"I've never felt more energized and more capable of getting the American people to realize there is a lot of unfinished business." -- President George W. Bush.
DETROIT -- There is frightening truth in commander guy's claim of relevance, with 15 months left in our long national nightmare. He has plenty of time to take care of business, and that means more violence and suffering and even greater hostility toward the United States and less security for the American people.
Bush has no intention of going gentle into that good night. His family business and that of his sponsors is to use politics and influence as a means of dominating the world's energy resources to sustain and increase their wealth. It is as simple as it is ruthless.
Their domestic agenda is largely finished. Their tax rates are down, especially on dividends and unearned income. The massive government debt created as a result is now disproportionately burdening middle-class, wage- earning American workers.
Bush's base -- the wealthiest 1 percent -- has never had it better. They are richer than ever as the median income for most Americans is stagnant or sinking. This redistribution of wealth does create long-term conditions for social unrest, but Bush and his country club pals don't worry about that as long as they have theirs.
The much-needed fix for Social Security and Medicare will be somebody else's worry. The same goes for health care, as corporations are saving billions of dollars, with nearly 50 million Americans without health insurance.
The civic leeches and reliable Republican campaign donors -- the drug and insurance companies and private hospitals -- are raking in tons of money in a failed system rooted in greed and sustained by buying off the political whores who disdain "government" health care, unless, of course, they are covered by it.
As the cost of a college education soars, Bush has made it more difficult for students to get government loans and grants. The better educated people are, the more unlikely they are to support Bush's vision of a nation of Wal-Mart workers and people working three jobs to pay their medical bills.
Bush has finished the business of giving utilities, mining and lumber companies anything they want and a blank check to despoil the environment and defile public lands. The Agribiz sector gets billions in subsidies, wallowing in corporate welfare and defying free market principles.
With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- the spineless hacks known as the Democratic congressional leadership -- bracing to chuck the Fourth Amendment and give Bush the OK for domestic eavesdropping, he's finishing the business of systematically purging fundamental liberties.
Bush has energized right-wing Christian ideologues, giving their churches and programs taxpayer money cloaked as "faith-based" initiatives to guarantee their unflinching support.
Bush's domestic business and the lasting harm it has brought the suffering American people will take decades to undo. But even more chilling is understanding that the misery he has brought the world is far from over and many of the consequences will be irreparable. That's the "unfinished business" he's really talking about.
His mad designs in the Middle East include continuing the occupation of Iraq with permanent military bases, an air assault on Iran, blessing whatever attacks the Israelis mount against Syria and doing little or nothing of substance to create a viable Palestinian state.
Bush's contempt for the will of the Iraqi people is boundless. "If they were to say, leave, we would leave," he has said. The truth is that he has no intention of bringing significant numbers of troops home.
Iraq is a colony, not a democracy, and Bush doesn't care that Iraqi civilians and American troops are continuing to die for the vile goal of controlling and exploiting the nation's vast oil reserves.
Bush's apocalyptic vision of Iran plays into his desire to make the United States and Israel the only important military powers in the Middle East. Bush used inflamed rhetoric -- reckless even by his standards -- to make the case that Iran must be confronted.
At a news conference last week, he said, "We got a leader in Iran who has announced that he would destroy Israel." Yes, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that. But so have scores of Wahhabi clerics in Saudi Arabia, and their princes and sponsors get invitations to Bush's faux ranch, where he holds their hands.
Beating the war drums, Bush argued, "I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."
The Israelis and Pakistanis have nukes and the Saudis can buy them any time they want. But Bush wants us to focus only on Iran.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Tehran last week visiting with his neighbor on the Caspian Sea, warning that we "should not even think of making use of force in this region." The Russians have a considerable nuclear arsenal and they would consider a U.S. attack on Iran a threat to their nation.
The leading presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, are slugging it out over who will be tougher on Iran as they curry the favor of the American Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a lobby that supports Bush's violence-first polices in the Middle East.
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, a Democratic presidential candidate with bleak hopes but bright views, took on Bush for so cavalierly raising the specter of nuclear war.
"The White House rodeo cowboy has gone dangerously too far and precipitously too close to igniting the war he claims to be trying to avoid," Kucinich said.
He nailed Bush's game: "You can worry about the Apocalypse, or you can ensure it by manipulating intelligence and, with premeditation, put your finger on the trigger that will make Iran the next domino in the president's irresponsible and irrational approach to the complex and sensitive political issues that make the region a more volatile tinder box than ever before." You'll never hear Hillary or Rudy speak such truths.
Next month, an Israeli-Palestinian peace conference will get underway in Annapolis, Md., the first in Bush's presidency. A two-state solution offers the single most important step in bringing any hope of peace and stability to the region.
After years of malign neglect, Bush -- at the persistent and commendable prodding of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- is sponsoring an international conference on the most contentious issue in the Middle East.
In a letter to Bush, a bipartisan group of veteran foreign policy leaders -- including former national security advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski (Jimmy Carter's) and Brent Scowcroft (Gerald Ford's and George H.W. Bush's) -- outlining the essential elements for a permanent peace. As the conference begins, they call for a coinciding "freeze in Israeli settlement expansion." Let's see if Bush is willing to chew out the Israelis and make them quake on that issue.
The signatories of the letter concluded, "The fact that the parties and the international community appear -- after a long, costly seven-year hiatus -- to be thinking of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is welcome news. Because the stakes are so important, it is crucial to get it right. That means having the ambition as well as the courage to chart new ground and take bold new steps."
I fear Bush will leave this great diplomatic opportunity for peace as "unfinished business." He's more comfortable plotting violence.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Oct. 23 2007 |