Are we underestimating Bush's intentions? accompanied by ramble

[izzybeans]

There are various themes in the press today. One is that Bush is blindly ignoring the blood on his hands <see Joe Conason for instance>. Another is from the RW about underestimating Bush <see pretty much anything Joe scarybourough has ever said>.

I think both are wrong. Isn't it time to consider that Bush knows the consequences of his actions and feels justified in them? The "fire of freedom", "freedom's march", etc are only slightly different than phrases like "preserving the race" aren't they?

Many of us call Bush evil almost as a trope-just a phrase showing our displeasure. What if this actually captured our fears and he truly is the face of evil? This inaugeral address mirrored his first in that he used a few catchphrases that would be featured in his future policy (namely terror, evil and wmd). Now we get, as Obama pointed out to Condasleeza, the conflation with the war on terror with tyranny whereever it resides. It was the only point Bush made in 21 minutes or so of babble. If we have more to fear it is the expansion of an already illegal war.


Some of the worst genocides in the world were perpetrated in the name of freedom. The colonial powers sought to "civilize" the "savage" and touched off years of civil war, internal conflicts, all across the globe.

Given our long history of an official anti-imperial foreign policy (even though it hasn't been followed since WWII in practice) the resemblance to the modern day rhetoric of Bush and the 1-2 centuries old legitimations of British King's and Queens, French dictators, Spainish Royalists, etc. we should be extremely up at arms.

Even some on the left are being "militarized" worried about troop levels and armor, more so than the actual presence of the war itself. It's as if we are being prepared for something. I fear what that will be and where it will lead.

someone please tell me I've lost it. I hope i'm wrong. I've just started reading Michael Mann's (of The Sources of Social Power and Cambridge U. Press fame, not hollywood) new book "The Darkside of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing" so perhaps he is causing me to see doom everywhere at the moment. But some signs are so similar its chilling.

A quote from the conquistadore Cortes' chornicler speaking of how they saw themselves prior to the slaughter of natives. They were to "bring light to those in darkness, and also to get rich, which is what all of us men commonly seek." If Bush were only this honest.

[Avalux]

1. Unfortunately, you're not wrong

and we should all be very afraid. The PNAC agenda is in full swing and * knows exactly what he's doing, without care of consequence. This is what people without consciences - people who don't give a damn about the cost of human life - do. Iran is next.

[izzybeans]

3. The worst part is that

the PNAC provided a rationalized plan prior to the "cleansing" of the world. It's basically premeditated murder.

[Mitt Chovick]

2. We are already stretched too thin so...

I doubt they'll be more invasions, Iran, Syria, North Korea for example. I got the impression that the speech was to encourage the anti-mullah students of Iran to affect regime change on their own, with our moral support (and maybe a few covert operations). We sure as hell can't occupy and nation build again - we have neither the troops nor the popular support for it.

[Prisonerohio]

4. Another terrorist attack would give them all the support they need.

[durablend]

5. I see you're new here...

* don't give a damn about public support...he's going in one way or another (brrrrrr...drafty in here)

[Avalux]

6. Well, Mitt

I hope what you're saying is true. Unfortunately, our leaders went into Iraq without a plan and without a full understanding of what would happen after Shock and Awe. Do I think they'll learn from their mistakes? No. Do I think Condi will be Miss Diplomacy and provide moral support to the anti-mullah students in Iran? No. I see more invasions and I see ways to manipulate the American public into supporting them. We're so far down the rabbit hole we can't get out now.

[Mitt Chovick]

8. WOW Lots of pessimism

And you all might be right, what do I know -- I'm just a newbie.

I'm just an optomist by nature.

And the Rethugs are trying to build a majority that will last a generation (Rove talks about this all the time) and yes I read Rove to see what the enemy is doing.

And a draft would be the undoing of their "permanent majority"

-- Just my two cents.

[Avalux]

10. Yes, I am pessimistic, and scared

Look what Bushco (with Rove at the helm) has managed to do so far without much protest from the American people. They have LIED over and over and have not been held resposible in any way. With corporate media in their hip pocket, they control everything with ZERO accountablility.
A draft, after another terror attack (from the country of their chosing) would be accepted by the people.

[Mitt Chovick]

11. I guess that could all happen

Then again maybe it won't. If I could predict the future - I would have won the lottery by now.:-)

But all this "what if" scenario thinking isn't great for the mental health. I've found that Xanax works for me. Seriously. B-)

[Prisonerohio]

7. Amazing.

It amazes me how the Bush administration is continuing to push forward with an obvious fascist imperialist agenda and the country seems to be in a coma. At the end of the next four years there probably not be an America like we know it now.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. He is what he is. He's a child born of privilege who saw his father

and his friends rule the world. Now it's his turn and he's imitating their firm composure. The difference is that his father's generation's wisdom was steeled in the heat of battle from an honorable war. They understood sacrifice, they understood they were up against an evil man and fought a war which the WORLD could not afford to lose. It wasn't just about America. George Bush grew up around all this earned autocratic authority, and now he's trying to imitate it. He makes decisions that affect men's lives without blinking because that's what he witnessed as a child.

The problem with Bush is that the level of American retaliation is not justified against the enemy he selected to strike against. It wasn't Iraq which he should have been worried about, but that's where he chose to piss away his capital.

We're going to watch him become a caricature in the coming months and years, and more and more Republicans begin to see that the Emperor has no clothes. He's going to look like that sad little man we saw on t.v. behind a climate controlled, bullet-proof shield, watching the parade go by. I wonder who he was waving to and smiling to, since the paraders weren't allowed to make eye contact with him. But I couldn't help remembering how silly he looked. Smiling like a buffoon who doesn't realize how much trouble he really is in because that barrier is slowly going to come down over the next few years and he isn't going to be able to take the heat.

Remember that scene in Harry Potter when Harry was at the zoo with his cousin? They were looking at the boa behind the glass. The cousin was tapping at the glass, teasing and provoking the boa, until finally, Harry had enough. The only way to deal with a bully, is to put him in the same pen with those he thinks he has controlled. Then, his true personality emerges.

This can all be realized with poignant questions from the press. Who cares if he doesn't answer them. That in itself is a sign of cowardice, and maybe that will be enough.