|
|
        
|
|
Crying fire
by Thanos Kalamidas
2007-01-17 09:06:24 |
| Print - Comment - Send to a Friend - More from this Author |
   
 |
There is no way to win an argument when the other side starts with the idea that you just oppose everything they say without suggesting anything. In this case either your opponent has never heard your argument or never cared to hear. In the case of George W. Bush and the Democrats, furthermore the American public, both cases are right.
In his weekly radio address, the American president said exactly that asking from the American people to take a stand in front of the piling bodies from the Iraq war. But he failed to see that the American public is in exactly the same situation as the Democrats; it doesn’t mater what party they support.
Both American parties are multi-collective regarding their voters, which come from all aspects of American society and classes. That became more obvious in the last two administrations where, on one side, Bill Clinton had often to deal with a more conservative party. The result was an election for presidential candidate John Kerry who would have felt more comfortably in the Republican Party than the party he represented - something he paid in the end.
The other side had its share as well, especially among more liberal Republicans who saw their party trapped on the carousel of the new-Republicans and neo-Christians carousel. But over the last seven years a new element came to change suddenly everything and that was fear. Suddenly the world was shared between bad guys and good guys; alliances changed names and every opposition to the president was enough to turn you into a traitor. Suddenly you either were with us or not. If you were with us that was good, but if you were not with us then that made you the enemy.
As a result, everybody in American society and, of course, in American politics had to prove that he or she was a patriot. Thirty years after it was Vietnam all over again. Only this time it is worst. Back in Vietnam the enemy was clear and visual. It was Russia, or better it was the Soviet regime. It was a countable army with a countable number of nuclear bombs, plus a countable number of tanks based in East Europe - the targets were visual also, with the Berlin Wall there to remind us.
Nowadays, there is not exactly an enemy. There is a problem, whether wanted or not, and the US administration is part of this problem often misleading the international community to make the wrong decision that innocents have to live or die with; as the war in Iraq and its countless innocent victims has proved. By countless victims I’m referring to the last report from NGOs referring to the number of dead children in Iraq since the beginning of the civil war that the Americans don’t want to openly accept.
George W. Bush and his advisers cannot see all that, feeling that they are the ones following the will of a god that only they can hear. Unfortunately, the American republic and the ones who are supposed to protect American democracy proved cumbrous to do their job, probably after the shock of the falling and burning Twin Towers, and they were too keen to save face in front of an administration in war demonstrating their patriotism.
But time has passed and, as they say, time always heals, yet in this case it hasn’t healed. It has shown that you cannot solve the problem by adding more mistakes, exactly the lesson America was supposed to have learned in Vietnam. So after realizing that, they started openly opposing the actions of the administration far enough to earn back the power in both houses and raise their hopes for the coming elections next year.
Unfortunately, the Bush administration cannot see the same things. Just like little kids, they grabbed their seat like it belonged to them and not to the American republic refusing to listen to anything, even though their world is falling apart around them. By ignoring it they think that they can dismiss it, like the proverbial ostrich’s head in the sand.
The numbness of the administration is so obvious that looking for support on the president’s new plan for Iraq and feeling the opposition building up even between the Arab allies’ countries, US Secretary of State starts a Middle East tour with only one case in her suitcase: this is the plan, you are with us or against us.
From their side, the Arab allies, as often in the past, point out that the administration has to come up with a solid plan that will include the Palestinian problem instead of threatening Syria and Iran once more. But Mrs. Condoleezza Rice is part of this neo-Republican court of miracles and equally deaf with her master, despite her personal ambitions for a presidential career. The result? Dead end!
From his side, the president tries to awaken the fears that made him monarch for nearly five years and the master of the game blaming, as usual, everybody else other than his own mistakes and threatening the inner feelings of the people reminding them that “our troops should not have to wonder if their leaders in Washington will give them what they need.” His selective memory chose to forget that he was the one who sent these very same troops into a personal war with unclear reasoning, miscalculating, as his former Secretary of Defense admitted, the situation that has led to 3,000 dead Americans…so far.
Thanos Middle USA Terrorism Politics |
|
| Print - Comment - Send to a Friend - More from this Author |
|
|
|
Newsletter
Subscribe
Contact
Search
