- To understand just how upside-down Bush has taken America,
consider these simple facts:
-
- 1. Conde Rice, responsible to a large degree for ignoring
warnings about a possible airplane attack on America, has now been elevated
from National Security Advisor to Secretary of State. Add to this that
Putin and others in the world have refused to speak with her because of
their disdain for her integrity and intelligence; this leaves our foreign
policy (already in the basement) in careless and dangerous hands. With
her new authority, what new and tragic mistakes will she make as Secretary
of State? Will she be as careless with information she receives from her
subordinates as she was with the Clark and State Department she received
prior to the 9/11 attacks?
-
- 2. Albert Gonzales, the man responsible for giving wrong
legal advice to the Pentagon and to the Bush White House on the right to
violate the Geneva Conventions at both Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo torture
camps is now nominated for Attorney General. There is no telling how he,ll
decide to violate our Constitution even more than John Ashcroft. What Civil
Rights we have left may be eroded very quickly under his destructive hand.
His new position gives him a very large budget, a cabinet position and
thousands of lawyers to call upon to attack any area of the Constitution
he desires. Our democratic future is on tenuous grounds.
-
- 3. Paul Bremer, the man who destroyed what was left of
Iraq once he took over as 'administrator,' or as some called him, 'viceroy',
who was unable to account for billions of dollars that was to go for 'reconstruction
in Iraq', a man who helped to unite the Sunni and Shi'a (something no one
had been able to do for over 1300 years) against the U.S., and a man who
ran, in fear, to the airplane taking him back to Washington, DC in disgrace,
is being given the valued, Medal of Freedom for his failures. Not only
this, but he allowed the continued looting of archives, museums and resources
of Iraq, while awarding billions of dollars of sweetheart contracts to
his friends for the 'reconstruction of Iraq' now and in the future; seconded
by the puppet, Allawi, his hand-picked 'prime-minister' of Iraq. If this
continues, Bremer, who never before held a major position in life, may
have to run for office as a senator or take a high-level cabinet position
or be allowed as an 'expert' on Iraq on the fatuous 'talk shows' on cable
TV - futures seats for failure.
-
- 4. General Tommy Franks, the man whose attack on Iraq
was a misguided effort at conquering the country, instead destroyed all
the Iraqi infrastructure of water, electricity, medical care, sewage disposal
and cultural buildings - and was applauded by President Bush who said he
"Knew Tommy Franks was the right man for the job. And you know why?
Because he went to school with my wife, Laura!" General Franks, who
had no real master-plan for controlling Iraq or for the correct number
of troops to keep order in Iraq once his 'invasion' was complete, and who
allowed all the Iraqi government and cultural buildings to be looted down
to the ground, who ignored the advice of wiser and experienced military
men, including the president's own envoy, General Zinni, about matters
in Iraq, is now being rewarded with the prestigious, Medal of Freedom,
as well. It seems failure is the primary criterion for receiving this
medal these days. I wonder what it does to those who actually succeeded
in something and were awarded the medals for something that actually aided
"freedom" or our country?
-
- 5. General Ricardo Sanchez, the officer in charge of
the privates and corporals who were given the go-ahead by him (and who
are the ones being punished for Abu Ghraib) at Abu Ghraib, was brought
back stateside to a 15-gun salute and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz are quietly
trying to get him his 5th general star. My God, what would Generals Eisenhower,
Pershing, Patton and Bradley think of this man becoming a 5 star general?
How many of our generals fought and died in WWII and elsewhere to honor
their ranks and their commands - endured death marches, torture and all
else - for this disgraceful lot? What would this say about the integrity
in our U.S. military? Just imagine, the failed Tommy Franks, the confused
General Myers, the disgraced Ricardo Sanchez - these men lead our military
- and yet we want the public and the world to respect our military?
-
- These few matters, plus Bush's continual mantra that
we are 'winning the war in Iraq' and we are bringing 'democracy to Iraq
and Afghanistan,' and 'freedom to these people,' while we kill them in
the thousands just because they resist our occupation and our domination
- all these things help make up Bush's upside-down world. Sadly, this upside-down
world view is being seconded and confirmed by the majority of our mass
media and opinion-makers because our media is now owned entirely, and this
includes even NPR and PBS, by the corporate rulers who benefit for this
unending 'war on terror' that Bush has declared with the willing consent
and obedience of the U.S. Congress and Senate.
-
- While we pour billions into failed missions in Iraq and
Afghanistan, our economy is now on the 'watch list' of the IMF, our currency
is downgraded to almost 'junk' status in world currency markets, our trade
balance is precarious, our health care ranks among the lowest among industrialized
nations, our care for the homeless and elderly has fallen off the map,
our important educational structure is failing and lacking support, our
infrastructure is in dire need of repair, our food and medical safety has
been shown to be totally corrupted by pharmaceutical and hospital holding
companies and our national and regional elections have been shown to be
fraught with errors (so much so that many nations are asking sarcastically
if they may come supervise our elections, much as America has done in 3rd
world countries)"all this, and yet the people in America, led by the
media and false advertising on all fronts and the continuous coverage of
Bush,s speeches, have not awakened to realize that Bush has turned the
country upside down.
-
- Some have asked me why I, and others, keep writing our
articles on the internet - it is because we have to keep speaking aloud
so that others who have the same thoughts who do not write or speak for
a variety of reasons, realize that they are not alone in their vision of
truth and that they are not wrong because they can't believe the talk shows
and their incessant distortions of truth.
-
- This is also to keep others sane; some have written me
saying that at times, they thought they had lost their minds because of
the incessant media pounding of the Bush upside/down version of reality,
but on reading my work and that of others like Alexander Cockburn, Robert
Fisk, Jeff St. Clair and such sites as www.informationclearinghouse.info,
www.counterpunch.com, www.aljazeerah.info, www.todaysalternativenews.com
, www.rense.com, www.axisoflogic.com, www.ishmaelreedpub.com and the indymedia
sites, they realized that they were SANE - it was just that the major media
was wrong.
-
- So, we carry on, as best we can-for your sake and for
the sake of what is left of our democracy. All we ask is that you pass
our articles on; for all of our sakes. Perhaps then, others will understand
just how upside/down America has become. No, I am not saying we have ever
been as good a country as we thought we were, or wanted to be-it's just
that many have done the best they could to improve it; it appears Bush
and the media are doing/or allowing, all of what we are supposed to be
and supposed to value to go upside/down.
-
-
- _____
-
- Sam Hamod is an expert in world affairs; he often writes
on the Middle East and Islam, but also on American social and political
concerns. He is the former editor of 3rd World News in Wash, DC; he taught
at Princeton, Michigan, Iowa and Howard. He is also editor of www.todaysalternativenews.com
. He may be reached at shamod@cox.net
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