-Caveat Lector-
from:
http://www.zolatimes.com/V2.44/pageone.html
<A HREF="http://www.zolatimes.com/V2.44/pageone.html">Laissez Faire City Times
- Volume 2 Issue 44</A>
The Laissez Faire City Times
December 28, 1998 - Volume 2, Issue 44
Editor & Chief: Emile Zola
-----
WAGGING WAR
by Don L. Tiggre
So, the United States government has waged—or is that wagged?—another
little war. Missiles rained down on Baghdad for four days in
mid-December, destroying an evil water main, and, we are told, seriously
hampering Iraq's ability to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. Is
it coincidence that the radio is playing Black Sabbath today?
"Generals gathered in their masses,
Just like witches at black masses!
Evil minds that plot destruction . . ."
Interestingly, in spite of having such a convenient Bad Guy to focus
upon, the press was quite blunt with its questions of the president
regarding the timing of these attacks. This is amazing. We are talking
about many people who have risked whiplash with the speed at which they
have looked the other way as regards Bill Clinton's behavior.
Even better yet, an MSNBC on-line 'poll' the day after the first strikes
were announced showed that 65% of about 35,000 respondents believed the
attacks were politically motivated. Could it be that the people are
waking up? At least some of them?
Fielding a tough and frank question from the press, the president pulled
the slick maneuver that has worked so well for him in the past:
demonizing anyone who would dare question his lofty ideals and good
intentions. Of course he's not wagging the dog! "I don't believe any
serious person would believe any president would do such a thing."
Translation: anyone who doesn't believe the president—a man with a well
documented, "legally accurate" track record of dishonesty—is as pure as
the driven snow is insane, childish, ignorant, or otherwise not to be
taken seriously.
This defense is hardly original—presumably the president has heard of ad
hominem arguments. They've been called that for several thousand years.
But the utter bold-faced audacity of the liar in the White House is
almost breathtaking. Historic action is being brought against him, and
on the eve of the vote he gives orders to proceed with the one thing
that has always rallied congress behind a president, no matter how
unpopular: military action.
This ploy has worked for the president before, as Osama Bin Laden found
out, right when the Lewinsky affair was really heating up. It worked for
George Bush—the Gulf War did wonders for his popularity. It worked for
FDR, who wanted to get into WWII so badly, he was willing to let the
Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in order to excite the nation's hawks. It
worked in WWI, when public opinion shifted from wanting to keep out of
Europe's troubles to wanting to kick the Kaiser's butt for the sinking
of the Lusitania (which was carrying war supplies and which Americans
had been warned by the Germans not to board).
This tactic has worked on Americans as far back as "Mr. Polk's War"—also
known to Americans as the "Mexican-American War," and to Mexicans as the
"American Invasion." That little adventure in real estate acquisition
was kicked off when some American soldiers were shot under highly
suspicious circumstances on disputed border territory. President Polk
wanted California so badly, he was almost frothing at the mouth when he
went to Congress in May of 1846, wailing that, "Mexico has…shed American
blood upon American soil."
And, of course, the ploy has worked for centuries—if not millennia—in
the Old World, where countless wars have taken countless lives in
pursuit of petty goals or a simple desire to raise taxes.
Unfortunately for today's president, he had just rattled the same saber
a short while ago, and the sound rang untrue. Even his supporters, while
slamming their minds shut to the possibility, have been forced to ask
themselves difficult questions before dismissing them. The timing is
rather suspicious, after all. Clinton's supporters just aren't as
serious as they were when they voted the murderous
gasser-and-broiler-of-children (at Waco) back into office.
But Actor Alec Baldwin is serious. He's so serious he can be cheered for
screaming like a rabid dog (or maybe that's a wag-ged dog) on national
television:
"I was in Africa. I go to Africa. I mean ladies and gentlemen I am in
Africa. For three months I am in the bush and I come back. I come back
here and I come back to what? I mean what is happening right now as we
speak? Right now the Judiciary Committee, the President has an approval
rating of 68 percent."
Obligatory interjection: my, what an articulate argument! That would
almost be a non-sequitur, if it even approached being grammatical.
"The President is very popular and things are going pretty good and they
are voting to impeach the President. They voted on one article of
impeachment already. And I come back from Africa to stained dresses and
cigars and this and impeachment. I am thinking to myself in other
countries they are laughing at us twenty four hours a day and I'm
thinking to myself if we were in other countries, we would all right
now, all of us together, [starts to shout] all of us together would go
down to Washington and we would stone Henry Hyde to death! We would
stone him to death! [crowd cheers] Wait! Shut up! Shut up! No shut up!
I'm not finished. We would stone Henry Hyde to death and we would go to
their homes and we'd kill their wives and their children. We would kill
their families. [stands up screaming] What is happening in this country?
What is happening? UGHHH UGHHH!!!!" (transcribed by MRC news analyst
Paul Smith)
Now that's serious!
The president must be pleased with such serious people as Alec Baldwin,
who would rather contemplate the cold blooded, brutal murder of innocent
children than even consider the possibility that the president might
have done something wrong. Something which, when presented with
relevant evidence, the House Judiciary Committee would have to
consider—whether they wanted to or not—or be derelict in their own duty
(not that that would be anything new for them).
But then, the president himself had no problems with the plans of his
agents to gas children—who were known to be unable to wear gas
masks—with a nerve agent banned by the Geneva Convention and then roll
tanks over their church while they were still inside. That's pretty
serious too. So, I guess Alec Baldwin's serious defense of the president
is perfectly fitting.
