Well, Saddam's speech was yet another one of defiance. He's not going to go into exile after all. My Hypothesis No 2 must bite the dust.
But if I've miscalculated, Bush has done so even more. Just what is he going to do now? If he invades Iraq without Security Council permission (and that's unlikely) then he'll lose his only ally, Tony Blair, because there'll be a mass migration of members of the Labour Party into the Liberal Democrats. If he invades, then Bush dare not invade Baghdad or Basra for fear of a backlash from his own population and he might have to sit around for a long, long time. Meanwhile Bush's economy is on the point of sliding into serious deflation, if it's not there already. His recent attempt at stimulating the economy -- about 1% of GDP -- won't do anything. American business, the States and the consumer are all mired in debt with no obvious way of any of them being able to pay it off. American investment is only being met by foreigners -- who could quickly draw out their money soon if the dollar declines any further against the euro, pathetic on its own account. I'm pretty quickly reconciled to my second hypothesis biting the dust, but Bush Senior was never reconciled to his neglect of the economy when he didn't get re-elected. That's why he's had to play puppet games using his son. But he's making the same mistake all over again! I don't think Bush Junior will worry too much as he loses the next Presidential election in 2004 -- he'll be happy enough playing with his chainsaw on his ranch and reading comics. But Bush Senior . . . making the same mistake twice . . . words fail me. Keith Hudson ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
