charge, kangaroo courts and other policies which laugh in the face of not only international laws, but the very Constitution itself. The very foundations of this country, for which so many have fought and died, are being systematically dismantled.

            We have lost almost as many innocent American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan as we did innocent civilians on 9/11, and yet we are no safer here at home while there is still no plan to end the occupation in either country. Literally uncounted thousands of innocent Iraqi and Afghani citizens have perished for nothing more than an empty promise of “democracy”– over one hundred Iraqi deaths a day at last count.  And to top it off, the rest of the region has erupted into such a state of chaos that the religious right is in a frenzy over the coming “Rapture” – however, one disciple is hoping that it doesn’t come too soon as she plans on having her hair and nails done next Friday. No, I’m not kidding.

            Meanwhile, American cities are still suffering and waiting to rebuild after a series of natural disasters that found Lord W strumming guitars and eating birthday cake with an Arizona senator while thousands of people cried out in despair. In fact, just a few weeks ago here in upstate New York , we watched Lord W enjoy bad Elvis imitations at Graceland while our own flood waters washed away homes and businesses.

            I could go on, y’know…gas prices, jobs overseas, Abramhoff and Co., the stem cell veto etc. but I think we all get the picture. America is not only worse off than it was six very long years ago, but it’s worse off every single day that these inept bozos are allowed to call the shots on our behalf.

            Which brings us back to Bush’s comments and behavior at the recent G8 Dog and Pony Show. Not only is he devoid of any sense of mutual respect for other world leaders (how come Pooty Poot didn’t get one of those back rubs?), but his comments to Blair show his ignorance of the world community and its workings.  The fact that the Leader of the Free World believes that the solution to the latest Middle East crisis is to get Syria on the phone and tell them to get Hezbollah to “stop all this sh*t” shows the world that America is being led by arrogance and ignorance. 

But there is still a small minority of…okay, Americans…that still believe that everything is simply fine. Well, okay, things would be a lot better if everybody would just back off and shut up and let Bush do what Bush wants to do. Hey, New York Times! Are you listening?

These are the same people who think that the terrorists are dumb enough not to have known that their money trails and phone calls were being monitored until the NY Times opened their big yap and yet; those terrorists were smart enough to pull off 9/11 without any “help.”

These folks also believe that the deaths of innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan are an unpleasant but necessary sacrifice for the greater good, but the “deaths” of a conglomeration of embryonic cells for medical research is murder. Apparently, the “moral” thing to do is to throw these cells in the garbage rather than use them for the greater good.

This is just a small sample of the delusional level that allows the Bush Gang to maintain what little support they have left. These Bush-Bots are simply too subservient to realize that their fearless leader has declared war on them by manipulating their fears.  This is what’s left of Lord W’s base, along with the Halliburtons of the world and a smattering of PNAC disciples.

Speaking of the PNAC….

One glaring example of the disintegration taking place within the Bush regime was a recent publication by Francis Fukuyama, one of the founders of the Project for a New American Century.

The PNAC is, of course, the neo-conservative “think tank” whose wild ideology was the basis for most of the policies adopted by the Bush administration. Their goal is to implement a series of strategies and policies which would guarantee geo-political supremacy for America in a post Cold War world. They had originally lamented that the only thing that stood in their way  was the absence of a “new Pearl Harbor”, however, as Fukuyama points out in his book, the mix of both poor planning and blind ideology on the part of the Bush administration has all but destroyed the possibility of the PNAC from realizing their goals. In other words, behind every dark cloud……

But the efforts to protect and preserve this blind ideology which guides Lord W and his counsel have left this country divided to a point where we as a people are at war not only with those with opposing ideals, but within our own ranks – and for very good reason.

Just as those on the Left have tossed folks like Joe Lieberman into the same pile as Wacky Zell Miller, true conservatives are distancing themselves from the neo-conservatives. While  the Left has concluded that folks like Lieberman, and even Hillary, are little more than “Republican Lites”  undeserving of any support, those on the Right are waking up to the fact that the wrong element in their party is in charge and has made a complete mess of everything.   Both sides may be returning to their roots in an effort to return America to what it once was not so long ago. But there’s only one problem:  that rabid minority and those who continue to feed it.

There is a cancer in this country and it has many symptoms:  Coulter, Savage, Beck, Limbaugh, et al, and their supporters make up one symptom. A pathetic and compliant corporate media is another.  The fact that many Democrats know who won “American Idol” last time, but can’t name the Attorney General and why he should be behind bars is yet another.

Probably worst of all, is the spineless lack of a real opposition party in this country. With all that is known – or should be known by those folks – they are still afraid to use the words “perjury” and “criminal” and “impeach.” And as long as they refuse to stand up and say what the majority of Americans already know, then Lord W will continue to wage war on the world, against those who oppose him and against his very supporters.

Tzu and Lord W are right. This country cannot benefit from an extended war whether it’s in some foreign country or right here at home. And somebody needs to get on the phone and tell them to “stop this sh**.”

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