September 21, 2002
Mad Dog Bush
I heard someone on WBAI today say "this guy makes Nixon look like a flaming leftist..." Long ago, John Judge called George Herbert Walker Bush "Mad Dog Bush." This one makes the old man look like a pussycat, even taking into consideration Bush Senior's psychopathic covert murderer underside.It's not the difference in personalities, it's the times. The oligarchy is really tightening the screws now. They are going all-out for world domination and they are becoming more and more open about it. As John Judge put it, the placing of the younger Bush in control (an extra-electoral choice) is a sign that "they are taking off the velvet glove and bringing down the iron fist." They? The shady power players who control the money that controls the politicians. A major struggle on the highest echelons of power in the U.S. (and the world) now is whether or not to maintain some pretense of democracy as has been done up to now, or to just drop the pretense and come out in the open about the agenda to become the most powerful empire in history.
On the international stage, the same struggle is playing out in terms of whether the U.S. regime is going to continue to maintain some pretense of respecting international law and the rights of other countries -- the analogue of democracy in the framework of world politics -- or just come out in the open about being the dictator of the world.
The sense of shock, indignation and outrage that Americans experienced when they were robbed of their democratic processes in December 2000 is being felt round the world now as the Bush administration shows that it will not take no for an answer to its war plans. Overseas, just like in the U.S., people are beginning to recognize the nature of the present regime.
Today the BBC reported that the U.S. has threatened to stop the U.N. weapons inspections of Iraq, to stop the inspections it previously required under threat of war. Heads it's war. Tails it's war. The whole world is coming to terms with the fact that nothing can stop this war. Or can it?
Warnings that seemed outrageous during the election season of 2000, are now accepted facts. The world watches in anxiety as the Bush-led oligarchy plunges world events down a treacherous path.
Who is in favor of this war against Iraq? Who in this country? Who in other countries? Who besides the specific clique of industries and power weilders that are within or closely aligned to the fuhrer's inner circle. Not to mention the truly devoted fascists and worms like Tony Blair and other worm-hearted creatures occupying seats in the United States Congress.
Few but the really hard core right are really into this war. The patriotic and docile middle, who remain endlessly confused as a result of prolonged exposure to the blasting from the tube, at best can get themselves to go along with it. The closest I have seen to patriotic enthusiasm for this war is acquiescence, resignation. There is nothing good about that. It is not even good for the war mongers, ultimately. This country has no stomach for war. The rulers know it. But they are determined to let nothing stop them. That's why they have built internment camps and passed laws that give the government the authority to put anyone they want behind bars if the android president chooses to designate the prisoner an enemy.
The corporate oligarchy is getting set to take over the world. They plan to seize total control over the middle east and from that vantage point essentially rule the world. And the whole world is beginning to catch on that the threats are no joke.
They are now openly talking pre-emptive war anywhere in the world they deem to be the kind of place that might produce "terrorists."
One of the scariest things for Americans -- who are used to only having to think about warfare issues in terms of whether or not the U.S. should be kind or not -- is that powerful as the rulers are, they will not be able to succeed at what they are trying to do, ultimately. They are setting into motion forces they cannot control. Their only ace in the hole, their ultimate contingency plan for every situation, is massive military force. With control over the world's oil, they believe they can control effectively. But that force is finite, sooner or later if the war is continually ramped up to higher levels, its force will be spent.
The strategy is sound on a certain level of geopolitical thinking. But macro thinkers always lose sight of many micro considerations. And micro considerations in massive quantities, and in chain reactions, create massive force. Now we are really talking about the world system, and it is really huge. The largest field any political players ever played on. The geopolitical system that is modeled in these guys' heads effectively predicts events in the real world up to a point. But only up to a point. There is a point at which the theoretical system no longer accommodates the realities in play.
It is going to happen. They think they have contingency plans for every possible outcome of their gamble for power. But if military force is their answer to every problem, they will at some point have unleashed so much destructive power, they will be in danger of getting caught up in it themselves. Sure, they have their bunkers. They hope to be the last to go. Millions of Americans would be killed before them in all probability. But massive environmental destruction, nuclear winter, melting of the ice caps, will eventually affect them too.
It sure looks a lot like World War III.
-- By David Cogswell