Smirky's War, Snot Democracy
And American Discontent


Now that the shock-and-awe war porn has simmered down to a low boil, let's review the damage done:

The US elephant supplied the Iraqi ant with many weapons. The US elephant didn't mind "OUR Arab ant" using these weapons against the Iranian ant colony, which deposed our pal, the Shah ant. As soon as the Iraqi ant outlived his utility, the American elephant encouraged him to invade the Kuwaiti ant colony. Out of desperation, the Iraqi ant took the bait. This action created the excuse for the US elephant to invade the area to "liberate" the Kuwaiti ant colony by "stomping" the Iraqi ant hill.

During this "remedial" war, thousands of Iraqi, Kuwaiti, Kurdish and Shia ants were butchered before an uneasy siege fell upon the region. Since the US elephant didn't want to go on record as the direct cause of Baghdad's fall, an embargo was slapped on the Iraqi ant colony. The theory was the embargo would weaken the Iraqi ant government to the point of abdication or overthrow. After a dozen years and more than a million Iraqi ant deaths from starvation and disease, the strangulation approach was declared a failure.

A new "remedial" war plan was hastily contrived. This time, the US elephant gathered little support because the evidence of an Iraqi ant threat was inadequate and, in some cases, fraudulent. In fact, massive protests against another war called into question the motives and moral judgment, not to mention the shaky legitimacy, of the US elephant president.

While the Ant UN delayed the use of force until all peaceful means of resolving the Iraqi question were expended, the US elephant simply used this time to deploy military assets. The countless inspections and missile destruction were effective. Actual facts and analysis concluded the Iraqi ant hill was virtually defenseless and of little threat to anyone. Nevertheless, the US elephant decided to invade and destroy the Iraqi ant hill. Baghdad was "stomped" and thousands of Iraqi ants were butchered. This was an act of incomprehensible cowardice and a crime against humanity. The elephant administration said we don't need to know the details of this slaughter (they could cause guilt or bad dreams). The US elephant "stomped" the Afghan and Iraqi ant colonies with promises of more "preemptive stompings without provocation" for the region. And what do we have to show for all this death, destruction and demoralization? Nothing but madness and sadness. Now, can anyone dispute war is a useless cruelty, best left entombed in the Dark Ages?

We've come to this crazy place in history hoping congress, common sense and the constitution would protect us against our descent into barbarity. Recent events dashed these naive hopes to pieces. America is poised to rule the world with boot, bomb, bullet and battleship. Somehow, the media are loudly hailing this evilness as a victory for democracy and free markets. Most of the people on the planet don't see it this way. Why don't we admit we're offering a "manifest-destiny-with-a-smile" version of fascism? This divisive, reductive, "with-us-or-against-us" triumphalism can only be described as Snot Democracy.

George Bush's mad martial plan for global dominion, using war and death penalty diplomacy, has no chance to succeed. How many times will the US sell the false argument the most powerful country on Earth has reason to fear poor, starving nations? How many times will we use this excuse to maim, mass murder and steal other people's resources? How many times will we expand the defunct, redundant NATO alliance and other cold war carry-overs? And how many times will we deny we're attempting to police the world while spending trillions to do so -- sucking up global savings in the process? The big business of military might and mayhem is killing everybody.

While we were being conditioned to fear Hussein's Republican Guard, there's ample reason to believe we should be more afraid of our home grown Republicans who control the entire US government. Over the past few decades, the GOP has always come to power by exploiting the real and imagined fears of the electorate. In 1968, Richard Nixon won the White House over the dead bodies of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. He promised to bring integrity to the Oval Office; law and order at home and genuine peace overseas. He failed miserably because he distrusted the American people and the democratic process, preferring to use covert action to achieve his ignoble goals. In 1972, he won reelection largely because he convinced voters he had a phantom plan to end the Viet Nam war. Many years later, we discovered this plan was basically a relentless carpet bombing attack which mass murdered untold numbers of Southeast Asians -- an indisputable crime against humanity.

