I have watched for the past year or so in silence the state of the world around me. I can't bare to be silent any longer.
I know there has been a lot of US bashing on this board but I want to engage people in a discussion to try to come up with a solution.
The US government has bullied, interfered and taken advantage of its own people as well as other people for years and years. So what is different now? It is called GWB.
The story goes somehting like this:
Oil, oil and oil - Bush the texan cowboy, the money hungry oil rich that he is won the presidency even though most of the county did not vote for him. He had to win supporters. If the public think they are in danger, then they are less likely to complain about the way the country is run. The cold war was over so Bush was stuck trying to find a way out. In the meantime, the negotiations with the Taliban were failing and the US companies had no way of building the pipe lines to pump oil from the Caspian Sea.
Tragedy or opportunity?- Then the tragedy of September 11 happened. No one knows for sure what the story behind that was. Al Qaeda being the main suspects. We won't go into whether Bush saw the opportunities before the event or after since only the whitehouse knows whether they LET the attackers go through with their mission or not.
Invisible enemy- No more Cold War, bush thought to himself, but now we have an even better enemy. An invisible one. One that is so fluid that we can get away with anything trying to stop. After all, no one really knows where they are and what shape and form they will take. it is called Terrorism. We can be everywhere because the enemy is everwhere.
Call the Navy Chief- September 11th saw the tragic death of around 2000 people. Something had to be done and Bush was the man to do it. Bush thought to himself... Let's attack Afghanistan. They think their harbours are safe, but they are wrong. unitl somebody pointed out to him that Afghanistan has no harbours!
Strategic war - But surely a country so backward which is already at war would be the perfect place to attack. We will prove to everyone how powerful we really are and no one will make fun of me anymore Bush thought to himself. and we can build that pipe line that we have been talking about. We can keep an eye on the Chinese, the Russians and Iran. All in teh name of defending our country. We dont have to do much. We attack from air, drop cluster bombs and let the northern alliance do the real fighting. No one will dare question it. But to be sure, let's threaten the world :'You are either with us or against us'. No one will budge. We are the biggest military power in the world.
Civilian casualties - More than double the number of victims of September 11th died in Afghanistan. But of course, this was kept quite. After all, the US government had nothing to show in return. Sure, the Taliban had disappeared but they had now lost bin Ladin.
Prisoners of war- 'The Al Qaeda are not prisoners of war'. Say What? Oh, they are not prisoners of war and to keep them safe, we are going to send them to a neighbouring country torture them until they talk. We could never get away with that in the US. But what about John Walker? he is American. We can't torture one of our own.
Enron. What a disaster. Bush's name was all over it. Documents can not be disclosed because there is sensitive information that the president should not have to share with the courts. What can we do to distract attention from it. I know. Israel, Palestine, war on terrorism.
Axis of what?- Just when South and North Korea were making progress, Bush and his big mouth nearly put the two countries back at war.
Missiles – "We know we agreed with the Russians to destroy our weapons but you see, we are at war and we could not possibly do that. You know, terrorism, the war on terror? Instead, how about we put them into storage?"
Cuba - "We need some votes in Florida and since there is a big number of Cubans in Florida, let's pay Cuba a little visit. "
Steel - We need some votes from the workers. Let's increase the tarrifs for imported steel, even though we are pushing for globalisation. They will love us for it. I dont want to hear about how in the long run it will not be good for us because
Pretzel - A few months later, we were told Bush choked on a pretzel and was rushed to the hospital. Likely story. We will never know what happened there.
Mightier than the Law- The US government threatens the UN. After all, we are mightier than any international law. We own the world. Why should we have to answer to anybody? We will not only pull out our own peace keepers but make it impossible for the Italians and the rest of them to operate. They will have to give in. After all, who do they think they are to investigate bombings of wedding parties. We can bomb anyone we wish to.
Insider trading - Bush was up for investigations for insider trading while he was on the board of one of the companies. He sold his shares only days before the company's share prices plunged. But he has taken such a long time to prepare the paperwork so the investigations have been put on hold.
The economy - The US dollar continues to dive. The stock market at a 4.5 year low. Fear, uncertainty...
When is enough, enough? how much more of this are we prepared to take? The American public together with the rest of the world have been taken for a fool. When are we going to realise that it does not have to be this way? How can we find a solution to this problem called Bush? He is going to be around for a bit longer and my guess is, things are just going to keep getting worse and worse.
And before you start accusing me along with anyone else as being Anti-American, I am not sure what that word means but I am not one. I just don't like seeing people suffer thinking it has to be this way. What can we do about it? I am in particular interested in hearing the American citizens' view on this.