And such serious people would never notice that befriending the Clintons
is almost as dangerous as befriending Jessica Fletcher of the "Murder,
She Wrote" TV show. Unless, of course, one has an interest in committing
suicide, ending up in jail, or otherwise having unpleasant things befall
one. Nope; that's just too damned ridiculous for serious people to think
about.
Just as it is too silly to consider the implications of the two events
documented by the seismographs that recorded the Oklahoma City bombing.
What could be less serious than the demolition experts who say that the
truck bomb could never have devastated the Murrah Federal Building as
severely as it was? Or the mother of two dead children who asked why all
the ATF people were off that day, and none of their children were hurt?
Ha-ha! What a riot! Not serious at all!
Okay, okay, surely all serious readers have gotten the point. However,
as serious as these questions may seem to the right-wing pundits who
have been having a field day at the president's expense, the children
and other innocents in Iraq don't care whether the dog is being wagged
by the tail, or the tail is being wagged by the dog. It is doubtful that
grieving orphans and parents of dead babies in Iraq would care. What
they do care about are the missiles; will any more be falling on their
heads tomorrow?
They surely care about that a great deal, and just as surely, they are
not alone in that regard.
Remember the tapes CNN played over and over again of Bin Laden,
explaining the reasons for his holy war against the United States? What
will the long-term effects of these strikes be, on the eve of Ramadan,
on Muslims around the world? Even among Arabs who might have been uneasy
at the prospect of Iraq' s acquisition of weapons of mass destruction,
what effect have the televised visions of bombed Muslim civilians had on
their feelings about the U.S.?
With the exception of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, already at odds with Iraq
and in lower standing with their Islamic brethren, those feelings among
Arabic nations have been made quite clear already. According to CNN:
•The Pakistani Senate passed a resolution unanimously condemning the
airstrikes as "an attack on humanity and the Islamic world."
•Libya mocked Clinton's argument that he had pressed ahead with strikes
now to avoid bombing during Ramadan, asking what difference it made
whether the victims were fasting or preparing to fast.
•An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said that, "such unilateral
attacks against Iraq will lead to even more pain and misery for the
people of that country and will bring about insecurity in the region."
•Syria, an Arab member of the 1991 Gulf War coalition against Iraq,
denounced the air strikes as "unjustified."
•Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, general secretary of the Palestinian Cabinet, told
Reuters, "We condemn this unjustifiable attack on Iraq and appeal for
Arab countries to convene an urgent summit ... to call without delay for
a halt to the attacks."
•Even Egypt, while falling short of condemning the United States,
clearly deplored the attacks.
It would not be surprising if Islamic extremists like Bin Laden came out
of the current turmoil stronger than ever, with volunteers flocking to
them to fight their Jihads as never before. Massive protests against the
strikes broke out in Egypt, Syria (where the mob destroyed a U.S.
embassy car and the Ambassador's wife had to be evacuated by an armed
force), and India, even before the bombs had stopped falling in Iraq.
Can anyone doubt that American-hating zealots with death on their minds
will not care one bit which end was wagging the other in this dirty
little war? They didn't care that an old man in a wheelchair had nothing
to do with U.S. foreign policy when they shoved him off the deck of the
Achille Lauro and into the Mediterranean Sea, wheelchair and all.
Bustling New Yorkers would have to be in altered mental states to
imagine that they will be spared the ire of terrorists, just because
they didn't drop any bombs themselves. Did the bombers of the World
Trade Center (never mind for the moment that the plan was the idea of
the U.S. Government's infiltrator) care which of their intended victims
had anything to do with their cause?
Wheat farmers in rural Kansas would be foolish to imagine that they
won't be targeted because they mind their own business and voted for Bob
Dole. Even if the average Kansan didn't vote for the president, he
represents them. Or so he says; this is a representative government, and
he's the elected of the people to speak for them, to be America in the
global arena.
Even Sovereign Individuals living abroad would be unwise to imagine that
just because they have many nationalities with which to clothe
themselves, terrorists will be unable or even unlikely to peg them as
American. It's in their posture, the way they carry themselves, the
self-confidence in their voices—even if they have overcome their
American accents. Such individuals are not safe, even if they have
completely renounced this evil child-burning, bombing government and
moved away. Would an assassin care what their politics are when all he
sees is that they are American, and all he feels is hatred for those who
killed his family?
Dog or tail, this war the president wagged is bad news. It's bad for
Americans, at home and abroad. It's bad for Iraqis now, as it was bad
for the Sudanese before them, and is bad for those in the Arab world who
will have more reason than ever to hate Americans. And it's bad for the
economies of the world, as already rickety structures are further
destabilized.
These strikes, by the Clinton administration's own admission, will not
stop Iraq from doing what it wants to. All they do is add to the body
count, add to the list of horrors that cannot be forgiven, add to the
reasons for hatred that already abound in this tired old world.
Whether the dog wags the tail, or the tail wags the dog, the result is
the same: a shakedown for the people.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don L. Tiggre is the author of Y2K: The Millennium Bug, a suspenseful
thriller. Tiggre can be found at the Liberty Round Table.
-30-
from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 2, No 44, Dec. 28, 1998
-----
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Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
Omnia Bona Bonis,
All My Relations.
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
Kris
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