Boy President in a Failed Worldby Tom Engelhardt
http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=6603On Thursday morning, with the London bombings monopolizing the TV set, I watched our president take that long, outdoor, photo-op walk from the G-8 summit meeting to the microphones to make a statement to reporters. Exploding subways, a blistered bus, the dead, wounded, dazed, and distraught just then staggering through our on-screen morning, and there he was. He had his normal, slightly bowlegged walk, his arms held just out from his side in a fashion that brings the otherwise unusable word "akimbo" to mind. It's a walk – the walk to the podium at the White House press conference, to the presidential helicopter, to the Rose Garden microphone – that is now his well-practiced signature move. For some people, a tone of voice or a facial expression can tell you everything you need to know; that's how the president's walk acts for him. And nothing puts spine in that walk the way the war on terror does. Each horror is like a shot of adrenaline.
He said nothing to surprise. He offered "heartfelt condolences to the people of London, people who lost lives"; he spoke of defending Americans against heightened dangers ("I have been in contact with our Homeland Security folks. I instructed them to be in touch with local and state officials about the facts of what took place here and in London, and to be extra vigilant, as our folks start heading to work"); he extolled the strength of resolve of the other G-8 leaders by comparing it to his own ("I was most impressed by the resolve of all the leaders in the room. Their resolve is as strong as my resolve"); and he presented for the umpteenth time his Manichaean vision of a world of good and evil in which he and his administration are unhesitatingly the representatives of all goodness. ("
he contrast couldn't be clearer between the intentions and the hearts of those of us who care deeply about human rights and human liberty, and those who kill – those who have got such evil in their heart that they will take the lives of innocent folks.")
There's something so confoundingly dreamlike about all this, so fantastic, even absurd, especially set against the background of the murder of random people taking public transportation in one of the globe's great cities. As reality grows ever darker, our president never ventures far from his scripted version of a fictional world that is nowhere to be seen. Let's keep in mind that this was the same president who, only the day before in Denmark, had launched a vigorous, completely ludicrous defense of his Guantánamo prison complex. Just two weeks earlier, his vice president had pointed out – as if he were making one of those Caribbean tourist ads – that the prisoners there were lucky to be housed and fed so admirably in the balmy "tropics." Now, the president was practically proffering tickets to those tropics for Europeans who wanted to check the situation out for themselves. ("he prisoners are well-treated in Guantánamo. There's total transparency. The International Red Cross can inspect any time, any day. And you're welcome to go. The press, of course, is welcome to go down to Guantánamo. … There's very few prison systems around the world that have seen such scrutiny as this one. And for those of you here on the continent of Europe who have doubt, I'd suggest buying an airplane ticket and going down and look – take a look for yourself.")
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Of course, that's just reality and means nothing to our president, who assures the world that he's the defender of "human rights" against the forces of evil. Guantánamo is but the tip of the offshore archipelago of injustice sponsored with enthusiasm by him, his top officials, his lawyers, et al. In fact, the "human rights and human liberties" president and his men have created such an ungodly mess at home and in the world that trying to tackle any of his tightly held fantasies point by point is a nearly impossible task, the equivalent of cleaning out the Augean stables. But put that aside for a moment. Whatever he may be – and it's worth saying this exactly at such a moment – George Bush is simply not the representative of good. While holding up the banner of democracy, he and his men, experts in vote suppression and gerrymandering on their home turf, have created an ever less democratic, more intolerant, more police-ridden, more liberties-impaired America. That's simply their record on the ground. But after a while, as you watch the carnage from London to Baghdad, you say these things – or write them – and then you just throw up your hands in despair. Why write more?
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emphasis mine
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