rousing the rabble

A Reader Favorite

George Bush's War on Himself: The World, His Battlefield

First published, February 2003

At the beginning of his presidency, George was faltering. He blundered his way through unscripted camera appearances. He had little direction, save for his daily jog. He wasn't engendering confidence from the American people. His handlers were worried. How are we going to make him more presidential, they wondered? He was the Eliza Doolittle of the Oval Office.

Then came 9.11.       

And in the unspeakable rubble, George found his purpose. He found his higher calling: to rid the world of terrorism. And he proclaimed this calling to the world in no uncertain terms. Finally, he would be more than the son of George Bush I, more than the son who rode his father's political coattails into office."The rein on Hussein falls mainly from the bomber plane," repeats George back to his groomers, practicing his presidential diction. "By Jove," they said, already thinking ahead, "I think he's got it!"       

No Evidence is Evidence: Rumsfeld’s Paradigm Shift

First published January 2003

Up is down, red is green, yes means no, and no evidence is evidence.  Rumsfeld, that loveable lug, is at it again.  When Saddam Hussein agreed to weapons inspectors, the Bush Cartel found it almost impossible to take yes for an answer.  Holy cow, they said amongst themselves, he’s going to let them in.  What are we going to do now?  We are readying our troops as we speak.  We promised our friends at the Carlyle group and Halliburton (among others) big contracts and big bucks from this one. 

What they decided to do was discredit the weapons inspectors.  That way, if the inspectors never find anything, people will think it is because Blix and his team are incompetent, not that there aren’t weapons.  And the possibility of war remains a go.

But, despite their best public relations efforts, the discrediting didn’t play as well as they hoped.  So they searched and searched, trying to find a scrap of something they could pass off as plausible evidence.  But, nothing appeared.  We’ve got to come up with another plan, they said.

So, Rumsfeld, the master mind of the Pentagon’s now defunct “Office of Strategic Influence,” whose stated mission was to generate disinformation and propaganda, was quoted as saying Iraq is “skilled at denial and deception” and “the fact that the inspectors have not yet come up with new evidence of Iraq’s WMD program could be evidence, in and of itself, of Iraq’s noncooperation. “  And, by the way, now the burden of proof of innocence is on Iraq. 

The entire world ought to have stood up and shouted a collective:  “You’ve got to be kidding!”

Mourning Iraq

First published April 2003

Please don't talk to me of "precision bombing" and "liberation." Don't talk of "minimal loss of life" and cheering Iraqis. Don't come with your "I told you so." and your "See, the war wasn't that bad."

Because I know better. I know there was little that was precise and liberating about this war. I know while many Iraqis are thrilled to be done with Saddam; they are equally appalled at how this war has played out.

Stage Zero:

First published September 2003

If George weren’t driving the world down the road to extinction with his wars, his environmentally disastrous choices and world alienating policies -  “Look at me, ma, no hands” he says while sitting behind the wheel of our children’s future - I’d think he was almost fascinating.

Fascinating the way one who is steeped in myriad psychological issues is.

I’m a psychotherapist.  And, having never seen George in therapy, despite my open invitation, it would be unethical for me to make a diagnosis of him or claim definitive clinical impressions  So, I won’t.  But, I can kick some thoughts around.

Remember Tom Hanks’ movie, “Big,” when the kid, by an accident of fate, finds himself turned into an adult, playing grown-up roles he is not developmentally ready for?  This is George.  I don’t mean this maliciously or satirically; I really mean it.  I think developmentally speaking George is a big kid.  Lots of people are.  The difference is they don’t have the means to bomb human beings into “pink mist,” obliterate the infrastructures of countries, and poison the world with coal and pesticides and carbon dioxide and depleted uranium and napalm, as they play grown up.