Countdown To November
By Saul Rosenthal
07 September, 2006
Countercurrents.org
So! The battle-lines are drawn. For November '06 and November '08.
The mighty blitz of the Bush Party has begun, buttressed with lots and lots of loot. Can they bury the Dean Party with big bucks, plus the bully pulpit?
The strategy of the guys in power is a switch. A big switch! Freedom and democracy seems to have gone the way of Social Security reform. Elections in Palestine, Lebanon, and Egypt have significantly strengthened the anti-democractic and anti-American parties. In Afghanistan and Iraq a pseudo-democratic victory turns out to be a win for sharia, an addiction to Koranic law. Good news for Iran's ruling clique but not for women and moderate Muslims.
Comes then the new and improved White House strategy. First a modest nibble on humble pie - "We
made some mistakes" - quickly followed by the can of spinach that gave Popeye superhuman strength. And the Repubs a victory in the last two elections over the wussess, weasels, and wimps.
Because the American people trust the right Party in time of war. WWIII no less.
Because Iraq is the spearhead of worldwide terrorism, the Battle of Waterloo against Napoleon,
the Battle of Britain and Stalingrad against Hitler, the do-or-die battle against a newly-christened enemy as bad, or worse: Islamofascism! Forget about generic terrorism, which has been around since Homo sapiens came on the stage.
This battle means to save America from a fate far worse than 9/11 and the rest of the world as well, including our Judeo-Christian heritage and all the cultural, artistic, and scientific gains as far back as the ancients, especially the Greeks.
In other words, our intrepid leader is sticking his finger in the dyke like the little Dutch kid who saved his country.
The Dems, however, are not asleep at the switch after two bitter defeats engineered by the hawkish hype of Carl Rove. They may be dumb and divided but they are not blind. And anyone with a modicum of mental power can see the danger of radical Islam to the nations of the world.
The victory strategy of the Dems, therefore, diverges more than a soupcon from that of the Repubs. Iraq is not the alleged frontline battle to the death against terrorism but a monstrous disaster that has diverted us from what should have been a focus on Osama's al-Qaida forces in Afghanistan, The Iraq misadventure has only escalated Islamic extremism exponentially in and beyond that country.
In short, an unprovoked strike against a non-threatening country that has morphed into one of
the worst blunders in U.S. history.
Worse yet: a war managed by blunder after blunder after blunder, thanks to a secretary of state who knew better than the best military minds.
Will the electorate buy into the bellicose bluster about manning the barricades against the barbarian hordes out to do to us what the Vandals and Visigoths did to the Romans?
Voters may be pathetically malleable when it comes to campaign-time rant, but you can't scam all of the people all of the time.
The Bush clique dug us into the very hellhole they now brag about being the best guys to pull us out. Talk about chutzpah!
And not just pull us out of the quagmire of war but out of the nine trillion debt they have dug us into since the last president's surplus. Plus leaving us in a sinking economy for the middle class, the impoverished, and the uninsured, while the needs of the infrastructure, the environment, and alternative energy sources are ignored. 300 billion and four billion a month could make one helluva difference on the homefront.
If someone beats you bloody, admits "some mistakes" and then wants to patch you up, is that guy the right physician?
Even if the Dems win one or both houses in '06 and '08, plus the presidency, repairing the enormity of damage to our country at home and abroad won't be a waltz, but it's hard to imagine how they could wreak more misery at home and more havoc abroad than we have seen in six sad and tragic years. Almost as many Americans dead in the war as on 9/11 and over 70,000 Iraqis killed, not counting the casualties in Afghanistan.
And here's the clincher: the Repubs keep ragging on the Dems for not coming up with an alternative to the endless slaughter we are enmeshed in, a mess they have put us in and a conundrum that defies easy solutions.
But one thing may resonate with the voters come November: we need a new direction.
