Online since June 1997!

Shrub's Iraq War - The Way I See It

17-Aug-03 -- Now if I recall, Senior Bush got us wrapped up in a war to save the MONARCHY (not democracy) of Kuwait when Iraq attacked there.  Of course he didn't finish wiping his ass and lost the election partially because of the moderate CONSERVATIVES who were disappointed in him. 

Then during the midadministration of Little(-minded) Bush (don't blame me, I voted with the majority), who I will call "Shrub", 9-11 happened.  While Shrub didn't have a clue what was going on as it did not have anything directly to do with his oil stocks, former President Bill Clinton knew immediately who the culprits were.  So then our target of choice was another Arab guy named bin Laden.  Of course Shrub couldn't find bin Laden with all of our technology and our enormous military budget, but then he sort of melded the two "evil ones" together into one Arab caricature so that he could take away the rights of Americans with his Attorney General, who has no regard for civil liberties.  Ashcroft was appointed to make Bush look moderate by comparison I suppose.  Ashcroft has even less regard for the human rights of citizens of other countries where Americans have been busy installing puppet governments for years (Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan) and then mysteriously wondering why we have so many enemies.

So from what I understand, Senior Bush "attacked" Iraq because they invaded Kuwait.  He failed to topple the Iraqi dictator so why is it we attacked Iraq this year and and finally took over the stable but brutal Saddam Hussein regime?  Oh yes, because Hussein called Senior Bush A NAME!!!!  I bet that really hurt Shrub's feelings.  Shrub who cried when his daddy didn't win the second term.

So here we are having Americans killed nearly every day in the occupied Iraq, probably by religious nuts like the ones we have in this country who blame homosexuals and liberals for what happened on 9-11, when it is really THEIR fundamentalist counterparts who caused the tragedies of 9-11.  The Iraqi people have been crippled living without full electrical power and water for months, just for being Iraqis.  I don't condone violence, but I don't blame them for being skeptical about why the electrical infrastructure has not been restored in Iraq. 

I do know that oil prices are rising just as Shrub planned.  I can hardly afford to pay my electric bill.  One way or another Shrub will make sure that his crony friends become richer, and meanwhile our economy is going further into the toilet for most people here in the United States.  I'm making just about HALF of what I made a few years ago despite my experience and graduate education and I am too scared to make even a lateral move to another job as so many of my friends' jobs are falling through the floor.

Then the accidental (?) energy emergency 50 million North Americans had last week, due to our woefully out of date and inadequate energy grid, caused the conservative oil stockholders to scream how we should finally get those liberals to stop hugging those trees.  Let's ruin the American environment to become less dependent on foreign oil, they say, as if it was not costly enough for the American people to almost single-handedly pick up the tab for the concocted war based on weapons that never could have existed under the scrutiny of the United Nations.  Why did the UN buckle to the inflammatory accusations of the United States that something was amiss when so far not a shred of tangible evidence has been found to substantiate the declaration of war?  I thought that sitting members of the UN could not declare war, or did some diplomat find a way around that one?  I don't even know if Congress actually DID declare war on Iraq, or if it was just chocked up to a "troop movement" as that is how we have bullied our way into certain situations as of late.

So Americans are still driving tanks (no, not in Iraq, but here on our public roads) that are known as SUV's and assorted other extra-large vehicles to better protect themselves from the monstrosities on the road.  I too prefer to be surrounded by tons of metal for safety, but if we didn't all drive such big cars, I wouldn't feel so vulnerable.  I remember particularly as a kid whenever my family and I would return from Europe how profoundly bigger the cars were.  I still rarely count more than one person per vehicle in bumper to bumper traffic.  American vehicles guzzle gas to make people like Shrub rich since we enjoy the lowest gasoline taxes in the world, while there are alternative energies that could be harnessed efficiently if the patents were not all monopolized and shelved by the oil companies.

But no, Shrub doesn't want us to know that cars and other energy drains could run efficiently with more common energy sources, because then he would have to cash in his stock for something else and then there would be no need to flex his muscle and target the man who called his daddy a name.

Who cares about solar and wind power?  Not a country that puts capitalism before the common good.  Not a country that puts healthcare for its prisoners before its hardest working citizens.  Not a country that is all about getting what you can and fucking over all the "dregs" of society that really make the country work.  Do I want communism?  No.  Do I want socialism?  Not in whole.  Do I want medical care to be a basic human right?  Absolutely.  Do I want us to use common sense when choosing our energy sources rather than deregulating everything so that only the people in the most fortunate of areas get the priority when dispensing the electric and other kinds of power?  Yes, but I do not have faith in the American voters as exemplified by the fiasco in California where I am embarrassed at my home state's toppling of the governor.  More embarrassing is the "graciousness" of some rich zealot who is defraying the costs of the recall.  How convenient to be able to "buy" an election like that. 

Unlike Alec Baldwin, I WILL follow through on my threat to move to France.  I have a plan to move to Europe (where I am eligible for dual citizenship), particularly if the next one or two successive presidential elections are for the irrepressibly selfish and reactionary Repub party as there is no LEFT left in the United States!