Gerald Ford was picked by Nixon as his own replacement just days before he fled the presidency to avoid impeachment. Mr. Ford wasn't chosen for his integrity but because he was willing to strike a deal to pardon Nixon, presumably to spare the nation several more years of grief. The constitutional question, whether a president has the right to flee indictment at the eleventh hour AND choose his successor, was never addressed by the courts or congress. This unanswered issue established a bad example, i.e., a president may be above the law, especially while acting as commander-in-chief. And it opened the Pandora's box of spook thuggery and skullduggery for use and approval by executive order.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan entered office using Nixon's platform, lathered in "Aw, shucks!" optimism. He vowed to restore the ignorant bliss of the 1950s. However, his plan required extreme tax cut measures and budget busting tactics (known as Voodoo Economics), which no alert voter would easily approve. Yet, he was able to ram these reckless programs through congress due to the public support he received after the Hinkley assassination attempt. How convenient. Mr. Reagan returned to a full work schedule only three weeks after the reported near-fatal attack. Any sensible person should ask: How serious was Mr. Reagan's condition and to what extent was the incident manipulated or, perhaps, even staged, for political advantage? Was Mr. Reagan wearing a bulletproof vest in his suit jacket that day? If not, why not? Many doubting Thomases would like to see the wound in his side.

Also, we must remember Ronald Reagan swept into office on a secret Iranian hostage deal brokered by his veep, George H. W. Bush. The alleged deal stipulated the hostages would be released on or about Inauguration Day in exchange for an assortment of arms and parts to be supplied by the new administration. This illegal contract robbed Jimmy Carter of any positive campaign bounce he may've received from an earlier hostage release. And this criminal behavior set the stage for the Iran/contra fiasco. Oh, what a wicked web he weaved, when first Reagan practiced to deceive the American people! To this day, the complete story of the hostage deal has never been told. As a result, no one has been held responsible for the obvious injustice done. Republicans call these ugly acts hard ball. We should call them crimes.

Reagan easily won a second term based on a false prosperity. His policies forced the federal government into the biggest deficits then known in human history. Although he originally promised to balance the budget, the nation was treated to fiscal free fall instead. Did we forget the rolling recession which devastated every American industry and threw millions of workers into the streets?

Voodoo Economics wasn't designed to benefit most Americans. The point was to create an excuse for de-funding the programs which specifically helped those sections of voters who tend to vote Democratic. This is a very important factor in George, Jr.'s, push to enact Voodoo II. For example: Republicans despise teachers and public workers not because they think they're bad people. They hate them because they tend to vote Democratic. It's a campaign gimmick. If our nation's schools want to receive adequate funding while the GOP is in power, all they have to do is vote Republican and the money problems would disappear instantly. This is a lousy way to run a democracy. However, WE permitted this monster to morph into existence.

The Reagan administration was exposed purportedly using criminal means to achieve just and moral goals. Oliver North, who was sent by the White House to "fix" the problems in Nicaragua, gave us a national headache known as Iran/contra. His ineptness was so comical it became national news. The entire federal government ignored him as long as it could; held hearings cloaked in CIA-speak and secrecy; then dismissed this treasonous affair as if nothing happened. Ronald Reagan was allowed to cop an Alzheimer's plea when he was questioned about what he knew and when he knew it. How convenient. Instead of doing Big Ben, Ollie North went on to a narrow loss in a senate race and later became a nationally syndicated talk show host. So much for justice in our crumbling democracy.

George H. W. Bush slid into the White House on the fraying coattails of the Reagan Revolution and a poor campaign by Mike Dukakis. In four short decades, top secret black baggery went from the CIA under Nixon; to the National Security Council (NSC) under Reagan and lastly into the Oval Office under Bush, a former CIA director. For the first time, a sitting president was in direct charge of both public policy and the shadow sciences. The first executive order Bush signed was to have raw CIA data delivered directly to his desk, bypassing his own CIA chief. Can you imagine J. Edgar Hoover in the White House? Well, no one seemed to notice Mr. Bush's CIA credentials before electing him. Thus, was laid the ruinous groundwork for the decline of democracy in America. Has anyone noticed the dangerous, devious thread running through Republican politics?

Despite the end of the cold war in 1989, the CIA and the World War industry were very busy contriving a suitable enemy replacement for the fallen Soviet bear. The rise of religious fundamentalism in the Middle East and America provided the scenario -- a restoration of Medieval Holy War hostilities. There's reason to believe the surge in conservative fanaticism in the Middle East and America, at exactly the same time, can't be merely coincidental. Medievalism is being presented as an alternative to the Global Village in the Information Age. We're being conditioned to believe Medievalism is preferable to the Global Village because we're all sinners who're incapable of fully and freely developing into mature human beings who rejoice in doing good deeds as opposed to fighting evil wars. When are we going to learn nothing beneficial comes from fanaticism in any form?

