- America is headed for a soft dictatorship
by the end of Bush,s second term. Whether any American has civil rights
will be decided by the discretionary power of federal officials. The public
in general will tolerate the soft dictatorship as its discretionary powers
will mainly be felt by those few who challenge it.
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- The congressional elections this coming
November are the last chance for for Americans to reaffirm the separation
of powers that is the basis of their civil liberties. Unless the voters
correct their mistake of putting both the executive and legislative branches
in the hands of the same party and deliver the House or the Senate to the
Democrats, there is nothing on the domestic scene to stand in the way of
more power, and less accountability, being accumulated in the executive.
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- The Democrats have been a totally ineffective
opposition and might not inspire any voter response other than apathy.
Rather than vote for a cowardly party that is afraid to defend the Constitution,
voters might simply not vote at all.
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- In this unfortunate event, the only check
on the Bush regime is its own hubris.
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- Bush,s ill-fated invasion of Iraq has
set in motion forces beyond his control. On February 23 the Asia Times
reported that America,s Pakistani puppet, Musharraf, is "losing his
grip. Some Pakistani provinces are already beyond Musharraf,s control,
and the remainder are rioting against "Busharraf as Musharraf is now
known. The infantile American press misrepresents the riots as responses
to the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed, but in fact the target
of the riots is the American puppet.
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- By invading Afghanistan and Iraq and
by threatening Syria and Iran, Bush has taught Muslims everywhere that
they owe their humiliation to the Western controlled secular governments
that suppress their aspirations. They are realizing that their power resides
in Islam and that this power is suppressed by secular governments. Busharraf
is probably dead meat, and when he goes so does the US military adventure
in Afghanistan.
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- When Bush attacks Iran, the US army will
be caught between the Iraqi Shia and the Iranian Shia and will be decimated
in fourth generation conflict, so aptly described by William S. Lind. If
a few thousand Sunni insurgents can tie down 10 US divisions, imagine the
fate of US forces trapped in a Shia crescent.
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- The collapsing power of the US hegemon
is everywhere evident. It is evident in the inability to successfully occupy
Iraq or even Baghdad. It is evident in the growing military cooperation
between North and South Korea, and it is evident it the revolt in the Indian
government against Prime Minister Singh,s nuclear agreement with the US.
Indians say this agreement subjects India to US hegemony and represents
America,s attempt to block India,s pioneering research on thorium as a
nuclear fuel. Opposition parties have told Singh that if he signs the agreement,
they will bring down his government.
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- The entire world now recognizes that
America has lost its economic power and is dependent on the rest of the
world to finance its budget and trade deficits. The US no longer holds
the cards. American real incomes are falling, except for the rich. Jobs
for university graduates are scarce, and advanced technology products must
be imported from China. The US is a rapidly declining power and may soon
end up as nothing but a tinhorn dictatorship.
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- Dr. Roberts [send him mail] is Chairman
of the Institute for Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent
Institute. He is a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal,
former contributing editor for National Review, and a former assistant
secretary of the U.S. Treasury. He is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good
Intentions.
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