Brad, At 08:46 30/08/2003 -0400, you wrote:
I wonder if you underestimate the capabilities (as opposed to the intentions) of the Bush spin-machine. A good con artist can sell just about anybody just about anything. They sold us Iraq; they could sell us on Ford Funguses (excuse, I meant: Focuses) instead of Ford Extortions (I meant: Expeditions).
There's the old saying: "You can fool all the people some of the time, and you can fool some of the people all the time but you can't . . . . .etc". There's a limit, even to the capabilitiy of the Bush spin-machine.
One of the most brilliant spinmeisters of all time, Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's private Machiavelli, has just announced his resignation -- halfway through the Hutton Enquiry (the public enquiry into the suicide of Dr. Kelly), even though he acquitted himself with great skill and aplomb a couple of days ago. And why is he resigning? Because it's cross-examination time next week and his case that he didn't 'sex-up' the Intelligence Dossier is likely to be torn apart on the basis of some curious anomalies in various government documents and statements which are now coming to light. The Iraq affair has been an issue of gross misconduct by the Blair government in re-writing the presentation of its own sercret services in the cause of politics. Tony Blair has now reached a 35% credibility rating. In other words, 65% of the population don't believe a word he's saying, and next week, after the cross-examinations, it's likely to be 85%, leaving only the stupid or the ultra-loyal members of the Labour Party still believing him (or, rather, saying they believe him to a pollster -- even they belive he's been hyping everything he's said about the Iraq war).
I've been quite surprised -- amazed actually -- after what happened to Nixon and Clinton why nobody, particularly the Democrats, has stood up to Bush and challenged him long ago. True, two fairly senior members of the State Department have been honourable enough to resign but, so, far, the Democratic Senators have been pretty pissy. It's working up, though, and I imagine (though I'm finding Americans harder to understand the more I get to know them) that opposition will rise pretty steeply soon and Bush will also be disbelieved as much as Blair is before many more months have passed.
And what is Cheney doing? Taciturn as usual. The death of the most recent Ayatollah must have been a shock. Holed up with Bush senior, I've little doubt. Plotting. Wondering what the bloody hell to do when everything is falling about their ears.
Bush Senior: What the bloody hell do we do?
Cheney: (grunt)
Bush Senior: We've got to get Sonny out of this shit!
Cheney: (grunt)
Bush Senior: Besides, we going to lose all our contracts if we have to get out of Iraq.
Cheney: (grunt)
Bush Senior: And what the hell is going to happen if the economy doesn't pick up by spring?
Cheney: (grunt)
Bush Senior: We've got to rescue Sonny. God knows, he was out of his depth before. He's really out of his depth now. Kicked out of Iraq. Economy diving to God knows where. We've got to make him into a hero again.
Cheney: (grunt)
Bush Senior: We're going to lose the election, that's for sure. The Bush family will stink in the history books. We'll be laughed at forever.
Cheney: (grunt)
Bush Senior: We've got to do something. Let's nuke Mecca. Or threaten to.
Cheney: Nope.
Bush Senior: No? . . . perhaps not. . . . The whole of Islam would be against us. . . . . The Pakis would probably nuke Washington. Or try to. And Iran, too! God knows, they've probably built a sneaky nuke as well. They'd try, too.
Cheney: And Sarin
Bush Senior: Sarin! Have they been making nerve gas? That's the same stuff that Saddam used against the Kurds! They haven't been making that, have they?
Cheney: Since 1996. Last I heard anyway. They bought all their glassware from China.
Bush Senior: Oh my God! We can't do anything. Where do we get our oil from then, ten years down the line?
Cheney: Not from anywhere in the Middle East if you bomb Mecca.
Bush Senior: Come on, Dick! Just what do we do?
Cheney: (several grunts . . . ) Be friendly.
Bush Senior: Be friendly? Who to?
Cheney: The Shias.
Bush Senior: The Shias? They're fundamentalists. They're nutcases. They're not reliable.
Cheney: Compared with the Wahhabis they're liberal. Compared with Al Qaeda they're not nutcases. Compared with the Saudi Royal Family they're reliable. Build them, and the Iraqis, and the Iranaians, a whole stack of Shia Universities. Make sure they teach other things than religion, of course. Promise them plenty of jobs. Invest plenty of money there. Just like we're doing in China. Of course we've got to invade SA first. Just to make sure of the oil.
Bush Senior: ooooooh! . . . . . .aaaaaah! Gosh, this needs thinking about!
Cheney: I'm going fishing.
KSH
Keith Hudson, 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath, England, <www.evolutionary-economics.org>
_______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