George H. W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton because Americans discovered they had nothing to show for the twelve years of the Reagan/Bush Revolution -- except crushing debt. Bill Clinton tried to do the right things to benefit most Americans. The Republican right began the most vicious character assassination campaign of a sitting president ever documented. There's no doubt a conspiracy to harm Bill Clinton by any means necessary existed and operated in clear view of law enforcement. Yet, nothing was done to lock up these treasonous criminals. Some would like to know where George, Jr., spent his time when he went AWOL from the Texas air guard. It's more important to know where George H. W. Bush was during the eight years he prepared his sons for higher office. What was HE doing? Outside of making money as a partner in the Carlyle Group, no one seems to know. Why is this?

Bill Clinton's triangulation policies were bound to fail because the congressional Republicans were in full sabotage mode. Of course, the Republicans supported those policies which benefited their contributors at the expense of everyone else. While Kenneth Starr emasculated the president with constant, frivolous investigations, Newt "Torquemada" Gingrich tormented Bill Clinton from his vulture's perch. The deliberate, public destruction of Bill Clinton's presidency decapitated the Democratic party and severely distorted our constitutional checks and balances. Without strong opposition from the Democratic party, the Republicans were poised to seize the White House in 2000.

George W. Bush never won the 2000 election. He didn't need to. He had friends with megabucks and super-influence in high places. Smirky's War in Iraq was just a footnote to his plan for reelection and the entrenchment of the Bush/World War industry dynasty. When these folks proclaim it's going to be endless war, all the time, they really mean it. The 9/11 attacks were the Pearl Harbor-sized events necessary to jump start this strategy for global control. How convenient. We've been fighting World War II for more than sixty years in various cold war guises. When are we going to realize the lone impediment to the Global Village is war profiteering?

The Bush junta declared war on the terrorists AND the American people. This was necessary to stifle dissent against the heinous crimes committed every day by our young soldiers around the world. The same killer mentality was used on the poor people in Baghdad and Amadou Diallo in his Bronx doorway. It's useful to note the media were never accused of being "too liberal" during Smirky's War. Reporters repeated the propaganda fed to them in their embedded positions, stationed miles from any view of US military maneuvers. George Bush said he wanted to impose gun barrel "democracy" on the Middle East. The president made his intentions very clear. Isn't there something terribly unjust about this picture? Americans must wake up and smell the cordite, sending our nation up in flames.

George Bush failed in Afghanistan. There's no democracy to be found in the Afghan rubble. Mr. Bush didn't provide the funds he pledged for reconstruction. The warlords and rioters now run what's left of that country. George Bush failed in Iraq. There's no democracy to be found among the Iraqi dead and destroyed homes. Civil war is raging and our troops spend their time trying to stay alive. Mr. Bush will provide little funding for Iraqi reconstruction. It's just a matter of time before Iraq explodes with the gravest of unforeseen consequences. George Bush failed to stop terrorism. To date, there's no sign of Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar or Saddam Hussein. The president promised to bring them in "dead or alive." Where are they? Why have they escaped capture or detection? Why can't Mr. Bush confirm, at the very least, whether each man is dead or alive?

The Snot Democracy being imposed on the Middle East is also being enacted right here in America. John Ashcroft and the dubious Homeland Security department are completely out of control. We can no longer call ourselves a democracy if we accept the secret imprisonment and execution of anyone without proper access to legal advice and due process. The wholesale incarceration of Arab and Muslim people is frightening. Who'll be next? The shredding of the constitution and the threats to our very citizenship are simply intolerable. Most important, what do Bush and Ashcroft have to show for all this state sponsored terrorism? Nothing...absolutely nothing.

This is because the ubiquitous, but invisible, al-Qaeda is a fiction of the Bush junta's imagination. Of course, there are groups of bloodthirsty cutthroats populating humanity's rat infested back alleys. They've been around for millennia. They tend to be the only law in many areas of great despair and destitution. But, there's no evidence these disparate terrorist cells magically formed an international organization wearing an al-Qaeda logo. If such evidence exists, the Bushies are keeping it very close to their vests. The mandate for fortunate nations should be to use the tools of mass information/education, mass communication and mass transportation to end global poverty and suffering. George Bush's Snot Democracy is no answer to humanity's pressing problems. When will we learn valuable victories are never measured by how many lives we end, but by how many lives we save?

The twin cancers of war and secrecy are draining the life force from our great nation. We must remember wild-eyed conservatism has always come to power riding the four apocalyptical horses of Death, Dis-ease, Deception and Destruction. We must permanently bury George Bush's Snot Democracy plan. We know the future is promised to no one. Nevertheless, for humanity's sake, we must secure a one-way ticket for George W. Bush to the cold ash heap of history. And we must return his Snot Democracy plan to Hell's deepest, darkest dungeon where it was first forged.

Franklin L. Johnson
starhelix@aol.com